"I prefer them cooked in red wine." this was Mauricio's response when asked how many different ways he knows to prepare rabbit. Mauricio and Ricardo are wardens -  Vigilante Da Natureza - of the Maderia Nature Reserve service and we met them on Sevalgem Grande, a 2.5 kilometer square island some one hundred and fifty miles south of Madeira. The rabbits he jokingly referred to were an invasive species, along with mice and some small bushes, which have been eradicated by poison over the past few years.  Nature conservancy isn’t always about preserving life. The rabbits were introduced hundreds of years ago during a Portuguese attempt to create a permanent settlement on the island. The settlement was doomed by an almost total lack of drinking water, only one natural spring drips no more than a leaky tap and annual rainfall is often close to zero. The only traces of these early settlers are some dry stone walls which Mauricio thinks were intended to slow down soil erosion during the occasional wet year.

Sevalgem Grande has been returned to its natural state and since the 1970's, together with the surrounding ocean, is now a nature reserve. It is home to a colony of Cory's Shearwaters, a beautiful sea bird which builds its nest among the rocks. We saw this year's plump fledglings waiting for their parents to return with regurgitated fish scraps from the open sea. In a few weeks they will have lost some weight and developed flying feathers, then presumably after a short spell in flight school they will be off. From data gathered by the wardens and numbered rings attached to the birds, it's known that these youngsters will be gone for seven years before returning to Sevalgem Grande. During their time away some will be observed in Madagascar, Mozambique and Brazil. No doubt their familiarity with Portuguese attracts them to the latter two destinations. They prefer to return to the same stony nests they were hatched in and will fight to the death if they find a squatter has moved in. Before the island was declared a nature reserve, fishermen took the birds for their meat and feathers and the colony was in danger of disappearing.

Mauricio and Ricardo are almost at the end of the three week stay, then it's back to Madeira and head office for a new assignment. They have shared the island with a lady scientist who is researching fish-borne parasites. The only truly permanent resident is a dog, also called Sevalgem, who likes to bark at airplanes which seem to follow a well used route passing directly over the island. I counted five at one time and they seemed to be flying between Europe and South America. The dog never bothers the young birds nesting on the ground, maybe she has learned from experience not to mess with them; they have fearsome beaks designed for ripping fish apart and prying open clams.

We were ten visitors on the island, all crew from yachts anchored precariously in the only bay. Mauricio and Ricardo arranged to meet us at nine-thirty in the morning at the small jetty below their house. They were smartly turned out in their uniforms and made us feel very welcome. They are both very knowledgeable about the island, the flora, fauna and history. They are also aware of the political importance of their presence there. As long as Sevalgem  Grande is inhabited by employees of the Natural Parks service, it has status as an island and not just a rock in the ocean, this extends Portugal's sovereignty by a radius of an extra forty miles out into the Atlantic. Both men are married and looking forward to being back home in Funchal. Their only link to the outside world is by a short-wave radio that an operator on Madeira can patch to a phone call. Each fresh team of wardens is dropped off by ship with three weeks supply of food, drinking water and other essentials. Just like most yacht crews they wash their dishes in sea water and shower with rain water collected in a tank. Electricity comes a bank of batteries topped up by solar panels. Amongst other things it powers a TV satellite receiver and the previous evening they had watched the Real Madrid game.       

The two wardens took us on a walk over most of the island and up to its' highest point from where we could look down at our yachts bobbing around in the swell. Ricardo deftly found a scarab and a lizard to show us the only endemic species on Sevalgem Grande  apart from the Shearwaters.  All too soon it was time to go, the forecast was threatening 30 knots of wind and Ricardo had heard over the radio that several harbours on the mainland had been closed due to strong winds and high waves. They served us coffee while we tried on souvenir T-shirts and sent us on our way with a few loaves of surplus bread from their freezer. Thanks for showing us around the island, you guys are doing a terrific job.