Seabirds of Réunion Island
A care centre, a phone number, and about two hundred people who answer it.
We are a small association on the west coast, built around one seasonal problem. Every year, between January and April, young seabirds leave the burrow for the first time, mistake the town for the horizon, and end up on the ground. On the ground they cannot take off again.
Everything we run comes back to that. A care centre that takes birds in at any hour, a network of volunteers who walk the coast road at night, and a slower, far less photogenic effort to get the lights that cause it turned down.
Our story
Twelve seasons, in four lines.
2014
A shoebox on a kitchen table
Three neighbours start driving grounded birds to a vet who agrees to look at them for nothing.
2017
The first organised watch
Twelve volunteers, one radio channel and a spreadsheet. The map of black spots starts here.
2021
A real care centre
A leased building, an incubator room, and someone on call every night of the season.
2024
Lights on the agenda
The first municipality agrees to a seasonal curfew on its seafront lighting.
Nobody here does this full time. Almost nobody, anyway.
212
volunteers on the season roster
4
paid staff, two of them part time
6
municipalities we work with directly
The board meets four times a year and the accounts are public. If you want to read them before you give us anything, ask.
The fastest way to understand this is to come out on a patrol.
No experience, no equipment, no commitment. Two hours after sunset, with someone who has done it before.