Saving Paradise

Here are photos of the Palm spider, Nephila inaurita a native of Seychelles taken at the wetland at Roche Caiman. I thought I would share them because I keep on walking into them. These large spiders are everywhere in Seychelles. We saw many on the hike on Mont Palmiste. The females sit at the centre of a large web built from heavy strands of silk. The spiders are harmless though, but if you have arachnophobia, you probably wouldn’t want to run into one or hold one as Terence did.

Terence (L) and David (Science Coordinator, R) were interviewed about the bird by SBC Radio

The Frigatebird recovered and left. One day last week we went to check on it, as we have been doing every morning, and it was gone from the mangroves where it had been making steady progress towards recovery. For the past week staff at Nature Seychelles have been feeding the bird with fish. At first it had to be force-fed but eventually it got to feeding itself. Soon we noticed it was moving around. It had in fact originally moved from the Bird hide to the mangroves by itself.

The bird has generated quite some interest with both SBC Radio and TV recording nature programmes around it. More about those programmes when they air, but they focused on the bird, where its found in the Seychelles and steps to take when one finds an injured bird.

When Nature Seychelles first attempted to hung a beehive at the Heritage Garden, the only creatures that seemed to benefit were the lizards (Seychelles Skink) abundant on most Islands. A queen bee had been discovered in the Garden with many bees around her. So Mr. Hoareau, a bee expert with 40 years experience was called in to organize the colony and collect some honey. However efforts came to naught when in Terence’s words, ” a bunch of lizards had a big feast on the bees’ larvae and also ate up all the honey”. The skinks had discovered an entrance to the hives.

Mr. Hoareau has been called in again to jump start our honey project. This time he comes prepared. He has sealed all entry into the beehive and designed the hive in a manner to only allow entry for the bees. Mr. Hoareau is photographed below at work attracting the bees to his hives using citronella from the Garden and other sweet smelling plants.

The beekeeping project at the Heritage Garden is intended to encourage the community to start similar projects. Honey was used in traditional medicine in the Seychelles and has many benefits. It is however becoming expensive to buy. It is our hope that this project takes off, and that we get to the honey before the skinks!

Tuesday 24 June 2009. It’s a lazy sunny afternoon.

But its also another day of learning at the Sanctuary at Roche Caiman, the only urban wetland reserve in Seychelles. In 2002, the Government of Seychelles handed over the management of the sanctuary to Nature Seychelles and the Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles.

The International School of Seychelles’ A level class is here for a science class. At the Sanctuary, you can learn and teach anything. Brenda Adnimignon, a Lecturer at the National Institute of Education explained it to me in this way when she brought out a class of trainee English teachers: Take a pond, imagine a teacher reading a story about a pond to her class. It’s all on paper. Then imagine her showing them pond life. The lesson comes alive. And when the children go back and write about it, they improve both their knowledge and English. (And they get an afternoon out of class).

The Sanctuary has become very popular for this type of learning. And Terence, our Education Coordinator loves to host these classes. But, apart from learning, the students are also helping us assemble data on the Sanctuary, always useful for monitoring.

Oh. “Catch anything that’s flying” is the instruction the science students got from their teacher. Maybe if school had been this interesting….

Read more about the Sanctuary at Roche Caiman here