![Cousin-Island-is-the-perfec]()
A report from Nature Seychelles’ international volunteer program
Thirty days, two nesting turtles and one very bad pancake experiment have passed since I first arrived on Cousin Island Special Reserve. The reserve is a tiny speck in the Indian Ocean, with a knack for feeling very large when you leave your binoculars on the other side, next to a nondescript tree of course.
Though learning how to spend as little time as possible at the long-drop latrine and how to outrun clouds of mosquitoes without looking too much like Forrest Gump are both transferable skills, I will be focusing on the more scientific variety that I have learnt while volunteering with Nature Seychelles.
Several times a week we wander around the different territories of the Seychelles Magpie Robin, whistling to draw their attention and then clearing a small area of leaves to encourage them to feed on invertebrates at ground level. This gives us time to identify them by their rings and observe their behaviour, such as whether they are carrying nest material. As a critically endangered species, it is important to maintain constant population records. This exercise requires the ability to whistle – something I have bitterly lacked my whole life, but have slowly mastered after weeks of hissing, dribbling and exhaling.
Then there’s the hawksbill turtle whose eggs incubate for 50-60 days before hatching, so it is only safe to excavate a nest after 70 days from the laying date and after identifying a dip in the sand to indicate the hatchlings have already crawled. At this point we carefully uncover the abandoned egg shells and failed foetuses much like an archeological dig; count them, check the sides of the nest for crab predation holes and then return everything to the ground. A member of staff or a volunteer will have watched the turtle lay her clutch and counted the number of eggs. We are then able to compare the original number with the excavation analysis to determine a success rate for the nest. Cousin Island is the most important hawksbill nesting site in the Western Indian Ocean region, so gathering this sort of data is crucial to the international conservation effort.
Beach profiling, sadly does not involve setting up a Facebook page for each of Cousin’s beaches, though it is just as fun. Throughout the year, seasonal changes in wind direction cause a massive sand migration around the coast of the island – this actually determines which of the two visitor shelters we land the boats in front of. Therefore, on a monthly basis we return to a series of cross-sections along the main beach, and record the sand topography along the section lines. A willingness to get wet is essential to this field skill.
I was also involved in bird breeding success monitoring of marked nests for the white tern and the white-tailed tropicbird, to determine how many chicks survive until adulthood. The irony of hunting for eggs in the forest on Easter weekend did not escape me. Typically, after locating a nest we make a note of the development of the chick by studying the ratio of adult feathers to down feathers, and the size. Sometimes you may come across a ‘crime scene’, perhaps an empty nest with a scattering of feathers nearby, or a dismembered chick with all the signs of a crab attack. But you won’t find any police tape on Cousin Island – here you will witness wildlife with all its intricacies, unadulterated by censorships and Disney soundtracks.
By Barney Row