Frigatebird interrupted
Category: birds | Date: Aug 31 2009 | By: savingparadise
A Frigatebird rescued from the harbour was brought into our office today. It seemed unable to fly. Frigatebirds, abundant throughout Seychelles and breeding on Aldabra and nearby islands, are long-distance fliers that spend most of their life flying over the ocean with a gliding flight. However, they do not land on sea. Unlike other seabirds, the feet are not webbed, making it difficult for them to paddle through water. Their feet are also too small and do not give the bird the force needed to become airborne from the surface of the sea. For food, Frigatebirds pick prey from the water surface. They also snatch fish from other birds in the air. For seabirds, they have poor water proofing. We think the reason our bird will not fly is that it got a bit of water in its wings. No injuries were visible.
We took the bird outside and attempted to perch it on the mangroves, popular with Frigatebirds for nesting, but it was incapable of balance.
In the end, we decided the bird hide would be best for it to rest and recover. It is currently patched there where it has a great view.
The bird hide is the place where visitors to the wetland [Sanctuary at Roche Caiman] get the opportunity to view birds. It’s a nice place at the end of a boardwalk. Visitors to the hide are asked to observe these rules:
- Stay quiet
- Do not tamper with displays in the hide
- Hold on to your litter or take it to the nearest bin
- Smoking and chewing gum are strictly prohibited.
Somehow I don’t see the Frigatebird having any trouble with these rules. All the same we hope it will leave the hide and return to its long distance gliding.
More Frigatebird facts at our website
Tags: Aldabra, Frigatebird, Seabirds
Picture of the Day: rescued chicks doing well
Category: birds, people | Date: Aug 27 2009 | By: savingparadise
Oh how fast they grow! We just received this picture of the two Tropicbird chicks we reported on in our post here. They are growing up fast and look all settled in their new home. The chicks, rescued by a family on Mahe were brought to Nature Seychelles and thereafter released on Cousine Island.
Tags: Tropicbird
On the trail of the Jellyfish Tree
Category: Endemic plants | Date: Aug 24 2009 | By: savingparadise
I am always amazed at the diversity of Seychelles’ wildlife, and more so after I have been out and seen something new. The Seychelles consists of about 115 Islands of different origin accounting for the diversity that it has. Some are weathered fragments of an ancient continent, others are remains of ancient reefs while some are relatively recently exposed low islands of coral sand. Mahe, the largest of the Islands, and where most of the population of Seychelles lives, is part of a group of about 40 islands of the granitic category. Mossy tropical forests can be found on upper slopes of the granitic islands and open scrubby vegetation on lower areas.
A mountain ridge runs the length of the island of Mahe. It was to one of the hilltops of that ridge where I joined a hike on Sunday and where I saw the Jellyfish tree. The Critically Endangered and very rare Jellyfish tree is an an endemic of Seychelles, found scattered only on the exposed granite slopes of Mahe. It was thought to be extinct until a few individuals were discovered in the 1970s. The tree is now found in three sites on Mahe, which are within the protection of the Morne Seychellois National Park.
Terence had told me of the possibility of coming across the tree on this hike. Having heard of it I was keen to see it. So I joined the hike on a trail that runs on Mahe’s Mont Palmiste.
The tree gets its name from clusters of flowers, which look like an upside down Jellyfish. Its scientific name Medusagyne oppositifolia, is thought to relate to ‘Medusa’ the goddess of Greek mythology who had a head of snakes.
We got to one of the trees at the top of the hill. But, to see it we first had to contend with the rocky outcrops from which it grew. This particular one was in fact at the bottom of a rock. It had began to rain and the rock was quite slippery, making it quite hard to walk on it. Rather than end up on our posteriors unwillingly, we decided to use them voluntarily to slowly slide down to where the tree was. The “slide” was rewarding, not only were we within reach of one of the World’s rarest trees, but we also had a spectacular view of the beach at Port Launay below. Unfortunately the tree was not in flower, but we did get photos of its fruit (below) and a few older fruits, which upon drying up and releasing their seed (above) become red brown and open up like tiny parasols.
The Jellyfish tree was not the only endemic plant I saw. On the way we encountered both endemic and introduced palms. Of the endemic palms we came across the Koko Maron (Creole) known as Curculigo sechellensis to science, and the Palmiste or Millionaire’s Salad (Deckenia nobilis), so called because historically the Palmiste’s growing tip was shredded and eaten as millionaire’s salad. The palm is now protected by law because removal of the tip kills it. Now most “millionaire’s salads, it is said, are made from tips of Coconuts. The Thief Palm, Phoenicophorium borsigianum, whose leaves are used traditionally as thatching is perhaps the commonest and therefore the one we saw frequently. In total, Seychelles has six endemic palms.
The trail was also chockfull of tree-ferns and mosses. We passed under a Seychelles Tree Fern, the only fern with a tall stem. This trail was truly an exciting one, in just a few hours, it had given up a number of endemics.
Tags: Jellyfish Tree, Millionaire's Salad, Palmiste, Thief Palm
Heritage Garden: a passion fruit mishap inspires
Category: heritage garden | Date: Aug 20 2009 | By: savingparadise
Lucina is busy preparing the Heritage Garden for the official opening in October. She has everything going the way she wants. She is a hardworking woman this one, and when I am taking a break, I like going out to talk to her about the crops, spices and herbs, and to just marvel at the beautiful garden, which I know from “before” pictures was just a patch of soil.
I can’t tell you how surprised I was the other day when I saw her passing outside my window lugging two poles. So I followed her outside, just as I heard Terence exclaiming, “bring your camera Liz, Lucina is building”. Turns out Lucina’s prized passion fruits had come down when the trellis that supports them was blown over by the wind. It was a beautiful constructed trellis, under which were two benches and a table made from timber off-cuts. A nice place to sit under. One could sit there to relax and catch the breeze or watch the bees pollinating flowers. We have had meetings under there. And lunch and tea breaks. We were also looking forward to the fruit. (To replace the Noni juice in the fridge:)).
Lucina has now managed to put the trellis back together. I expected to see a carpenter wielding some manly tools. But no, she did it all by herself. She even managed to rescue some fruit. The rest of the vines and leaves will end up as compost to continue the cycle of life in the garden.
A few hours later I met her on the corridor covered in sweat and searching for the shower. I gave her a sympathetic smile, which her bubbly self returned. “Every day something new”, she said. Yap, this garden teaches us something new every day. It teaches us that gardens need love, caring, patience and perseverance. Just like we all do. And just like the work we do for nature, the environment and wildlife does.
The Heritage Garden - a demonstration garden and nursery - was established to help people create and maintain gardens of medicinal and edible plants, useful herbs and vanishing food crops. To read about the impact it has had, see related stories in Zwazo No. 19: “Visitors flock to peek at neighborhood nature”, and “Edible Landscaping”.
Tags: heritage garden, passion fruit
Read Zwazo, Nature Seychelles’ conservation magazine
Category: Nature Seychelles, birds | Date: Aug 14 2009 | By: savingparadise
Zwazo issue No. 19 is out. Zwazo is produced bi-annually by Nature Seychelles and distributed in hard copy. Issue No. 19 focuses on people, birds and small islands. In its editorial titled “the Birds and the Buzz”, we tell you why there’s been so much “buzz” about the birds of Seychelles. We tell you how “the little brown job”, the Seychelles Warbler, saved from extinction through conservation action on Cousin Island, became the rallying point for rescuing other species and helped save seabirds, lizards, sea turtles and coral fish.
Cousin Island Special Reserve celebrated 40 years of conservation success in 2008. In this issue we tell you the comprehensive “coconuts to conservation” story. We also bring you stories from people who have been associated with the Reserve since its purchase by International Commission for Protection of Birds, now BirdLife International, in 1968. Prof. Tony Diamond of the University of New Brunswick lived on Cousin in the mid-1970s. Read his “Birds and the Bush: Bird responses to vegetation changes on Cousin Island, 1970s – 2008″ where he talks about the restoration of native forest on Cousin Island; “an interesting, and potentially instructive, ecological experiment”.
Our plant dines on insects, scientists find one that eats rats!
Category: Endemic plants | Date: Aug 12 2009 | By: savingparadise
My first thought when I came across my first picture of the Seychelles pitcher plant, Lalyann Potao in Creole, was, “what is that funny looking plant?”. I quickly reached for my Wildlife of Seychelles to get some ID. Monkey cups? Totally hooked on the name, I decided to do some digging (not of the plant!). It turns out the picture was of the carnivorous Nepenthes pervillei, an endemic Liana of Mahe, Silhouette and Praslin in Seychelles. There are none in Africa so I had never seen one. Here in the Seychelles the best stands of pitcher plants are found on some high hills of Mahe and especially in the mist forests of Silhouette.
Seychelles pitcher plant
The “cups”, arising from leaves when they are young, are insect traps that provide the plant with additional nutrients. They are deep lidded containers with nectar-producing organs around the lip to attract ants and other invertebrates. The lids prevent the cups from filling with rain water, but its also a seduction device, attracting insects with its bright colours. The pitchers can get up to 20cm long. Because the inner surfaces are smooth, the unfortunate insects fall into the liquid in the lower pitcher and drown! Cells lining the pitcher produce digestive chemicals which absorb nutrients from the liquid.
The BBC reports that scientists have found a new species of pitcher plants that eats rats! Details of the discovery were published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society earlier this year. The newly discovered giant pitcher Nepenthes attenboroughii - named after British natural history broadcaster David Attenborough - was found in the highlands of the central Philippines. Nepenthes is primarily an Asian genus; the Seychelles endemic is one of the westernmost outlying species. The scientists described it as “among the largest of all carnivorous plant species… which catch not only insects, but also rodents as large as rats”.
Am sure I am not the only one who wants to watch this happen, in slo mo…
More Reading: Pitcher plant: a taste for flesh at our website
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