Endemic, Enchanting, Endangered

In a recently published scientific study in the Journal of African Ornithology, the authors of the report, conservation scientists April Burt and Julie Gane collaborated in an analysis of the long-term monitoring of the Seychelles Magpie Robin (SMR) using data collected in the last eighteen years.

The report, titled Longevity and Survival of the Endangered Seychelles Magpie Robin (Copsychus sechellarum), draws from data collected on Cousin Island Special Reserve and Cousine Island, with the aim of determining how long SMRs can live and the estimated annual survival.

“I am often asked by people whether the work that we do under the banner of conservation is, in actual fact, beneficial in any way to the species,” say April Burt, former Nature Seychelles’ Conservation Manager on Cousin Island. “There is scepticism about long-term monitoring projects and if the data is actually used. Collection of data over time, as long as the methods are consistent, is one of the most valuable instruments in conservation biology – the scientific study of nature and of Earth’s biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats and ecosystems.”

SMR monitoring over the past 18 years has been extensive

The SMR, an iconic bird endemic to the Seychelles was once listed in IUCN’s list of endangered species as one of the most threatened bird species in the world, nearing extinction. After years of consistent conservation work including habitat restoration and translocations to other islands, the SMR was in 2005 downgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered, a milestone in conservation.

The SMR once flourished in eight islands in the Seychelles, but following human settlement in the 18th century, the subsequent introduction of predators and loss of habitat, the bird became extinct in all but one of these islands. Only 23 individuals remained on Fre?gate Island.

“In 1998, Nature Seychelles took over the recovery programme initiated by BirdLife International and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and we have since set up and continue to facilitate the Seychelles Magpie Robin Recovery Team (SMART),” says Dr. Nirmal Shah, the CEO of Nature Seychelles, BirdLife partner in the Seychelles. “Such reports are vital in our conservation work as we can see what areas need more focus or even altering.”

Records are logged even before hatching photo by Rachel Cartwright

The first translocations of the SMR were spearheaded by BirdLife from Fregate to Cousin in 1994 and Cousine in 1995. Later, Nature Seychelles led the translocations to Aride in 2002 and Denis in 2008. The report focused on Cousin and Cousine islands as they have had consistent data collection for the 49 and 32 individuals they respectively support. The data collected includes daily sightings; weekly behaviour and breeding; and monthly movements.

According to the report, “The thorough data collected on this species on both Cousin and Cousine since translocation has provided long-term insight into the species annual survival.” Notably, “an overall decrease in annual survival overtime on both islands was linked to population increase”.

The SMR is an aggressively territorial bird and with increased population density, there is also the added factor of competition for food, which would therefore affect the annual survival rates.

Interestingly, the study reports that the oldest recorded individual was a male who died on Cousine Island on 28th September 2000 at just under 16 years old. This individual was recorded to have hatched on Frégate Island on 3rd January 1985, before being translocated to Cousine Island in 1995.

A Hawksbill turtle returns back to sea on Cousin Island photo by Emily Corden

On 16th April 2016, Nature Seychelles will partner with SYAH-Seychelles (SIDS Youth AIMS Hub) in a beach clean-up on Cousin Island Special Reserve as part of the Marine Debris Challenge, an initiative of Australian based organisation, Positive Change for Marine Life Association.

Several organisations around the world will be taking part in the Marine Debris Challenge whose objective is to conduct clean-ups of the marine environment, which is littered with plastic waste, often referred to as the cancer of the earth because of the immense damage it does to the environment and wildlife.

SYAH-Seychelles, dubbed Team Seychelles in this challenge, will carry out clean-ups every fortnight, beginning on 12th March and leading up to Earth Day on 22nd April. The clean-ups will be done at Bel Ombre, Cap Ternay, Silhouette Island, Beau Vallon, Cousin Island and Praslin Island.

SYAH-Seychelles in a past clean up event

“The clean-ups will be undertaken by SYAH members, youth, members of the community and members of other local NGOs and organisations,” says Karine Rassool, Steering Committee member of SYAH-Seychelles “Each clean-up will be coupled with an educational talk in line with the Hub’s ethos of education, empowerment and action. The smaller clean-ups will feature waste separation and a waste audit.”

Nature Seychelles staff and international volunteers working on Cousin Island regularly collect marine debris including plastic bags, bottles, sandals, and other waste that washes up on the otherwise pristine beaches of this protected marine reserve and Important Bird Area. While on Cousin, SYAH-Seychelles will work with the wardens and volunteers on Cousin to carry out a more thorough clean-up.

SYAH-Seychelles, winner of Environment Sustainability Award 2015, has in the past carried out similar campaigns with the aim of raising awareness of the damage marine debris has on the environment while also encouraging Seychellois to take ownership of waste management in their communities. One such campaign is the ‘Seychelles Free From Plastic Bags’ which was launched in 2015, with the added goal of lobbying the Seychelles government to ban plastics in the country.

Many people prefer to use a free plastic bag rather than pay 20 rupees or more for these fabric bags at Jivan (made from waste material)

“Our experience has been that the knock-on effect of cleaning up is that one is less likely to litter; hence clean-ups act as a deterrent to littering,” says Zara Pardiwalla, Steering Committee member of SYAH-Seychelles. “However, SYAH-Seychelles wishes to address the greater issue of waste reduction as well as littering. SYAH-Seychelles aims to start the conversation about the need to take individual action to reduce consumption and increase recycling efforts and thereby reduce the amount of waste that ends up on our landfills and in our oceans.”

SYAH-Seychelles has been addressing the reduction of consumption within the context of the anti-plastic bags campaign by sourcing alternatives to plastic bags and encouraging youth and the general public to make the switch from plastic bags to reusable bags.

“Nature Seychelles is a pioneer in conservation in Seychelles and SYAH-Seychelles would benefit immensely from the wealth of knowledge that Nature Seychelles can provide to its members,” says Zara. “Similarly SYAH-Seychelles – being a youth-led NGO with the ability to mobilise large numbers of youths – provides the ideal avenue through which Nature Seychelles can include youth in its conservation efforts.”

This is how a healthy coral reef should look like

It is official, our oceans are experiencing a coral bleaching event on a global scale. Since October 2015, scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been reporting high ocean temperatures across Hawaii and the Caribbean, causing widespread coral bleaching. The phenomenon has now reached the Western Indian Ocean, which has been on coral bleaching alert since the 4th of January this year.

Under conditions of increased temperature, algae decline and release harmful compounds. When this happens the corals expel their algae partners in a process called bleaching. The loss of the algae leaves the tissue transparent, revealing the bright white skeleton and giving the coral the appearance of having been “bleached”. Without algae the corals lose a major source of energy and become increasingly susceptible to disease and starvation.

The difference between a bleached coral and a healthy one is clear

This year’s bleaching event is predicted to be of equal (if not larger) magnitude than that caused by the 1998 El Niño which destroyed 97% of coral in the Seychelles. In the Western Indian Ocean, the first bleaching observations of the year were reported from the Comoros in the East Mozambique Channel. On January 8th, scientists working on Aldabra atoll also reported coral bleaching around and within the atoll.

Nature Reef Rescuers scientists based on Praslin Island are not taking these predictions lightly. For the length of the bleaching season, we will team up with Nature Seychelles staff on Cousin Island Special Reserve to survey the reef to see how it responds to rising temperatures. Considering that the newly transplanted colonies were grown from donor colonies that had survived the 1998 bleaching event, they have the potential to better resist to stressful warm conditions.

Surveys along the restored coral reef site of Cousin have so far shown less than 1% bleaching in January. However, the reef is displaying early signs of thermal stress: a few small colonies of branching corals have been observed to be fully bleached along the site.

The year keeps getting hotter and hotter photo courtesy of cordioea.netbleachingalert

2015 was reported as the hottest year ever, and projections for 2016 are to be hotter still. The last three years have been among the hottest ever recorded. High temperature conditions added to a strong El Nino are currently making the risk for coral bleaching very high in the WIO and in the Seychelles.

Nature Seychelles Reef Rescuers will therefore implement a Coral Bleaching Response Plan allowing a rapid and effective response in case of a mass bleaching event.

The plan includes procedures for temperature and bleaching risk predictions, along with ecological assessment and communication of mass bleaching impacts. We will conduct multiple bleaching surveys during and up to 8 months after the mass bleaching, in order to monitor ecological impacts as well as to follow the recovery of the reef when conditions return to normal.

By Louise Malaisé
Technical & Scientific Officer | Reef Rescuers

Seychelles warbler (by Martijn Hammers)

Once you could barely hear the chirping of this songbird with its only 25 individuals left in a mangrove swamp on a small island in Seychelles, but now the singing is louder with a symphony that comprises over 3000 birds. The population of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), which once had the dubious distinction of being one of the rarest birds in the world, is now 115 times what it was over three decades ago with a population spread over 5 islands. Intensive conservation efforts have ensured this endemic bird did not vanish completely.

In the recently revised IUCN Red List 2015, this bird which was once classified as Critically Endangered, the highest threat category, has now been downgraded to Near Threatened which is the lowest category possible. It also means that the Seychelles Warbler is now removed from BirdLife International’s own list of Threatened Birds of The World.

“As far as I know, this is the first time in the world that a species once on the brink of extinction has now been downlisted to the lowest category on the Red List solely because of conservation action,” says Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, Nature Seychelles’ CEO.

“Bringing back this bird from the edge of extinction is one of the greatest conservation success stories not only for Seychelles but for the world owing to years of consistent collaboration of BirdLife International and Nature Seychelles with its academic and island partners,” Shah says. “The Seychelles Warbler is a truly remarkable endorsement that conservation can deliver incredible success in our lifetime and we must thank all the partners involved in this great success including the Seychelles Warbler Group, the private island owners and managers, the RSPB and the Seychelles Government.”

Warbler translocations

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List is a global classification of animal and plant species that are in danger of extinction. BirdLife International is the official and leading authority that provides information on bird species statuses for the Red List by coordinating the review of data from partner conservation organisations all over the world.

A critically endangered species is one that is deemed to be in extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. On the other hand, a near threatened species is one that can no longer be categorised as endangered or vulnerable. The Seychelles Warbler is among 23 other birds that were downgraded to lower levels of threat in the 2015 Red List. Nonetheless, this is not because of conservation work but a reflection of more accurate data and generally better knowledge of the downlisted bird species. In contrast, 40 bird species’ classification has worsened on the Red List. Of the seven species that have been uplisted as now being critically endangered, four are vultures.

Nature Seychelles is the BirdLife partner in Seychelles and manages Cousin Island Special Reserve which had the last 26 remaining individuals of the Seychelles Warbler in 1968 when BirdLife International, then known as International Council for Bird Protection (ICBP), bought the island with the sole purpose of protecting this bird species.

Protecting the Seychelles warbler first required that Cousin Island’s vegetation had to revert to what it was before it was cleared of its natural plant species and replaced with coconuts for commercial purposes. The island is now protected under Seychelles law, thereby further protecting the terrestrial and marine ecosystems on Cousin and in the surrounding 400 meters of water.

After the Seychelles warbler population flourished on Cousin, several translocations were made to four more islands from the 1990s to 2011. The bird is now well established on Cousin, Aride, Cousine, Denis and Frégate islands.

“The success of the Seychelles warbler shows that Seychelles is a world leader in biodiversity conservation. Our success with this and other species must be showcased by the international community a model in saving threatened biodiversity. In fact, we may be able to prevent new species making the Red List,” says Shah.

Cousin Chief Warden Tom Hiney rescues a White tern chick which was covered in pisonia seeds

As a ‘veteran’ volunteer of Cousin Island turtle season, I have been able to witness some of the most incredible wildlife spectacles. For example, watching turtles as they emerge from the water to embark on their journey to lay their eggs, then later observing what seemed to me, millions of hatchlings scattered all over these stunning beaches as they instinctively make their way to the ocean. The knowledge that they too will one day return to the same beach to lay their eggs is mind blowing!

Another phenomenon that Nature Seychelles staff and volunteers working on Cousin Island Special Reserve marvel at is, of course, the wide variety of birds on the island. We continue to observe and monitor these birds even in our spare time.

As the birds here have very few predators, you are able to get very close to them, which is amazing. It was a fun and unforgettable experience being here for the Hawksbill Turtle nesting season, however, returning to Cousin this season has been eye opening.

The rescued whiter tern, also known as the fairy tern gets a second chance to make it to adulthood

For the last few months volunteers and staff have been monitoring the breeding success of White Terns (Gygis alba ) and the White tailed Tropic Birds (Phaethon lepturus). I have been concentrating on the White Terns. To conduct the breeding success we first find 100 nesting adults with an egg and then follow their progress from hatching all the way to (hopefully) flying off to find its own food.

It has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about birds as in my previous visit here we did not study the birds in such depth but merely observed them and appreciated them. However, the volunteers presently get to examine these birds throughout their life cycle; from when the egg is laid all the way through to when they fledge.
On Cousin we normally have a success rate of about 20 percent for White Terns and around 60 percent for White Tailed Tropic Birds. The low success rate of the white terns is partly due to the natural behaviour of the bird. Terns do not build nests but simply lay their eggs on a branch cavity and eggs therefore frequently plummet to the ground in high winds or rain.

Pisonia seeds spread by sticking to birds’ feathers which can be fatal if the birds cannot then fly

Additionally, the invasive Pisonia grandis trees are a threat to chicks as well as adult birds on Cousin. This tree is not very common on most islands in the Seychelles, except those with a lot of sea birds. The pisonia tree has very sticky seeds that are distributed by attaching to birds feathers. This causes many fatalities for seabirds including the white tern when too many seeds get stuck on their feathers; the birds are unable to fly to find food and eventually die of starvation.

This is a natural phenomenon on many tropical islands where there are seabirds. But Nature Seychelles staff and volunteers try to save as many birds as we can by removing the seeds off their feathers when we find them immobile on the ground.

Although this has resulted in high death rates for my White Terns that I have been monitoring; the population is stable and tourists and volunteers will be able to come to Cousin and see these stunning birds for many years to come. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on Cousin and it has truly been incredible to see turtles nesting followed by hatchlings scurrying down the beach, and to follow the life cycle of White Terns. Gaining the knowledge and skills from the volunteer programme has been superb.

by Kate Robinson

(A Report from the Nature Seychelles International Volunteer Program)

Video courtesy of www.liammartinfilm.com

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We urgently need to replace the diesel powered generator on the island with a Photovoltaic Solar Power system to bring multiple benefits including reducing our CO² emissions and saving money to fund continuing research, extra staffing, island maintenance, boat repairs, energy security and much more.

We have 44 days to reach our GBP 25,000 goal and we need your help!

Please go to the Indiegogo campaign page (link below), make a donation if you can (thank you!) and share the page widely with your networks. Let’s get Cousin on solar power!

Thank you very much.

Indiegogo link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/powering-conservation-on-cousin-island-seychelles

Why we need to switch to solar power:

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Aerial view of Cousin Island Specia Reserve

Cousin Island Special Reserve in Seychelles managed by Nature Seychelles  is “one of the world’s great conservation success stories.” It is no ordinary island.

Cousin conservation history began in 1959 when Dr. J. H. Crook visited Cousin in 1959. His discovery that the Seychelles Warbler population which was confined to Cousin had been reduced to less than 30 birds prompted him to recommend turning the island into a nature reserve. Cousin at the time had been cleared of its native vegetation and planted wall to wall with coconuts. Pigs, chickens and cattle had been introduced. An annual crop of up to 6,000 Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus, Fouke in Creole) chicks were taken for food.By the early 1960’s the island yielded only 13 tons of copra annually. About 4,000 fouke, tobacco, salted fish, turtles, pigs and poultry were still taken off the island every year.In 1968 after 7 years of discussions the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), now BirdLife International, purchased the island for what seems like petty cash today – 16,452 GBP. Soon after, the Seychelles Government designated the island as a Nature Reserve under the Wild Animals and Birds Protection Act and in 1975, Cousin was designated a Special Reserve. This included the marine area up to 400m beyond the High Water Mark. (Nirmal Shah, Nature Seychelles Chief Executive, Zwazo 26, Adding Value: Replacing Coconuts with Conservation)

It has taken 40 years of hard work to transform this former coconut plantation into the thriving nature reserve it is today. This video by www.liammartinfilm.com, highlights Cousin’s history and conservation successes.

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“During our mid-water coral nursery monitoring, we have a little help from fishy cleaners.

In this video, a school of Forktail Rabbitfish (Siganus argenteus) is busy at work eating the algae that compete with our nursery corals, providing a helping hand (or mouth) in our daily cleaning maintenance. Due to the location of the GoPro camera, you can almost feel you are a rabbitfish in the school. A parrotfish gets too close to the camera for identification, but it seems an Eclipse Parrotfish (Scarus russelii). Towards the end, the boat engine scares away the school.”

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