Mason's Travel: Hotel Updates: H-Resort Beau Vallon Beach

Friday, 1 July 2016

Hotel Updates: H-Resort Beau Vallon Beach

Conservation Update from H-Resort Beau Vallon Beach

A team from H-Resort recently captured, documented and released a 17 centimeter male Yellow Bellied mud terrapin in the resort's lagoon, as well as identifying a healthy population of Carpenter Bees.

The yellow bellied terrapin is endangered with experts concerned about its declining numbers, as it is estimated in 2010 that there were only 120 individuals alive globally, hence its ‘Critically Endangered’ status.

The carapace of this species is often yellow-brown in older individuals with the skin of the neck and limbs being yellowish.

Also spotted feeding was, what was originally thought to be a yellow bumble bee, but it turned out to be, a male carpenter bee probably of the Seychelles sub species Xylocopa caffra seychellensis.

Local Bee expert Pat Matyot says, “.... not really a bumble bee, but superficially similar; known as a “carpenter bee” presumably because the female bores into wood to construct their nests."

"The yellow-banded form that is commonly seen is the femal; the male, without the banding, is far more discreet. Normally, the abdomen of the male is covered all over with yellowish hairs, but these may sometimes be partly worn off," continued Mr. Matyoit. "Even when they are occasionally observed, the males are usually involved in buzzing one another in flight, or just hovering over their territory."

He went on to comment, “You have been extremely lucky to see one feeding!”

Looks like there is all sorts of wonderful wildlife happening in and around the grounds of The H Resort!