Bush baby not lemur still on the loose |21 March 2018

Authorities are taking a coordinated approach to capture the bush baby and not a lemur as previously reported.

This was announced by Keven Nancy, the chief plant biosecurity officer in the National Biosecurity Agency (NBA), during a conference to update the press on efforts to capture the simian, which is still on the run.

The creature, which was reported to be loose in the country since February 5, has now been categorised as a simian or monkey.

Mr Nancy said that initially they thought the small animal was a lemur but according to sightings by witnesses, the nocturnal creature is a bush baby.

Following reports of the animal sighting, traps that are normally used to capture cats were set in the port area so as to capture the simian. This has been proven to be ineffective.

As the simian is still at large, all the main stakeholders -- the NBA, DRDM, SPA, Ministry of Health, department of environment and the Seychelles Police -- have come together to coordinate a search and capture operation.

From witnesses’ descriptions, the animal is the size of a domestic cat, it has a long tail with eyes that glow when light is flashed onto them. The animal likes dense vegetation, likes being near water bodies such as rivers and it feeds on fruits and insects.

Mr Nancy gave a post mortem of the two previous operations where they searched the area near the school and the port area.

“There had been a report on social media that some students had spotted the simian in a tree. So we inspected the area and (on Monday evening) we were in the port area whereby we conducted the same operation but we did not manage to sight the bush baby,” he said.

He said that the search will continue by a team of around 10 officers including all the stakeholders in the area around Victoria.

A simian is a primate and there are certain risks it carries as it is new to the ecosystem of Seychelles.

Mr Nancy explained it had entered the country without its predators and therefore they must ensure that any new introduction or detection must be apprehended and taken out of the ecosystem  before it breeds and becomes a problem.

Mr Nancy is urging members of the public to avoid posting incorrect information on social media as it interferes with their operation while trying to capture the creature.

Mr Nancy appealed to the public to be more serious when posting sightings on Facebook as the teams searching for the creature according to the sightings could waste resources if the reports are a hoax,” he said.

He noted that the meeting gave the opportunity to find a way to deal with any similar issues in the future.

Members of the public are asked not to try to capture the simian due to the risks it might pose, and are advised to contact the Green line number 2722111 for any sighting.

Also present at yesterday’s press conference which was held at the Department of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM) was the DRDM director general (DG) Paul Labaleine, representatives of DRDM, NBA, department of environment, Seychelles Port Authority (SPA) and Public Health Authority (PHA).