Seychelles News

— In my previous blog I talked about some of the terrestrial invertebrates that we come across at D’Arros Island. When someone says invertebrate I automatically think of bugs. However, there is a vast diversity of creatures under the sea that don’t have a back bone either. Surprisingly, sea sponges…

The broad definition of an invertebrate is an animal that lacks a back bone. This very diverse group constitutes 97 per cent of all known species, from sponges to jellyfish, fruit flies to centipedes and more. Even D’Arros Island, a tiny speck in the middle of a large ocean, has…

Last week, the International Sea Turtle Society (ISTS) awarded Dr Jeanne Mortimer with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to sea turtles, a vocation that has spanned four decades. The award was announced at the 36th Annual ISTS Symposium, which was held in Lima, Peru, last week. Dr Mortimer…

The D’Arros and St Joseph reserve in the Seychelles is so pristine and remote that it seems like it could exist only in a dream – or a movie. Unless you’ve been there, you can’t imagine it; if you have a memory of it, it’s hard to describe. However, there…

Being able to recognise individuals within a population is often a starting point for ecological and conservation studies. It provides researchers with crucial information about: – population size (how many individuals there are in a population) – population composition (the sex and size of individuals in the population, for example)…

The Seychelles Bird Records Committee has classified 28 of the islands’ bird species as annual migrants, which means they use the tropical habitat of the Seychelles as a wintering ground – a warm place with ample food, where they escape the harsh winter months of their breeding sites. Seventeen of…

For a sea turtle, life is both complex and risky. The first major challenge occurs immediately after birth, when the hatchlings are forced to run a gauntlet of hungry crabs and birds on the beach. The lucky ones that make it to the sea are pummelled by waves and find…

If there were a Guinness Book of World Records for birds, the frigatebird would be in it for having the largest wing area-to-body weight ratio of any species. Its wingspan often exceeds two metres in length and it weighs less than 1.6 kilograms, which enables it to soar continuously, only…

A fish aggregation device, or FAD as it is commonly called, is generally a very simple, low-cost structure that increases fishing efficiency. It typically comprises a bamboo raft fitted with buoys for flotation (Figure 1) and has long ropes and netting hanging beneath it (Figure 2). A floating location beacon…

Words by Kerryn Bullock Often people are so caught up in the big things around them, like sharks, turtles and birds, that the little creatures are overlooked. One such little creature that doesn’t get enough credit is the crab. Crabs scuttle around our feet day and night on D’Arros and…

Words by: Kerryn Bullock Those who suffer from ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) would find solace on snake-free D’Arros Island. And though the island may lack snakes, it does possess other kinds of reptiles. There are, for example, the larger and more obvious species like the giant tortoise that has been…

Words by Kerryn Bullock The wedge-tailed shearwater Puffinus pacificus is the largest of the tropical shearwaters. This marine species is unremarkable in appearance, both sexes being dark brown above and below, with a dark grey bill and a wedge-shaped tail. It does, however, have two great characteristics that make it…

Words by Rainer von Brandis Ask any marine biologist what the favourite part of their job is and they will undoubtedly say that it’s the field work. Yet normal career development dictates that scientists spend more and more time in the office as the years go by, their days consumed…

Words by Kerryn Bullock One of the many awesome creatures roaming freely on D’Arros Island in the Seychelles is the prehistoric-looking Aldabra giant tortoise Geochelone gigantea. The island is privileged to be home to a free-ranging population of these magnificent, slow-moving creatures. Some individuals may live for more than 100 years…

Words by Chris Boyes On 23 December 2014 we noticed an adult fairy tern Gygis alba (also known as white tern) sitting for an unusually long time on a branch of the badamier tree Terminalia catappa outside the D’Arros Research Centre. At the time we thought there must be something…