Curieuse Island is a small granitic

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

close to the north coast of the island of

Praslin Praslin () is the second largest island (38.5 km2) of the Inner Seychelles, lying northeast of Mahé, Seychelles, Mahé. Praslin has a population of around 7,533 people and comprises two administrative districts: Baie Sainte Anne and Grand ...

. Curieuse is notable for its bare red earth intermingled with the unique coco de mer palms, one of the

cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an cultural artifact, artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen ...

s of the Seychelles, only growing on the two neighboring islands.

History

Originally named "Ile Rouge" due to its red coloured soil. In 1768 the French claimed possession of the island, naming it after the schooner "La Curieuse", a ship that was under the command of explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne. Like a number of islands in the Seychelles, there was a native

giant tortoise Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, as well as two extant species with multiple subspecies formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the ...

population that was quickly extirpated. In 1829, Curieuse was first used as a

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...

, and it functioned in this capacity until 1965. This helped protect the ecosystem from human influence. Today, ruins of the

leprosarium A leper colony, also known by #Names, many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. ''Mycobacterium leprae, M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believ ...

remain, as well as the former physician's residence at Anse St. Joseph (now an educational center and museum).

Conservation

In 1967 a fire destroyed much of the vegetation on the island, including more than 150 coco de mer palms. Following this event, the government took ownership of the island and introduced various restoration and conservation projects. In 1979, Curieuse and surrounding waters were declared the Curieuse Marine National Park in order to protect the native wildlife. Between 1978 and 1982, a conservation project relocated Aldabra giant tortoise from

Aldabra Aldabra, the world's second-largest coral atoll (the largest is Kiritimati), is located east of the continent of Africa. It is part of the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that are part of the Outer Islands (Seychelles), Outer Islands ...

to Curieuse. Today, it is the home of more than 300

Aldabra giant tortoise The Aldabra giant tortoise (''Aldabrachelys gigantea'') is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae and genus '' Aldabrachelys''. The species is endemic to the Seychelles, with the nominate subspecies, ''A. g. gigantea'' native to Alda ...

, some staying around the Ranger's Station and the rest roaming around elsewhere on the island. On the southern part of the island is a

mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withs ...

that is traversed by a walkway for park visitors. The island is also known for coco de mer palms, giant takamaka trees, a large hawksbill turtle rookery and several bird species, such as the rare Seychelles black parrot ''Coracopis nigra barklyi'', a parrot found only here and on Praslin. Though black parrots are found here, no breeding has been recorded. Instead it is recorded in the mature palm forests of Praslin. Among the plant species on the island, several are native and endemic to Curieuse; Porcher (Cordia subcordata), Bois Chandelle (Dracaena), Lalyann dile (Secamone schimperiana, Bwa bannann (Gastonia sechellarum) and Bois Cassant de Bord Mer (Guettarda speciosa) There is also currently a satellite camp for the Seychelles branch of Global Vision International, a volunteer group that focuses on conservation of the island and surveys local fish,

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

, turtle and coco de mer numbers.accommodation
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Image gallery

File:Luftbild der Insel Curieuse Seychellen (25746038688).jpg, Aerial of Curieuse island File:Riesenschildkröten auf den Seychellen (24749002177).jpg, Tortoises on Curieuse island File:Beach on Curieuse island, Seychelles (39587672642).jpg, Beach on Curieuse island, Seychelles File:Laraie Bay on Curieuse Seychelles 2015.JPG, Laraie Bay on Curieuse File:Curieuse Marine National Park Aldabra giant tortoise.JPG, Aldabra giant tortoise living in Curieuse Marine National Park File:Seychelles large map.jpg, Map 1 File:Praslin.svg, Map 2 File:Curieuse2.jpg, image File:Curieuse roheline.png

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curieuse, Seychelles Somali Sea Protected areas established in 1979 National parks of Seychelles Marine parks of Seychelles Islands of Baie Sainte Anne