Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Land
The Seychelles lies about 1600km off the east coast of Africa and just south of the equat-
or. It is made up of 115 islands, of which the central islands (including Mahé, Praslin and
La Digue) are granite and the outlying islands are coral atolls. The granite islands, which
do not share the volcanic nature of Réunion and Mauritius, appear to be peaks of a huge
submerged plateau that was torn away from Africa when the continental plates shifted
about 65 million years ago.
Wildlife
ANIMALS
Common mammals and reptiles include the fruit bat or flying fox, the gecko, the skink
and the tenrec (a hedgehog-like mammal imported from Madagascar). There are also
some small snakes, but they are not dangerous.
More noteworthy is the fact that giant tortoises, which feature on the Seychelles coat of
arms, are now found only in the Seychelles and the Galápagos Islands, off Ecuador. The
French and English wiped out the giant tortoises from all the Seychelles islands except
Aldabra, where happily more than 100,000 still survive. Many have been brought to the
central islands, where they munch their way around hotel gardens, and there is a free-
roaming colony on Curieuse Island.
Almost every island seems to have some rare species of bird: on Frégate, Cousin,
Cousine and Aride there are magpie robins (known as pie chanteuse in Creole); on Cous-
in, Cousine and Aride you'll find the Seychelles warbler; La Digue and Denis have the
veuve (paradise flycatcher); and Praslin has the black parrot. The bare-legged scops owl
and the Seychelles kestrel live on Mahé, and Bird Island is home to millions of sooty
terns.
 
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