The Mascarene archipelago (Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues), characterised by first human arrival being recent, offers a unique setting to study species colonisation on a recent timescale, and contribution of past human interventions. Here we use a combination of modern and ancient DNA data as a case study to investigate the colonisation history of a species of concern in relation to conservation programmes-the Madagascar turtle dove (Nesoenas picturata) on Mauritius and Reunion. We generated a