News and Blogs

  1. Latest News
  2. Cousin Island News
  3. Blue Economy Seychelles
  4. Green Health Blog
  • Research: Roaming seabirds need ocean-wide protection, research shows

    Unlike other oceans, which are known to have specific “hotspots” where predators, including seabirds, gather in large numbers to feed, the Indian Ocean lacks such concentrated feeding areas, a recent paper has revealed. This lack of hotspots is particularly concerning given the various threats seabirds face due to human activities.[…]

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  • Saya de Malha leaves for its third dFAD clean-up expedition

    (Seychelles Nation) The Saya de Malha vessel of the Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) left Port Victoria yesterday afternoon for its third drifting Fishing Aggregate Devices (dFAD) expedition clean-up exercise in Seychelles territorial waters and shores of the outer islands. As customary since the first expedition in October 2022, students from Seychelles[…]

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Coming Soon!

Coral Aquaculture Facility!

coral aquaculture web banner

We have started work on the Assisted Recovery of Corals (ARC) facility to revolutionise our coral reef restoration process Learn more

Find Us On ...

Implementing the SDGs

At Nature Seychelles we are committed to working with government, development partners and donors in implementing relevant actions, in particular, looking at certain goals where we can build on our existing strengths. Read more

Seychelles Wildlife

Natural environment of the Seychelles

Seychelles is a unique environment, which sustains a very special biodiversity. It is special for a number of different reasons. These are the oldest oceanic islands to be found anywhere...

Bird Watching

Seychelles is a paradise for birdwatchers, you can easily see the unique land birds, the important sea bird colonies, and the host of migrants and vagrants. Some sea bird...

Seychelles Black Parrot

Black Parrot or Kato Nwar in Creolee is brown-grey in colour, not truly black. Many bird experts treat it as a local form of a species found in Madagascar and...

Fairy Tern

The Fairy (or white) Tern is a beautiful bird seen on all islands in Seychelles, even islands like Mahe where they are killed by introduced rats, cats and Barn Owls....

Introduced Land Birds

A little over two hundred years ago, there were no humans living permanently in Seychelles. When settlement occurred, people naturally brought with them the animals and plants they needed to...

Native Birds

Although over 190 different species of bird have been seen on or around the central islands of Seychelles (and the number is increasing all the time), many of these are...

Migrant Shore Birds

Shallow seas and estuaries are very rich in invertebrate life. Many birds feed on the worms, crabs and shellfish in these habitats; often, they have long bills for probing sand...

Seychelles Magpie Robin

The most endangered of the endemic birds, Seychelles Magpie Robin or Pi Santez in Creole, came close to extinction in the late twentieth century; in 1970 there were only about...

Seychelles Blue Pigeon

The Seychelles Blue Pigeon or Pizon Olande in Creole, spends much of its life in the canopy of trees and eats the fruits of figs, bwa dir, ylang ylang and...

Seychelles White-eye

The Seychelles White-eye or Zwazo Linet in Creole, is rare and endemic. They may sometimes be seen in gardens and forest over 300m at La Misere, Cascade and a few...

Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher

The Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher or the Vev in Creole is endemic to Seychelles, you cannot find this bird anywhere else on earth. Although it was once widespread on...

Seychelles Sunbird

The tiny sunbird or Kolibri in Creole, is one of the few endemic species that has thrived since humans arrived in the Seychelles.

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Achievements

  • Stopped near extinctions of birds +

    Down-listing of the critically endangered Seychelles warbler from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened. Other Seychelles birds have also been saved including the Seychelles Magpie Robin, Seychelles Fody, and the Seychelles
  • Restored whole island ecosystems +

    We transformed Cousin Island from a coconut plantation to a thriving vibrant and diverse island ecosystem. Success achieved on Cousin was replicated on other islands with similar conservation activities.
  • Championed climate change solutions +

    Nature Seychelles has risen to the climate change challenge in our region in creative ways to adapt to the inevitable changing of times.
  • Education and Awareness +

    We have been at the forefront of environmental education, particularly with schools and Wildlife clubs
  • Sustainable Tourism +

    We manage the award-winning eco-tourism programme on Cousin Island started in 1970
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Sheath-tailed bat, the rarest bat in the world

The Sheath-tailed bat Coleura seychellensis is one of only two mammals endemic to the Seychelles, this means that it cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Yet it is possibly the rarest bat in the world with only about 30-100 individuals left in Seychelles.

Sheath-tailed bat © Sinclair Laing

It was once commonly found in Seychelles, but the species has undergone a dramatic decline in population during the mid to late 20th century.  At present it is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Without urgent conservation measures, this species will become extinct.

Little known

Very little is known about the bat’s ecology, habitat, roost, and behaviour. Several possible causes for its decline have been forwarded, including predation by barn owls, roost disturbance, habitat loss and declines in insect availability resulting from use of pesticides.

This bat feeds on insects at night time using echolocation calls to detect objects and navigate. Its biology is mostly unknown.  The weight of the bat is approximately 10.2g for males and 11.1 for females, with a forearm length of c. 53.9 and 55.6 respectively.  The bat echolocates at frequencies of 32-40kHz when commuting and feeding outside the cave, and at much lower, audible frequencies (15-20kHz) within the cave.


What needs to be done


Bats are often extremely good indicators of environment quality, thus their presence is related to the health of the habitat.  Decline in bats thus could suggest furthermore widespread concerns.   More research and studies are urgently needed to understand more about this species, and develop an action plan to save this rarest bat. Public awareness and education is also a possible way to improve the conservation status of the species.

Are we too late?


Biologists cannot determine a particular size in which the population of this species is no longer at risk of extinction, but many believe that for stable populations in stable environments, 500 individuals may be sufficient to guarantee long-term persistence of the population.  Is this possible for the Seychelles sheath-tailed bat to increase its population up to 500 individuals?

What has been done


Recent work under a project initiated by Nature Seychelles and implemented in collaboration with a group of universities in the United Kingdom confirm that previous populations of the sheath-tailed bat on Praslin and La Digue now appeared not to be present. However, the group has also discovered two previously unknown roosts. This study was able to present evidence that the sheath-tailed bat prefers mature tree stands for foraging.

The study reveals that habitat loss is not the only contributor to the decline of the species. This leads to the question of pesticide use and its’ link with prey availability.  The results also underline the importance of roosts and roost protection in bat conservation, as they represent not only shelter, but a conduit for social interactions, and an important foraging area. Therefore it is not simply the roost itself that needs to be protected but also the habitat surrounding each roost.

The result of the research will be published soon. Nature Seychelles is seeking for more funding to continue this study with the hope to reverse its fatal decline.



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Our History

Since 1998.

Seychelles Nature, Green HealthClimate Change, Biodiversity Conservation & Sustainability Organisation

@CousinIsland Manager

Facebook: http://goo.gl/Q9lXM

Roche Caiman, Mahe

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Contact Us

Centre for Environment & Education

Roche Caiman,

P.O. Box 1310, Mahe, Seychelles

Tel:+ 248 2519090

Email: nature@seychelles.net