Private owners revive Seychelles island, boosting sooty tern colony to 700,000 pairs

Bird Island, a small coral outcrop on the Seychelles Bank, suffered severe ecological damage from 19th-century guano extraction, plantation agriculture and introduced pests, reducing its famed sooty tern colony from over a million pairs to barely 18,000-20,000 by the mid-1960s. In 1967 Seychellois accountant Guy Savy and his partners purchased the island and stopped commercial exploitation, launching a long-term habitat-restoration program that cleared dense coconut stands, eradicated rats and rabbits, and allowed native plants to re-establish.

Eco-chalets opened in 1973 provided revenue for ongoing conservation, while later efforts added sea-turtle monitoring and protection of giant tortoises such as Esmeralda. Recent counts show the tern colony has rebounded to an estimated 700,000 breeding pairs, making it one of the largest in the Western Indian Ocean. Researchers caution that seabirds still face oceanic challenges like microplastic pollution, tuna over-fishing and warming waters, underscoring the need for continued protection of nesting sites.