Giant tortoises, sea turtles and other wildlife

Where can you see giant tortoises on Praslin and La Digue?

The main places are Curieuse Island, a 20-minute boat ride from Côte d'Or on Praslin, and L'Union Estate at Anse Réunion on La Digue. A museum and a few hotels on Praslin also keep tortoises that visitors or guests can feed.

These are Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea). Nature Seychelles says hunting for ships' meat, habitat loss and introduced predators decimated tortoise populations everywhere in Seychelles except Aldabra Atoll, where it estimates about 100,000 live wild (no year given). Several hundred have since been introduced to islands including Curieuse and Cousin. The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, in an assessment dating from 1996.

• Curieuse: the Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority (SPGA) says hundreds of giant tortoises live on the island, introduced between 1978 and 1982. A nursery raises young tortoises until they are five years old, when they are released.
• Cousin: the Cousin Island reserve says tortoises often meet visitors by the beach and roam the plateau forest.
• L'Union Estate, La Digue: the estate says its tortoises live at the foot of a large granite monolith and that visitors can feed them.
• Praslin hotels and museum: Raffles Seychelles at Anse Takamaka says 16 adult and three young rescued tortoises live in its grounds. The Islander Hotel at Anse Kerlan has a tortoise pen where guests can feed them, and the Praslin Museum on the Côte d'Or esplanade lists tortoise feeding among its activities.

When and where do sea turtles nest near Praslin and La Digue?

Hawksbill turtles nest mainly between October and March and, unusually, come ashore by day. Green turtles nest in smaller numbers, at night, and can nest in any month.

Nature Seychelles says two sea turtle species nest in Seychelles: the hawksbill (kare in Creole) and the green turtle (torti-d-mer).

Sources differ on the hawksbill season. Nature Seychelles and the Cousin Island site's conservation page give October to March, with the peak on Cousin from November to January; the Cousin Island reptile page gives October to January. For green turtles, the Cousin Island site says only a few nest on the granitic islands, with nesting all year and peaks from January to April and July to September.

• Cousin Island: Nature Seychelles calls Cousin the most important hawksbill nesting site in the western Indian Ocean. Monitoring has run since 1972, and the nesting population has grown eight-fold since the island became a reserve.
• Curieuse: SPGA runs the guided Nesting Sea Turtle Trail from October to early March. The Tourism Board listing describes a 770 m walk of about 45 minutes to Grand Anse, Curieuse's most important nesting beach, where both green and hawksbill turtles nest.
• Aride: the Island Conservation Society says about 30 hawksbills and a few green turtles nest along the beach crest of Aride, 9 km north of Praslin (its page gives no year for the count).
• In the water: SPGA names the hawksbill as the main attraction of Ile Cocos Marine National Park, 10 minutes by boat from La Digue.

What are the rules around nesting turtles?

Nature Seychelles says all sea turtles in Seychelles are protected by law. Watch nesting turtles quietly, from behind and at a distance, without flash, and do not touch them or their hatchlings.

Nature Seychelles says a total legal ban on turtle harvesting came into force in 1994. Its green turtle page says taking, selling or buying turtles is illegal under the Wild Animals and Birds Protection Act, with a maximum fine of SR500,000 or a maximum of two years in prison. The hawksbill is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List (2008 assessment).

Nature Seychelles gives this guidance for the nesting season:

• Turtles on land are wary and will abandon nesting if disturbed, so stay quiet and keep your distance.
• Stay behind the turtle and out of its line of sight. Do not rush towards it or touch it.
• Photograph from afar with a zoom, and never use flash.
• When a turtle heads back to the sea, keep clear and never stand between it and the water.
• Do not pick up hatchlings or put them in the sea. Crawling there on their own helps them imprint on the beach they will return to.
• Do not chase or touch turtles while swimming or snorkelling.
• Keep beaches clean, and help hatchlings by raking over footprints and removing obstacles in their path.

Nature Seychelles also warns that beach lighting can confuse green turtle hatchlings and send them inland. On Curieuse, the Tourism Board listing says the turtle trail is open only under a tour guide's supervision. SPGA's visitor information lists the northern coast of Curieuse, including Anse Badamier, as a restricted zone, though its Curieuse page still names an Anse Badamier Trail.

What lives in Curieuse Marine National Park?

The park, designated on 11 June 1979, covers all of Curieuse, the channel between Curieuse and Praslin, and the islets of St Pierre and Chauve Souris. Its wildlife includes giant tortoises, nesting turtles, land birds, seabirds and coral reefs.

SPGA describes a boardwalk through the mangroves of Baie Laraie, where six of Seychelles' seven mangrove species grow, and a trail from Baie Laraie to Anse José. In the early 1900s a seawall across Baie Laraie created a 40-acre hawksbill turtle pond, Seychelles' first aquaculture farm; the project failed. Many small turtles can be seen outside the remains of its causeway during the nesting period, and visitors who land on St Pierre, five minutes away by boat, can see Wright's skinks and seabirds.

Park rules ban spear guns, fishing gear and fish traps, collecting shells, coral or plants, and anchoring outside designated areas. Entry fees are on the Curieuse Island page.

Where can you see Seychelles fruit bats?

Look up at dusk. The Seychelles fruit bat lives across the central granitic islands, including Praslin, roosting in trees by day.

Nature Seychelles describes the fruit bat, or sousouri (Pteropus seychellensis), as an endemic megabat with a wingspan of up to 1.2 metres and an orange-yellow head and neck. It eats fruit, nectar and pollen, spreads the seeds of native trees and feeds noisily all night. The bats fly between islands, for example between Praslin and Cousin. The Island Conservation Society says up to 200 roost on Aride, depending on flowering and fruiting trees (no year given), and the Praslin Museum lists fruit bat feeding among its activities.

Which geckos and skinks will you see?

In the Vallée de Mai you are likely to see bright green day geckos, and the reserve is also home to three endemic bronze geckos, including the bronze-eyed gecko. Skinks are common across Seychelles and especially numerous on Cousin, which has one of the highest lizard densities in the world.

The Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), which manages the Vallée de Mai, lists three bronze geckos there: the dwarf bronze gecko (Ailuronyx tachyscopaeus), the bronze-eyed gecko (A. seychellensis) and the giant bronze gecko (A. trachygaster), one of the largest living geckos. SIF says the giant bronze gecko is now believed to live only in mature coco de mer forest on Praslin and is most often seen feeding on pollen on male coco de mer catkins. SPGA also lists the bronze-eyed gecko along the Glacis Noire trail.

SIF names two endemic day geckos: Phelsuma sundbergi, the larger, often high on coco de mer flowers, and P. astriata, seen on trunks and leaf stems.

Nature Seychelles says the Seychelles skink lives on almost all the granitic islands, in woodland, gardens and houses. The larger Wright's skink is restricted to predator-free islands with seabird colonies; the Cousin Island site lists Cousin, Cousine, Frégate and Aride.

Are there chameleons on Praslin?

Yes. Two species live in Praslin's palm forest: the Seychelles tiger chameleon and the Seychelles chameleon, which SIF says is known only from Praslin.

SIF says the Seychelles chameleon was rediscovered in 2009 after nearly 200 years, when animals thought to be tiger chameleons (Archaius tigris) proved to be the lost species. It is bright green without the tiger chameleon's spots, hard to pick out among the palms, and most abundant in the Vallée de Mai. SPGA lists the tiger chameleon among animals seen on the Glacis Noire trail.

What frogs and terrapins live on Praslin and La Digue?

The Seychelles tree frog lives on both Praslin and La Digue and can be found in the Vallée de Mai, where a population of tiny sooglossid frogs was also found in 2009. Terrapins live in the Veuve Special Reserve on La Digue and in the swamp on Cousin.

SIF and Nature Seychelles say the Seychelles tree frog (Tachycnemis seychellensis) lives on Praslin, Mahé, Silhouette and La Digue. It is mostly active at night, resting on palm fronds and leaves by day. Nature Seychelles says it also lives in modified coastal plateau habitats such as those on La Digue.

SIF says sooglossid frogs, among the smallest frogs in the world, were known only from Mahé and Silhouette until 2009, when a population was found in the Vallée de Mai; research is under way to establish whether it is a new species.

SPGA lists Seychelles terrapins among the animals of the Veuve Special Reserve. On Cousin, the reserve says the black mud turtle and yellow-bellied mud turtle live in the swamp at the base of the hill and are seen only occasionally, when heavy rain fills the marsh and washes them out onto the path.