This article examines how Comorian pregnant women in Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, came to embody an unwanted presence as irregular migrants due to their children’s and their own potential claims to belonging, while they are entitled by law to access perinatal and maternal care. This article argues that framing undocumented pregnant women as a threat led to significant shortcomings in perinatal care delivery and that those shortages in turn worsened access to healthcare services for the Mahoran-French population as well, exacerbating feelings of resentment towards Comorians. Drawing on this case-study, the article foregrounds the malleability of the CARIN criteria (Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity and Need), a theoretical tool to analyse ideas related to deservingness, by demonstrating how actors re-think the meanings of ‘identity’, ‘control’, ‘attitude’ and ‘need’ and assign different weights to them in the context of a dominant frame of undeservingness.

The porcellanid crab, Polyonyx boucheti, previously known only from the Loyalty Islands in the south-western Pacific, is reported from the south-western Indian Ocean based on two specimens collected from Mayotte, Comoro Islands. The present material agrees well with the original description of the species in every diagnostic aspect. Polyonyx boucheti is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific as is its closest congener P. utinomii, although the records of the two species are very limited.

The population of the Near Threatened brown lemur Eulemur fulvus on the island of Mayotte was censused in 1974, 1984 and 1999. We carried out a new census in 2008, estimating individual and group densities in the three main habitat types on the island (preserved forest, anthropogenic forest and agricultural areas), and more generally evaluating population trends. Data included sex ratios and the number of young < 1 year-old per female. The census was at the end of the dry season, along 14 transect lines of 0.5 or 1 km length. Counts of groups and individuals were repeated three times between 07.00 and 10.00 and between 15.00 and 18.00. The densities of groups and individuals were calculated using Distance. By 2008 group and individual densities had significantly decreased in preserved forest, and there was also a decrease in group size in all habitat types. The 2008 census also showed that the overall population of E. fulvus on Mayotte has decreased by about half since 1999. We suggest that these changes reflect environmental stress associated with a decrease in available food resources. Urgent action to preserve forest habitat is necessary for the long-term survival of this lemur.

Establishment of non-native species and human-driven alteration of habitats are major causes of the decline of native faunas. Interference between native and non-native cockroach species was evaluated here by comparing their distribution areas in two oceanic islands: Mayotte and La Réunion. A factorial correspondence analysis showed that their presence is related to environmental parameters among which human activity, humidity and altitude are the three most important. Human activity and humidity favour establishment and development of non-native species, whereas altitude limits their presence. Non-native species form guilds (up to seven species). Their distribution areas overlap and illustrate their colonizing capacities. On the contrary, distribution areas of native species never overlap, although some co-occur with non-native species. Native species are more endangered when they are established in cultivated areas than when they are in protected natural areas.

The population of the Mayotte brown lemur Eulemur fulvus fulvus on the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean was reported to have decreased by 50% between 1975 and 1987, from 50,000 to 25,000. From a series of censuses carried out in 1999 and 2000 in the various vegetation types of the island, we estimate that the lemur population now numbers 42,000–72,000. The decline observed in 1987 may have been largely caused by the cyclone that devastated Mayotte in 1984. That the population has recovered must not obscure the fact that loss of forest, increased human pressure associated with further development of infrastructure, and changes in agricultural practices will undoubtedly continue to affect this species on Mayotte.