Turtle nesting season begins in Seychelles It is that time of
the year again and hawksbill turtles are making their annual
pilgrimage to Seychelles’ shores to nest. The hawksbill breeds
throughout Seychelles, peaking between mid-October and mid-
January. On Cousin Island, an early appearance was reported on
August 8. Appearances are starting to pick up now and more
turtles will arrive in November, December and January. As
numbers peak so will monitoring. The Special Reserve has one of
the longest running monitoring programmes - started in 1972 -
forming a core part of the wardens’ and volunteers work
programs. Appearance dates and locations have to be recorded
with nesting beaches being patrolled several times a day. The
wardens also use metal tags with unique identification code,
which they attach to the front flippers of each nesting turtle
encountered, as one of the ways to monitor the turtles. This
enables them to identify individual females returning to the
beach each season. They also take other data su