French wildlife and beekeeping

Good news for our mountain biodiversity! The Capercaillie and the Rock Ptarmigan are now officially protected in France. These two emblematic birds are endangered: the capercaillie has lost nearly 80% of its population in the Pyrenees since 1960, while the ptarmigan, a survivor of the ice age, sees its habitat nibbled away at every year by climate change. Monique Barbut said: "Protecting is not just about banning hunting, it is also about restoring everything that allows a species to live and reproduce sustainably. Protecting our biodiversity means preserving an exceptional natural heritage, but it also means protecting the ecosystems of which we are a part and on which we depend for our livelihood. » An important step for the preservation of our mountain biodiversity. Rock Ptarmigan Capercaillie The Capercaillie is classified as vulnerable on the red list of breeding birds in France (populations of the Urogallus subspecies present in the Vosges, Jura, and Cévennes are even classi...

In France, some 14 million pheasants are reared in captivity every year for release into the wild at the start of the hunting period for the benefit of hunters, basically to be shot. Very soon, as I write this, we will see them wandering around in our French gardens and on our land. They are not a native species, although they have been in France since Roman times when they were introduced from Asia. In normal circumstances, their numbers would be very low, resulting from a high level of predation, often by foxes. In fact, a major reason why foxes are victimised is due to their killing of game birds. Now, a study has shown the harm they cause to our native species. The release of farmed pheasants exterminates populations of threatened and protected reptiles, and, like every year, they will resume to satisfy an increasingly controversial hobby called hunting: A scientific study has identified that areas where pheasants are released before the hunting season become biological deserts for...

  Violet drop wing Trithemis annulata Thrithémis annelé or Thrithémis pourpré Location - Peyras, 16270 Roumazières-Loubert, France Recently, I was out relaxing, just having a good time really on a Sunday at one of those man-made recreational lakes that France excels in, but with my eyes always on the lookout, I saw quite a large number of bright purple dragonflies that I had never seen before. Aerial view of lake I only had my phone with me, and I struggled in the bright sunlight to focus and get a half-decent photo, which, as it turns out, isn't that bad. What I didn't realise at the time was that these violet dragonflies were all males and that the females are a rather drab brown. Male Violet drop wing Originating in Africa, it first appeared in Spain in 1978, Corsica in 1989, and then mainland France in 1994, where it is now well established and rapidly expanding both to the north and to the east along the Mediterranean coastal band and the Rhône valley....

  Source info - Office for Insects and Their Environment, France Asian hornets are now well established in mainland France, and we have to accept it: it will be impossible to eradicate this species. Given this reality, the question is not how to make them disappear, but how to learn to limit their impacts without worsening an already alarming situation for French wildlife. Adopting a balanced approach, based on scientific knowledge, is essential today. Protecting domestic bees is important socially and economically, but this should not come at the expense of other wild insects that help maintain functional ecosystems. Managing Asian hornets cannot rely on isolated actions or responses driven by fear or instinctive rejection. On the contrary, it requires cooperation between beekeepers, scientists, local authorities, and public officials in order to put forward coherent, well-thought-out, effective solutions that respect living beings, especially other animals. It's important that de...

  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

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 ...

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

  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 immediatel...

  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  

(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. Af...

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 Eag...

  From January 1, 2019 , only plant protection and other gardening products of natural origin have been available to home gardeners in France . This was originally to have been from Jan 2022 but was brought forward as part of the French move towards reducing the use of products that are harmful to both humans and the wider environment. This follows the banning in 2017 of the use of Glyphosate, (Roundup), and other synthetic pesticides in public spaces including public roads, parks and cemeteries. (The term Pesticides is used generically these days to cover all “cides”, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide etc. to avoid laborious repetition ).      The use of synthetic pesticides continues to be permitted for farmers and professionals registered to work in the gardening business.   Synthetic pesticides are “a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurri...

  Gardeners and householders in France are forever complaining about the presence of voles in their gardens, either because of the holes they make or the harm they can cause to plants and vegetables. Any harm they may cause depends on the species, with some preferring roots and others seeds, grains, leafy plants and even insects.   Although there are eleven species of vole in France, only a few are of concern to gardeners or farmers. As a general rule, these are the Field vole, the Common vole and the Bank vole. The Water vole in its land-based form (known as rat taupier) can have a major impact, but they are only present in some regions of France .   Occasionally some vole species have a population explosion that reaches a peak, and then equally as rapidly the populations collapse back to normal or less than normal for a year or more. What needs to be considered, as always, is the greater good, and voles along with wood mice provide the main food source for a large...

The new list of protected reptiles and amphibians in France has for the first time included the four species of Viper, ( Vipéridés). Vipera aspis - Vipère aspic - Asp Viper Vipera berus - Vipère péliade - Common Adder Vipera seoanei - Vipère de Seoane -  Seoane's viper. Vipera ursinii - Vipère d'Orsini - Orsini's viper For far too long these species have been persecuted  and killed. This combined with the destruction of their natural  habitat has resulted in a serious decline in numbers. Needless to say this will not in itself prevent the continued harming of these valuable species but will send a signal to those with ears to hear and to those in authority   LINK TO LEGISLATIVE TEXT Chris

  Our house is full of places where animals live and overall we are happy with that and it rarely causes any actual harm although occasionally something dies which needless to say can smell a bit. Fortunately, as always, the natural world is well equipped to deal with any small corpses that are inaccessible, (as they invariably are), and Burying or Carrion beetles are one of the insects that make their living from such things. There are some 20 odd species in France with a total of 30 species in Europe although not all are true burying beetles; some of them eat fungi or rotting vegetation.     This year in September we were finding Nicrophorus vespillo in one part of our house and I would speculate that they had been on a dead Loir , (Edible Dormouse), probably behind the bath or false wall in the downstairs bathroom, one of the places where they frequently live. These amazing beetles can smell a corpse from a vast distance using the highly sensitive hairs on the e...

I know it is stating the obvious but every year is different in the natural world and no two years can be the same, however this is becoming increasingly exaggerated. Habitat loss, agricultural methods and climate change along with other factors are causing rapid major changes for our native species requiring them to adapt or perhaps in some cases disappear completely. For some species this is creating opportunities and they have expanding populations that are sometimes associated with an expansion in their range. However for most species there are accelerating declines and this in turn leads to changes of behaviour as species attempt to adapt. Where I live most insect species have been in overall decline for the last 25 years and this year has been abysmal for them but I want to talk specifically about hornets.  Following the usual slow start as nests were established and populations grew I started to see a gradual increase in both Asian and European hornets in t...