Pampas grass: what does the law say in France?

 For several years, measures have been taken to limit the worrying spread of pampas grass. In France, the decree of February 14, 2018 - amended in March 2020 and then in April 2024 - classifies Cortaderia selloana among the plant species whose possession, planting and transport are prohibited throughout the territory. This means that you can no longer keep it at home at the time of writing and that it is imperative that you destroy your stocks.

The risks incurred in the event of non-compliance with these regulations are set out in Articles L415-3 and R415-1 of the Environmental Code. Their content is very clear: it is forbidden to "voluntarily introduce into the natural environment, transport, peddle, use, offer for sale, sell or buy a specimen of an animal or plant species", under penalty of risking a penalty of up to 3 years imprisonment and a fine of €150,000.

How this will be enforced remains to be seen.

Chris

Have you ever thought about what creatures in France do for winter?

Lots of questions about this subject crop up and this is no more than a rough outline.

Winter climatic conditions in the Northern Hemisphere vary enormously, and even when we take a relatively small land mass such as France, there are huge variations in the different regions. The reasons for this will be obvious to most people, and to put it very simply, they are the geographical differences between North, South, East, West, inland or coastal, mountains, and plains. Of course, it's actually more complicated, but we can all get the general idea.

For hundreds of thousands of years creatures have adapted and specialised to survive these climatic conditions in different ways and hopefully will continue to do so although many may find they struggle as climate chaos gathers pace and our demands on the environment increase.

Migration: Perhaps the most obvious method of dealing with winter is to physically move somewhere else, often long distances, mostly Africa, where it is warmer and where food is readily available in a suitable form. This is an absolute necessity for birds such as Swallows, Swifts, Bee Eaters and others that require a constant large source of flying insects to survive. It's equally as necessary for specialists such as Short Tailed Eagles that consume snakes and lizards. Then there are the other birds that travel from the North and North East of Europe to France where conditions tend to be sufficiently milder and the ground in the West, South and South West is usually snow free allowing them to easily access nutrition.

Above: Swallows are perhaps for most people the classic example of migration.

Hibernation: This is a tricky one and not entirely straightforward. It is basically a period of dormancy or significantly reduced activity that is applied by different species of mammals and insects in a variety of ways. However, relatively few mammals actually go to sleep for the entire winter period if at all. In France the ones that do are Lérot, (Edible dormouse). Loir (Garden dormouse) and Muscardin (Hazel dormouse). which are the three types of dormouse to be found in France. The Marmot, (an introduced species), also has a long hibernation deep in their tunnels in the Pyrenees. In addition, all the French bat species hibernate and that usually, but not always, requires migration to their hibernation sites which can be anything up to 100km or more from where they spend the summer. Hedgehogs normally hibernate for much shorter lengths of time often waking up for periods of activity when the weather is mild and in some cases remain active for the entire winter period if it isn't too cold.

Full hibernation is only suitable for creatures that have adapted to going long periods, (up to 6 months), without eating. For mammals, this means a period of fattening up beforehand and a metabolism that can almost cease for the entire duration. During hibernation essential life functions for mammals slow down to a minimum with a much-reduced heart beat and breathing.

Above: Loir (Edible dormouse) enter a deep hibernation and can take more than 30 minutes to wakeup if disturbed.

Diapause: Insects can spend winter as adults, larvae or some intermediate stage of their development. Diapause is a state of suspended development or growth that occurs in response to unfavourable conditions such as extreme temperatures or limited resources. This will necessitate locating themselves somewhere where they won't freeze such as in buildings, caves, inside dead or living wood, in woodland ground debris and so on. It's different from hibernation but some insects do actually hibernate.

Fox moth caterpillars hibernate in ground debris.

Brumation is similar to Hibernation except that it applies to reptiles and amphibians which are cold-blooded creatures that depend entirely on outside temperatures to provide them with the heat they require. In Brumation both reptiles and amphibians are in a state of deep sleep although they may still need to move to get some water and food to stay alive during this time but it's minimal. When in this state and due to their ability to absorb oxygen in small amounts through their thin skin some of our frogs can happily spend several months underwater in winter or buried in mud.

Chris

Wolves in France and Europe - protected?

The conflict between humans and wolves knows no end. 

It was always going to be difficult as their numbers recovered and increased to maintain the "strictly protected fauna species" category that they have enjoyed at the European level.  Pressure, mainly from farmers, has resulted in their status being reduced to "special protected fauna species" at the end of 2024 and put into action at the beginning of March 2025. This is a major change and a huge backward step that will make it easier for people to kill them when we need them to help address the proliferation of species that they prey on. 

More LINK HERE

Chris

Geoffroy's bat, (Myotis emarginatus), a chance encounter in the south Vienne dept (86).

 

Being both a bit of a naturalist and a bee keeper people sometimes contact me to remove honey bee colonies that have been constructed between closed shutters and the window. This is an ideal space and a fairly common occurrence in France with second homes that are left empty during the swarming season and only discovered when the owners return to their house or when someone they know or employ takes a look at the house.

A few years ago, August 2021 to be precise, one of the houses I was called to was in Charroux, (86250) by a neighbour of an empty property that was a keyholder, where the following day I proceeded to dismantle the comb and re house the bees in a ruchette, (small hive). During a pause in proceedings the neighbour invited me for a coffee and we then took a walk though his land chatting about wildlife and conservation in general. During the course of this chatting he mentioned that they had a large number of bats every year in their outbuildings which immediately grabbed my interest. Of course it's not unusual to have a number of bats in a roof or an outbuilding in France but a large number clustered close together will invariably be a Maternity colony or nursery. We went to look and there were no bats present, but this would be expected in late summer as the bats that formed the nursery would have dispersed to individual hang outs, however there were some photos that clearly showed an important nursery. Having taken the property owners details and asked if would be OK to inform Vienne Nature, (the responsible structure for overseeing bat populations in the Vienne departement), I packed up my gear from collecting the bees and left.

Greater Horseshoe bat and Geoffroys bat

At around this time the ongoing health situation with my wife took a serious downturn and everything took second place to my caring for her and I forgot about the bat nursery until after her death in July 2023. It was following this that I popped in to the offices of Vienne Nature and finally mentioned the bats, passing on the contact details to Samuel Ducept, (chargé d'études entomologie), and Alice Chéron, (chargée d’études chiroptères-faune). Following this Alice made contact with the owner of the property and a first visit took place that confirmed the presence of 494 Geoffroy's bat, (Myotis emarginatus), making this by far the largest and most important of the 3 known nursery sites for this bat in the Vienne. In June 2024 Alice Chéron visited the site for a second time and it turned out that two species of bat were using the same building as a nursery, the second species being 87 Greater Horseshoe bats, (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum), in total making this the third most important known nursery for this species in the Vienne. It's quite common for these two species of bat to share the same nursery structure and following the discovery of this important site it is proposed by Vienne nature to visit and monitor the bats in June each year.

Counting Geoffroys bats

A maternity colony which is known as a mise-bas in French refers to a temporary association of reproductive female bats for giving birth to, nursing, and weaning their pups. The colonies are initiated by pregnant bats that arrive in late spring but pregnancy in bats is another of natures remarkable affairs given that actual copulation usually occurs in the previous year prior to hibernation involving delayed ovulation where the sperm is stored in the bats uterus and oviduct, or sperm storage which is where sperm is stored in either the caudal part of the epididymis or the vas deferens, (sperm duct), of the male or after copulation in the uterus and oviduct of the female. Whether in the epididymis or uterus, the bat sperm can stay alive and healthy for months until it is required.

The number of bats in a nursery can vary substantially, in part depending on which species of bat they are but equally there can be a large variation within a species. With Geoffroy's bats it can be as few as 10 or exceptionally as many as 1,000. Somewhat less for Greater Horseshoe bats with a maximum of 600, usually much less tending to be between 30 and 200.

In Europe as a whole bats have suffered serious declines in their numbers and as such they are fully protected at both the European and National level. The positive news is that in the Vienne both of these species have populations that have shown some small growth in numbers for the period 1995 to 2015. This is based on winter surveys of their known hibernation zones and according to the Vienne departements “red list” Greater horseshoe bats are listed as “Vulnerable”and Geoffroy's bats are listed as “Least concern”. Overall in France they are both listed as Least concern but that shouldn't be seen as a reason for complacency and it is of utmost importance to monitor populations and protect any nurseries.

A few brief facts:

Greater horseshoe bat is Grand rhinolophe in French and Geoffroy's bat is Murin à oreilles échancrées hence the alternative name for this bat in English of Notch eared bat.

Greater horseshoe bats mainly eat chafers, dung beetles, noctuid moths, craneflies and caddis flies which they take from the ground or from the air when flying low along hedgerows, woodland edges and over water.

Geoffroy's bats preferred prey are either flightless, such as spiders or flies of all types that don't fly at night and can be taken from their resting places in scrubland, grazing pastures and inside animal sheds and shelters.

In both cases, as it is with all bats in France, large quantities of insects will be consumed in one night, well in excess of 1,000 when it comes to smaller insects.

Both species hibernate underground in disused cellars, caves, old underground mines and excavations.

If you think you have a nursery or would like to take part in winter bat surveys you can contact your local authorised bat group or contact me via my Facebook page if you need any help with this.

Chris Luck.

Dangerous Asian Hornets in France

 

We are increasingly reading about hospitalisations and deaths resulting from Asian hornet stings

BUT are Asian Hornets any more aggressive or dangerous than our native European Hornet and Social colony forming wasps? You may think so if you only go by media sources but in reality this isn't actually the case despite there being some well publicised reports of deaths.

Read the full post.

About the Dangers from Asian Hornets in France 

The Roller in France experiences an exceptional expansion in range in 2022.

(Roller Coracias garrulus Le Rollier d’Europe)

The European Roller is a migratory species spending the winter months south of the Sahara. The first ones to arrive in France are noted at the end of April, but the majority of the birds arrive in May when breeding starts immediately, some years from mid-May, but the peak of egg-laying takes place at the beginning of June, late pairs often lay eggs until June 25.

They are a cavity-dwelling species that often uses the cavities dug by Green Woodpeckers and any others cavities it can find in various trees (plane trees, willows, poplar, pine, oak, almond), at a height that varies between 5 and 10 meters. They sometimes will use holes in walls, sandy banks or can even use old European bee-eater galleries (Tron et al., 2008). They do not bring any nesting material into the chosen cavity. The female lays 4 to 7 eggs there, the incubation of which lasts 18 or 19 days. Breeding success is 73%, i.e. 3.6 fledglings per breeding attempt.

After their emancipation, the young Rollers will disperse outside of the immediate nesting zone in the Mediterranean region where they originated. This dispersion classically takes place in the Rhone Valley and in Occitania. However in 2022 this phenomenon has taken on a quite remarkable magnitude with a dispersal covering a large part of the southern two thirds of France, albeit sporadic and localised a situation that is unparalleled in recent decades. Obviously at this stage the reason for this is speculative but one way or another the heat waves that we experienced this summer in France will have been a significant factor with reduced available water and insects.

Above 2021 

and 

Below 2022

NOTE. A single Roller was seen in Lincolnshire, UK, at the end of August this year, (2022)

It's also worth noting that France is one of the few countries witnessing a population increase for this species that is declining elsewhere in Europe.

Chris

White tailed sea eagles reintroduced in France

White tailed eagles effectively disappeared from France as breeding birds some 130 years ago. They have not nested since 1959, having been subjected to hunting, poisoning, pesticides, water pollution, egg collections and theft of chicks along with the disappearance of wetlands and other human disturbance and since then we have only a few young birds that visit in winter from the east and north east.

Earlier this year in summer four young white-tailed eagles were successfully released from a zoological park in Haute-Savoie in an already successful method of reintroduction.

After disappearing for more than a century, the white-tailed eagle is once again taking its place in the skies of the Alps. This is the case of “Haute-Savoie”. This young fishing eagle - named after the Departement that sponsored the reintroduction program - measures 2.5 meters in wingspan and weighs about 6 kg. According to Jacques-Olivier Travers, the founder of the animal park and reintroduction center of the Eagles of Lake Geneva she likes to perch on the big trees on the edge of the park.

For 15 years, he fought to reintroduce the eagle, now he is rewarded with the first flights of his eaglets."For me, it's the most beautiful bird in the world, but I'm not objective. To see them fly here, in Sciez, where they flew 130 years ago before disappearing for so many years, I think it has enriched biodiversity in an incredible way. It makes me forget all the hardships and 15 years of fighting. Every day, they give us incredible gifts,"says the falconer.

Like three other eaglets, “Haute-Savoie” was born in Sciez, in the aviaries of Jacques-Olivier Travers' reintroduction centre. All of them were opened a few days ago in August to let the eagles take their freedom. Its reintroduction program, totally unprecedented, is now crowned with success.

The young white-tailed eagle reintroduced on August 12 made a flight of 350 kilometers in two days, from Haute-Savoie to Ain via Jura, Oyonnax and Geneva, before returning to its starting point. This whole journey was reconstructed thanks to the GPS beacons installed on the back of the bird.

"It's impossible that he visually memorized the place where he was born. It means that there is something in his head, or maybe magnetic fields, that allow them to leave and know how to find their way back", Jacques-Olivier Travers.

After taking a break for a day, it headed to Switzerland. A spectacular flight, carried by thermals, up to 3,000 meters above sea level. Within ten years, 85 young eagles will be reintroduced to the shores of Lake Geneva.

The long story in French which is well worth looking at is HERE

Chris