X-Rays, Goodbyes and Visits

Hi all, sorry for being late with the blog posts – the past two weeks have been full of action! So our x-ray arrived the week before last, and I promised I’d show you pictures, so here they are:

Imogen in her lead apron.

We had the Seychelles Veterinary Services over on the Friday and the day before we also had Arlene, a local private vet.

Mark, the X-Ray technician showing vets how to use the X-Ray

 We still need to work out a few kinks in getting the exposure setting right, but I think our first tries were pretty good!

Stinky from above

Last week I started training my replacement, Mili, Our first trapping session resulted in us catching two Black Mud Turtles in one trap! It’s a great start to her future trapping sessions. One terrapin was a female that had previously caught, named Alex (Irma’s first terrapin in a trap) and the second was a male who hadn’t been seen before. His new name is Pingu.

Mili with Pingu.

On Wednesday we had a group form the Botanical Garden of around 30 children, it was only a short visit, but it was a good way to introduce Mili to the social and public awareness side of our work.

Thursday marked the beginning of our 2-day Junior Conservation Session with the Takamaka School Wildlife Club. The kids got to walk around the wetland and the beach on their first day. We also said goodbye to Haze and Stinky and we were joined by an English family.

Stinky wandering off into the wild!

On Friday we organised a beach clean-up on Anse Intendance and on Anse Petit Police and then we finished with the kids painting and drawing inside the centre.

Our kid-themed week has continued to today, with the Save Our Seas Foundation having their Academy By The Sea visiting the centre. The wetland work that the hotel is doing is obviously beneficial to the birds, yesterday I saw three Night Herons in one place and today the children have gotten to see at least 6 Grey Herons, a Yellow Bittern and two baby Green-Backed Herons.

Night Herons in the wetland.

Academy by the Sea!

Please read the blog next week to hear more about our adventures! Also, check us out on Twitter @MCSSWildlife or on Facebook – Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS).