Curieuse

Island Achievement Report October 2016

Report Title

Giant Tortoise Nursery Getting Back on Track

Objective

Long-Term Objective
To increase scientific knowledge and baseline data on the health of ecosystems on Curieuse
Island.
Medium-Term Objectives
To continue to collect data on the flora and fauna of Curieuse Island.
Provide project partners with an ongoing assessment of the health of ecosystems and flora
and fauna of Curieuse Island.
Short-Term Objective
To complete the giant tortoise census and to tag all new encounters.

Summary

The giant tortoise nursery on Curieuse Island is a very important place for hatchlings and juveniles to
begin their lives. Together with SNPA weve been monitoring the growth rates of these tortoises.
Recently, some new hatchlings have joined the nursery, and to continue our data collection on this
species weve undertaken the first known PIT tagging of Aldabra giant tortoise hatchlings. However,
this journey has not been straightforward but were getting back on track.

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Report

Its a pretty slow life for a giant tortoise, and monitoring these giants is a slow process as well.
Working together with SNPA, GVI have been monitoring the health and growth rates of the
population of giant tortoises here on Curieuse Island. The juvenile stage of a tortoises life is an
important one for us to collect data on their growth rates, and for this reason a tortoise nursery
exists so we can collect this data and keep the tortoises safe until they are large enough to survive in
the wild. Unfortunately, the 26 tortoises we had at the nursery were stolen in July this year meaning
that we cannot continue collecting data on these individuals. This was a massive blow to both GVI
and SNPA as these tortoises had been safely kept in the nursery for two years, and as you can
imagine collecting growth rates of tortoises takes time, so to lose crucial data as well was extremely
unfortunate.

Setbacks in conservation happen and we can learn
from them, so our aim was to rebuild the tortoise
nursery with new hatchlings with a greater level of
security. The first aim was achieved through nest
searches, excavations of nests, incubation of any eggs
we found and hatchling encounters by SNPA and
tourists. In just a few months our efforts paid off and
we currently have 17 hatchlings back in the nursery.
Although we experienced a major loss, we (GVI and
SNPA) have been able to collaboratively re-establish
the tortoise nursery and begin collecting a new juvenile
growth dataset.

We are determined not to lose these tortoises, so to
achieve our second aim of providing a greater level of
security, and to deter any potential theft from
happening again, we have undertaken the first known
PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tagging of
Aldabra giant tortoise hatchlings, using a novel
methodology developed in Brazil for freshwater turtle
hatchlings. The PIT tag is just like a micro-chip that
domestic pets have as a way of identifying them and
works as a security measure against them being stolen. One hatchling at the nursery has been
tagged this way so far with assistance from the SNPA, weve been monitoring its progress since and
its doing very well.

We will continue to monitor this hatchling and will tag the remaining hatchlings in the same way
over the next few weeks. Once they have all been successfully tagged there will be a press release to
convey this information to the public in order for the tags to serve as a well-known deterrent to any
future potential theft. We look forward to studying these hatchlings over the coming years, as they
establish themselves as the future of Curieuses giant tortoise population.

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