Cousin is a gem of global conservation and one of the most special nature trips in Seychelles. On just 27 hectares, this little island off Praslin is packed with an astonishing amount of life: thousands upon thousands of seabirds nesting almost within arm's reach, endemic land birds that were on the brink of extinction, and one of the most important hawksbill turtle nesting beaches on the planet.
Its story is a model for others. In 1968 Cousin became the first island in the world bought by an international organisation purely for conservation, to save the Seychelles warbler, a small bird reduced to just a few dozen individuals. Today, managed by Nature Seychelles, it is a success story cited around the world: the bird recovered and the island is teeming with life.
This practical guide explains how to visit Cousin from Praslin, how much the reserve admission costs, what you will see (seabirds, endemic species, hawksbill and giant tortoises) and why the visit is always guided and within limited hours. It is not a beach outing but a dive into the nature of the Indian Ocean, led by its conservationists.
For decades Cousin was a coconut plantation. In 1968 the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP, now BirdLife International) bought it to save the Seychelles warbler, of which only about 30 individuals remained. It was the first island in the world acquired for conservation. Once its native forest was restored, the bird made a spectacular recovery and the island became a Special Reserve, now managed by Nature Seychelles. The full story, from plantation to model sanctuary, is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The country's second island and its cluster of reserves: here, in the Vallée de Mai, grows the coco de mer, and on the neighbouring islands pioneering conservation in the Indian Ocean was born.
Read the history of Praslin and the nearby islands →They depart from Praslin, 10 km away. If you book from this link we earn a commission and you pay no more.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Cousin is a small granite island of about 27 hectares in the Inner Islands of Seychelles. These islands are fragments of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana that were left isolated in the Indian Ocean more than 150 million years ago. Before European colonisation, like the rest of the archipelago, it was an untouched paradise of native forest, birds with no fear of people and beaches where sea turtles nested.
Under French and later British rule, many of these small islands became coconut plantations producing copra and coconut oil, the archipelago's big business. Cousin was no exception: much of its original forest was cleared and replaced by coconut palms, and the island was held privately as a farm.
That change in the landscape had a huge ecological cost. Replacing the native forest with coconut palms, along with the arrival of introduced species, pushed the endemic wildlife into a corner. By the mid-20th century, several birds found only in Seychelles had vanished from almost every island and survived only in tiny pockets. One of them, the Seychelles warbler, was clinging on precisely on Cousin.
In the mid-1960s, the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) was on the brink of extinction. Only a few dozen birds were left (some sources say around 30), all confined to the last patches of scrub on Cousin, surrounded by coconut palms. If that small population disappeared, the species would be lost forever.
Faced with this emergency, the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), now known as BirdLife International, took a pioneering step: in 1968 it bought Cousin Island for the sole purpose of protecting it. It was the first time anywhere in the world that an international organisation had acquired an entire island for nature conservation, a milestone in the history of the environmental movement.
The plan was to restore the ecosystem by gradually reducing the coconut palms, letting the native forest grow back and controlling invasive species. As the original vegetation returned, the warbler's habitat grew. Cousin became a living laboratory of ecological restoration, with the threatened little bird as its symbol and main beneficiary.
The bet on Cousin paid off spectacularly. As the native forest regenerated, the Seychelles warbler population grew year after year, going from a few dozen birds to several hundred on the island, far beyond its starting point. The success was so great that in later decades birds from Cousin could be caught and reintroduced to other islands in the archipelago. This created new populations and pulled the species back from the edge of extinction for good.
Cousin was declared a Special Reserve, one of the strictest forms of protection in Seychelles, and became a case study cited worldwide on how to restore an island ecosystem and save a species. Alongside the warbler, the seabird colonies were restored and protected and now number hundreds of thousands of birds. So were the hawksbill turtle nesting beaches, among the most important in the western Indian Ocean.
Management passed to Nature Seychelles, the country's leading conservation NGO (a BirdLife International partner), which runs the reserve, carries out research and organises guided visits. The Cousin model, with conservation funded partly by carefully regulated ecotourism, has become an international benchmark.
Today Cousin is one of the most highly valued wildlife sanctuaries in the Indian Ocean and a symbol of conservation in Seychelles. Its 27 hectares hold an extraordinary density of nesting seabirds, almost within arm's reach. You'll also find recovered endemic species like the warbler, Aldabra giant tortoises roaming freely and one of the largest hawksbill turtle nesting areas in the world. It is an internationally recognised Important Bird Area.
To protect all this, visits are strictly regulated. You can only go in with a guide, in small groups, Monday to Friday and during limited hours. Landing is done in the reserve's own boats so that nobody brings in rats or other pests that could wipe out the colonies. Every entrance fee helps fund conservation and research.
Cousin shows that an island degraded by farming can recover and become a treasure trove of biodiversity. It went from coconut plantation to the first island bought for conservation, and from there to model sanctuary. That story is one of the most inspiring in Seychelles and a lesson in hope for conservation around the world.
