Not a piece of cake – walking in the shoes of a Cousin Island warden

This week on World Rangers Day, we celebrated rangers, protectors of natural and cultural heritage. Rangers work tirelessly to safeguard our protected areas, wildlife, and ecosystems, often under demanding and challenging conditions.

This week we celebrated rangers

Cousin Island Special Reserve's rangers, known as wardens, don’t wear shoes but they are up to their ears in daily work.

A Cousin Island Special Reserve Warden has to be a multitasking professional unlike peers elsewhere who may be specialists. They all undertake ecotourism, boat operation, conservation and biosecurity, island management, equipment and machinery maintenance, and surveillance and patrols.

In the mornings they run the ecotourism on the island

Their most exciting, daily activity is running the Reserve’s highly successful ecotourism program Monday through Friday. In the mornings, between 9.45 and 10.30 am, boats carrying visitors to the island line up offshore, as they wait for the landing protocol peculiar to this Special Reserve.

Soon, the highly trained wardens drive the reserve boats from one charter boat to another, retrieving visitors and safely landing them on the nature reserve. In place for decades, this protocol prevents the introduction of pests that could harm wildlife on the island.

Driving the boat at high speed onto the beach as they arrive is a highlight of the trip for many tourists. It must, however, be handled cautiously and dexterously during rough seas, such as those experienced during the South East (Vann Swet in Creole) trade winds.

“Getting on Cousin Island is not easy. The waves are aggressive and you basically have to beach your boat on the sand at full speed when you catch a wave,” said Mr. Scotty Eddy after a visit with Variety Cruises.

Yet these boys do it daily, many times over.

“This can be physically demanding, especially on hot days, but we're used to it,” Christopher explains. He is drenched in seawater from head to toe after driving the boat in the unforgiving Vann Swet trade winds. Despite this, he still smiles and walks with a spring in his step.

Cousin Island wardens

Once the visitors are on land, the same wardens will guide them around the island. Since they are not ordinary guides but also undertake the conservation of the island they can deliver a riveting Cousin story in both English and French as well as answer any questions from curious visitors who may want to delve deeper. They will start with the island’s history as a coconut plantation. They will draw attention to the unremarkable Seychelles Warbler, the reason for the island's existence as a nature reserve, before showcasing the island’s varied wildlife. They will call out for the Seychelles Magpie Robins in their territory, search for elusive Bronze-eyed geckos and lead visitors to welcoming Aldabra giant tortoises.

The wardens will ensure that groups stay together, answer questions, and provide tips and tricks to keep mosquitoes at bay. They will also take care of elderly visitors if necessary.

Once the tour is complete, they will deliver the guests back to their boats and take their lunch break.

Conservation activities include Seychelles Magpie Robin monitoring

In the afternoon, they must meet the demands of the island's conservation programs. These programs get especially intense during the Hawksbill turtle nesting season and seabird breeding, especially of the Lesser Noddy, which arrive by the thousands. They will gather data and relay it to the conservation manager. During the monitoring and censuses for Wedge-tailed and Tropical Shearwaters, they might also work in the late evenings and at night to collect data for these birds as they return to the nests.

They also have to do routine maintenance of boats, engines, and other equipment. In addition, they undertake surveillance patrols to ensure there are no poachers or other incursions into the Special Reserve.

Cousin doesn’t get the kind of poaching one sees on the other islands but a few people try to sneak into the marine reserve to fish and we have to be vigilant. These incidences are usually rare and resolved peacefully,” says Dailus Laurence the Chief Warden.