Botanical Gardens gets new tortoise enclosure |13 June 2014

The giant tortoises at the Botanical Gardens now have more space to roam about following the opening yesterday of a much bigger enclosure for these animals.

The new Giant Tortoise Enclosure was officially opened by the Minister for Environment and Energy Professor Rolph Payet in a small ceremony in the presence of the National Botanical Garden Foundation’s (NBGF) chief executive Raymond Brioche and the NBGF staff.

With the bigger enclosure, visitors will be able to interact with the tortoises, feed them and caress them.

“With the NBGF, the Biodiversity Centre (at Barbarons) and my ministry, we want to increase the number of interactive activities that we offer the visitors. We have had complaints in the past that the only thing they had was the beach and the nature trails,” Professor Payet said.

“We are planning to have more such initiatives so as to enhance people’s interest in the environment aspect,” Professor Payet added.
The project cost nearly R400,000 and it was financed by the NBGF.

“We have 30 tortoises here and visitors will be able to learn more about them through interacting with the tortoise and getting information from the information corner,” Mr Brioche explained.

“There is an entrance fee for the tourist who wants to visit the Botanical Gardens and for Seychellois it is free. It will remain so but to be able to enjoy the interactive activities with the tortoises all visitors will have to pay a fee. The tourist will have to pay R50 and the Seychellois adults will have to pay R25 and the children R10.”

“Since one of the NBGF mandates is to promote environment education among pupils, school groups who visit the Botanical Gardens will be granted free entrance at the giant tortoise enclosure,” Mr Brioche added.