Shanilla working hard

Hello, it has been almost one month now which has been just enough to get used to the working environment at the Wildlife Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre located at the Banyan Tree Resort. Everyone is so amazing here and I have enjoyed every single day, I have learned and done a lot which is a great experience.

I have helped with the sea turtle monitoring activities, beach profiling and with the daily care of Tiko, which is a juvenile hawksbill sea turtle in rehabilitation at the centre. My favourite activity is the fresh water turtles (terrapins) monitoring: I am involved in setting up the traps in the Intendance wetland and in checking them daily for any terrapins. Those that are found in our traps are brought at the centre, measured, weighted, identified, marked and then released in the same pond where they were found in.

 

There is so much ahead of me and I’m looking forward to new experiences in these next two months. 

My name is Cheyenne-Mae Chang-Yunn (but Cheyenne works just fine), I am a 20 year old local working with MCSS as a Field Research Assistant for The Banyan Tree Resort Project Team. 

I started on the 5^th February 2018 and from then on have been assigned with mostly all the tasks carried out at the Wildlife & Rehabilitation Centre from terrapin and turtle monitoring to daily minor up keeping.

It has been just over 2 month sworking at the Centre which has been just enough to get used to the working environment and frame. 

The terrapin trapping sessions in the Intendance wetland has been put under my accountability whereby I now choose the sites of putting the traps each week, take responsibility of checking the traps, processing the terrapins caught and ensure their release and safekeeping. I have found sensation in carrying out this mission, since I have not worked with terrapins before yet hearing all about it and it has been added to the list of endemic species and sub-species of Seychelles that I have worked with.

Along with guest interaction, conducting tour guides in English and French around the centre and power point presentations, I also participate in conducting the ‘Adopt a Terrapin’ project with the guests and the wetland bird monitoring.

I have also gained the opportunity to work with one of my favorite animals - the sea turtles. I help with the monitoring activities on Anse Intendance, which is one of the most important nesting beach in the south of Mahe. I get the change to perform nest excavations, take measurements of the hatchlings (carapace length, weight, etc.) and simply observe them entering the water for the first time. 

Data recording is also part of my duties along with working on the Banyan Tree Wildlife description document and more. Additionally I have been involved in other projects such as beaches characterization and sea turtle monitoring on other beaches.

Learning something new every other day keeps the motivation high hence I am gaining more eagerness to keep on acquiring knowledge in my work and planning out research work both off and on field to smoothen my further studies in conservation work.