Wildlife trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal activities in the world, after drug trafficking, human trafficking and arms smuggling. At the end of last year, an international operation uncovered 20,000 live, wild animals, including reptiles, felines, turtles and monkeys. Some 365 people were arrested in connection with six different illegal networks. Here in […]
Tag: France

Fury in France as 81-year-old hunter is put on trial for shooting a bear as it dragged him away after breaking both his legs in horror mountain attack
A French hunter has gone to trial after killing an endangered bear that mauled him in a horror attack in the Pyrenees. Andre Rives, 81, was boar-hunting on November 20, 2021 when a female brown bear nicknamed Caramelles launched a vicious attack on him, charging at him and dragging him by the legs for several […]

European Bee-eater
Merops apiaste South-east of France – Mid-may 2017 About 150 birds on this protected site: Guepier Europeen Sud-est de la France Mi-mai 2017 Environ 150 guêpiers sur ce site heureusement très protégé:

Blackcap Singing
Blackcaps are quite stocky birds, about the size of house sparrows. They are mainly light grey-brown in colour with the male having a neat black cap on its head, while the female’s cap is chestnut-brown. In summer, recently fledged young also have a chestnut-brown cap, with young males gaining their black cap by late autumn. […]

Eurasian cranes
The weather getting at last better I decided to go see if the “grandes mademoiselles” were present. They are very shy birds and migrate south to winter in Africa, Spain and the south of France. The counts were up to 5000 very recently in the Magnoac region at the Puydarrieux lake, France. The water levels […]

Should shooting stags be allowed during the rut?
La chance me sourit pour l’image ces jours-ci mais elle ne sourit pas aux cerfs porteurs de beaux bois. Non seulement les chasseurs ont droit à 3 jours de battue pendant le brame par semaine, mais aussi à des tirs sauvages ou à l’affût tous les jours. Je suis montée sans trop croire aux possibilités […]

Vautours fauves – Gyps fulvus
Griffon vultures – Vautours fauves – Gyps fulvus – Accipitriformes – Accipitridae In hide for stags, I am sitting on the ground against one of the 2 rocks in the field and literally hidden by a few grass stalks; the camera fixed on the tripod 40 cm above the ground and the camouflage net over […]

The vixen I tamed
– Vulpes vulpes – I was seeing this fox once in a while in the garden at different times of the day, mostly at dusk but one morning after coming back from shopping and stuffing my fridge, I saw him right in front of the kitchen door! This time, I thought “he” might be ‘ripe’ […]