Friday February 2 is World Groundhog Day! In North America, it is watched when emerging from its burrow. According to beliefs, if it goes out and the weather is not bright, spring will come soon. In France, there are fewer marmots; we can hear them whistling in the summer mountains. We can observe her with her little ones playing and for the lucky ones surprise breastfeeding! in the fall, she gets busy preparing her cozy burrow for the whole family.

Parisians can get a breath of fresh air in this forest, one of the largest in Ile-de-France, spread over 29 municipalities. The deer is the emblematic animal, but easier to observe, there are numerous remarkable trees: the giraffe pine, the tank oak and its three trunks, the Ascension beech...

Surrounded by the Philippines, Malaysia and Borneo, the Sulu Sea is a hotbed of arms, drug and human trafficking... But crossing its surface, a magical world opens up to us . For how long? Rising water temperatures threaten this biodiversity.

Before being the "king of the forest", the deer is initially a fawn. After eight months of gestation, the doe gives birth to a single calf in May-June. This Bambi keeps its white spots which help it camouflage, until it is four months old. Discover photos of his birth, with the presence of the placenta sac, which intrigues the newborn!

Cow dung is a real ecosystem that supports more than 70 families of beetles, each of which includes numerous species! These insects are coprophages, they feed on dung and thus reintegrate it into the trophic cycle. Some of these “dung beetles” have a funny appearance like Onthophagus illyricus which has “horns”. Mushrooms also participate in decomposition like Pilobolus crystallinus which looks like a little basque with its beret.

Humans are not the first to look for solutions to protect themselves from the heat, animals have developed ways to suffer less. The bees "beard", investing the outside of the hive, when it is too hot. Dragonflies make an "obelisk", pointing their abdomen towards the sky, thus protecting two-thirds of it from the sun. Flies make a drop of water to regulate their temperature thanks to its evaporation. Deer take mud baths to cool off. Leafhopper larvae produce foam which protects them from predators, but also from heat...

Undoubtedly, the stork is a bird that supports the presence of man, it does not hesitate to nest in villages and even cities. Initially in Alsace, it is becoming more and more frequent. In addition to her remarkable plumage, her attitudes make the curious stop: she throws her neck back and taps, imitating the shots of a machine gun!

Who could think that such an animal lives in France! This elegant spotted cat-like animal with a pointed muzzle crosses paths in our southwestern forests, but you better be an insomniac to see it, as it is essentially nocturnal. You can most often come across a crottier where you can see the remains of your meals, fruit stones, bones of small mammals..., one thing is certain, the genet does not attack barnyard birds! No reason to consider it harmful. There was even a time when she became a pet, but her strong smell downgraded her...

The sun heats the walls and terraces of the gardens as summer approaches, a dangerous predator that looks like a monster from the past is active in the gardens: the wall lizard! Friends of old walls and cracks, it helps the gardener by devouring insects and slugs and brings life and movement to the garden during the hottest hours of the day.
This precious companion is, however, often threatened by another much bigger and much more beloved predator... the domestic cat which ravages its populations by playing at hunting it because despite its breastplate, its removable tail and its powerful claws, the wall lizard can't do anything against him.

Montagu's and Saint-Martin's harriers are small birds of prey weighing less than 350g that nest in cereal fields, a substitute environment for the prairies and steppes that they used before the 20th century. With increasingly early varieties of cereals and global warming, harvests have been taking place for about thirty years before the young are able to fly....if nothing is done from 70% to 100% young people end up crushed in the harvesters.
The LPO volunteers convince the farmers to let them identify the nests to protect them with wire netting and stakes that are easy to spot during harvest. They take advantage of this to measure and ring the birds that tolerate the disturbance well. The active participation of the farmers is essential because the land is private and they will have to avoid the nests when the time comes. If most of them don't know anything about the subject or are reluctant at first, many let themselves be convinced, sometimes going so far as to do the location scouting themselves. It must be said that each brood of harrier consumes more than 4000 voles over the season. A godsend given the damage caused by this small rodent.

The bears of the Katmai Peninsula, Alaska are the most massive and imposing of the family of middendorffi with those of the neighboring island of Kodiak.
The absence of any human predation for decades, as well as the abundance of food for which humans are not a competitor, has made them more tolerant of our presence. They look at us like another species, moving in groups on their territory, to the clearly identifiable noise of the triggering of our motors of photographic boxes. Patrick Pagni has sought, in this portfolio, to capture their gaze and to perceive their questioning, their surprise, or their false indifference towards us who are entering a domain that has been theirs since time immemorial.
Through these photos, he wishes to share the emotion he felt in the exchange of these looks and the admiration he has for these survivors of a hostile world. Their life appears to him as a mirror of our own existence.

With its long black and white ringed tail, the ring-tailed lemur is reminiscent of the Marsupilami. His life in a group, his big orange eyes make him an endearing animal that hides a sad reality. Their population has decreased by 30% to 50% in thirty years, the main cause being hunting, the fragmentation of their forest habitat and illegal capture.

It's not just our brave honey bee that is threatened! A team of European researchers tried to assess the decline of wild bees in Europe.
Of the 1,884 species of bees known to have been present for centuries in the territory, more than half of these species cannot be found! Have they really disappeared or are we missing data? The finding is not reassuring on the species found either, because 177 are in danger or close to being, or 21%! The Pollinis association has decided to act to counter these disappearances.

Asia, Africa, the pink flamingo is everywhere, and even in France where the Camargue welcomes them. Its large expanses of water allow them to dodge predators (herons gobble flamingo chicks!) while finding their food, especially brine shrimp, a type of shrimp that gives them their beautiful pink color. The young flamingos are still all grey!

The beautiful colored antlers are not only the prerogative of the birds of the tropical islands. In the United States, colors are also de rigueur. Blood red cardinal, hummingbird, multicolored bunting fight for the most beautiful plumage!

He had almost disappeared from France, but here he is, the beaver, back. Rhone Valley, Loire and even in Ile-de-France, they populate more and more French rivers. Noting its presence is not complicated: remains of branches, trunks cut with a pencil tip... in the evening, with a little patience, silence, you may even have the chance to come across it.

In the spring, the charming Commal changes his outfit to prepare for his flight by leaving behind his thorny monster appearance. He prepares to put on his winged costume of seduction by hiding in his chrysalis where he thinks he is well hidden among the currant bushes. But here are ferocious winged demons hungry for meat seeking to feed their offspring...surprising the devil in his cocoon, they cut him up and transform him into a protein steak.
This is how some of the least beloved animals, such as wasps, help us by chasing plant eaters from our gardens and vegetable patches.

Anne-Laure Vié arrived in Tahiti in 2018, and the immense playground that awaits her leads her to experiment tirelessly, between new techniques and fleeting encounters, in search of an ever more successful tribute to the treasures Polynesian waters. Turtles, whales, half-air half-water views take us to a life-size aquarium.

Easily observed in large groups in French fields, the crested lapwing lives up to its name with its beautiful feathers that it lets grow when the breeding season arrives. You can also easily see its chicks, because they are "precocial", that is to say that they leave their nest only a few hours after their birth! Although there is no serious threat to its future, associations ensure its well-being, such as in the Bay of Somme where grids are placed on the nests to protect them from the trampling of cattle. A bird to discover!

There are about ten "Gros-bec" in the world, ours displays its ambition, it has the additional qualifier "corebreaker". It efficiently dissects all the nuclei it finds! A beak which he also uses for "kisses" to the female at the end of his courtship display. He also brings him some offerings directly in the beak!

The cemetery of Vienna in Austria is one of the largest in Europe, there are Beethoven and Einstein. In this place of death, life is in full swing, the city's policy aimed at fostering a healthy relationship between humans and animals. Very endangered species have found refuge there, such as the European hamster.

Guyana is in the headlines because of its problems of human insecurity, but let's not forget that the strong point of this department is its abundant nature. Turtles, by their number of species and their abundance, hold a place of choice. But there is also insecurity, especially for the leatherback turtles that come to lay eggs on the beaches and whose young have to reach the sea without ending up in the beak of a buzzard, or the olive ridley turtles killed by stray dogs.

This little blue sparrow is a regular in our gardens in winter. He loves balls of fat arranged for his attention and does not hesitate to ruffle his plumage to keep the heat. The blue tit must manage to get through the bad season in order to ensure its future parenthood.

When we think of African animals, the elephant comes first. By its imposing size, its trunk and its ears so recognizable, it is the star among children. Present between 3 and 5 million at the beginning of the 20th century, its numbers have been divided by 10 today, which classifies it as an endangered species.

Rabbit tracks in the dune, fox tracks in the snow, the ground keeps the memory of past animals alive. Here is a small panel of their passage.

The Pantanal is one of the largest wetlands in the world. Mostly located in Brazil, it hosts a multitude of species. The animals are very present in number of individuals but also in different species. The mythical jaguar walks there, as also the capybara, the largest rodent in the world which can weigh up to 90kg, or the yacare caiman which haunts the marshes...

Fine beak, red turquoise plumage with metallic reflections, red iris, the bee-eater appears as one of the most colorful birds in France. It likes watercourses where it makes its nests in the sandy banks. But it is only insectivorous, wasps, but also butterflies, dragonflies, all in the process of regression because of man. its increasing presence in France is due to global warming, the bee-eater likes the heat.

Dead trees come back to life thanks to the talented hands of sculptors around the world. From the Montargis forest, where since 2007 sculptors have followed one another, passing through Morocco where the first museum of street tree sculptures was born, or Tasmania, our planet is increasingly welcoming these original trees.

Tendresse, dureté, on trouve tous les sentiments au coeur de la réserve du Masaï Mara au Kenya. Photos primées lors de concours, portfolio dans Nat'images, Nicolas fait partie de la génération montante des photographes nature.

Fans of the "Xmen" films all know the character of Wolverine, but they may be less aware that, translated, Wolverine becomes the glutton, this bear-like animal who is nevertheless a cousin of the badger. His voracity gave him his name, but it is perhaps more his solitary and fierce character that inspired the name to the creators of the character of Wolverine!

The bearded vulture takes its name from the small feathers under the beak which gives it an air of patriarchy. A little like the man, it is in its youth of a beautiful black before acquiring a whiter plumage. His nickname "bone breaker" comes from his habit of taking off with a bone that is too big in order to drop it to break it. It is threatened by the infrastructures put in place by man, such as electric cables.

Summer 2021, Matthieu had gone to the Taï forest, one of the best preserved forests in West Africa, in search of Atheris hirsuta, a snake which has only been seen twice and which he there are no pictures! He won't be there, but Matthieu brought back many pictures of rare, often threatened amphibians and snakes. He met the impressive rhinoceros viper and frogs as surprising as a long-snouted creeper frog Acanthixalus sonjae...

Initially attached to fungi, myxomycetes quickly became detached, their characteristics making them unclassifiable! A single cell with many nuclei, they often form balls of showy colors that end in an explosion of spores. The best known of them is undoubtedly the Blob that Thomas Pesquet took with him into space.

Return of the sun in the sky, return of the suns in the meadows! Dandelions invade them but also overtake fences and do not hesitate to grow on roadsides. But the latter should not be picked up for dandelion wine recipes or to make biodynamic preparations! This flower is also a little magical, once its yellow bloom is over, it does not fade like all flowers, but closes, then opens again to bloom into multiple seeds that fly away thanks to their pappus. It delights children and adults alike!

The swallow does not make spring, but its song does! and long before her, who can remain insensitive to the repetitive tchif-tchaf of the swift pouillot which has earned him the nickname of ECU counter and which is recognized even by the most novices among us? The song of the chickadees is also a formidable moment of relaxation calling us towards the beautiful days!

Aquatic or terrestrial, these animals have not made a choice, they are both! Amphibians of course, which are aptly named, but also grass snakes, beavers and kingfisher appreciate both environments. Find these protagonists on the water and underwater! and beware of bad encounters between amphibians and snakes!

Often in animals, males have more beautiful colors to seduce their lady, but in crested lapwing, no jealous, sir or madam, when it comes to courtship, both have iridescent reflections and proudly show their crests made up of long feathers on the head. The young, as they should for their survival, are more discreet and in the Baie de Somme, scientists protect future chicks by installing grids on the nests to protect them from trampling by livestock.

It is not only the man who invented breeding, the ant too! She breeds aphids for their honeydew. The "milking" is done and the ants defend the aphids from predators. They are not lacking, ladybugs of course, but also small wasps which lay their eggs in aphids, finding there a good matrix for the growth of their offspring. Aphids come in all colors, green, pink, or even covered with a layer of bloom, like the cabbage aphid. Also discover birth photos, rostrums of aphids allowing them to feed on plant sap.

Everyone knows the white stork, but the black stork is less known. Unlike her cousin, she nests little in France, but she transits there for her migration. We then discover its black plumage, far from uniform, with many iridescent green and purple reflections. Her eyes are outlined in red, an area of bare skin.

Quelle bien étrange vie que celle du gui! son fruit est mature en hiver. Qui n'a jamais explosé une de ces belles baies blanches, se sera collé les doigts! La viscine était autrefois utilisée pour faire la glu. L'oiseau qui raffole le plus de ce fruit unique est la fauvette, elle est capable d'en consommer jusqu'à 150 par jour. Après avoir passés un court séjour dans l'oiseau, les bébés gui sont lâchés tel des parachutes. S'ils ont de la chance, ils tomberont sur une branche d'arbre où ils pourront germer. Suit alors la croissance, dichotomique à l'extérieur mais aussi à l'intérieur de la branche où le suçoir prélève la sève de l'arbre.

Animals come to the city, to our gardens, to our homes!

Nature is often praised for its beauty, its vivid and numerous colors. But for some, it is not made to attract but to alert: "do not eat me, I am toxic!". This phenomenon called aposematism is legion among wood beetles, coral snakes or certain butterflies such as monarchs, which gather in large numbers.

Smaller than the red fox, the polar fox tends to lose ground because of its cousin. The territory of the red fox is expanding because it is less hunted by the wolf which disappears. All the species are related to each other ... The polar fox is the only canine to present a dimorphism going from a dark coat in summer to a completely white livery in winter. Which gives beautiful white on white photos!

Climbing ivy suffers from a bad reputation, considered as a parasite invading trees, it would in fact be their ally, protecting them from the cold in winter and the hot summer, moreover it does not absorb sap or nutrients from trees. Here is the life around this ivy present in a town in Île-de-France.
Its evergreen foliage is an ideal refuge for birds, such as blackbirds, thrushes ... and above all it provides fruit-eaters with rich berries throughout the winter.

The peaks are on every continent except Australia and the cold Antarctica. With their singular drumming on trees, they who can't sing, it's hard not to know them. The most urban among us know the green woodpecker which goes so well with the lawns of the parks. Exotic species sport beautiful colors like Bennett's woodpecker or red-headed woodpecker or disguise themselves as a zebra like the Saguaros woodpecker.

The little egret which is in the nuptial period has everything of a bride: white dress, golden legs like shod in beautiful shoes. When it comes to makeup, she changes her slightly dull eyeshadow to pink and wears two long feathers on the back of her head!

This summer, don't go far, go under! under the surface of the Mediterranean, in order to discover another unsuspected world: get close to the blennies with the big "eyelashes", observe a creep that regurgitates, take a selfie with a grouper !!! and for those who do not dare to arm themselves with fins, off Toulon, young moon fish, round like the moon, the largest bony fish, come to the surface to warm up.

Oman may have an authoritarian regime, but the birds do what they want. At first glance, they seem to be the same as those you can see in Europe, but for many this is not the case: Gull ... de Heuglin, Guépier ... d'Orient, Lapwing ... Indian , Wagtail ... masked, Eagle ... of the steppes, Wheatear ... Hume ...

Who does not know the glowworms that light up our gardens in fine weather? But without going to the bottom of the sea, where three quarters of organisms are bioluminescent, we can discover other blue glowworms in the caves of Tasmania, or the females of Italian fireflies which form luminous garlands in the Swiss forests to attract their males.

Tahiti reminds us of white sand beaches ... but when you enter the turquoise sea, another world unfolds, full of life and color: lion fish, cow fish, parrot fish ..., shrimps amboise seem to dance ... Grayer, but very impressive, the humpback whales, further offshore, swim with their young.

The beautiful days are here, the fox cubs are starting to enjoy the outside world, but beware, their mother is never far away!

If there is a place to discover for bird lovers, it is the island of Texel, aptly named the island of birds. Island of the Netherlands, located in the North Sea, the first island of the Frisian archipelago, which extends as far as Denmark, it is a true haven of peace for the birds which find numerous protected areas.

After spending the winter in Africa, and even in New Zealand, the common tern returns to France for the sunny days. She loves the coastline, but the happy inhabitants of the banks of the Loire have the chance to see her, especially here in Moulins in the Allier. Hovering over the river, it dives suddenly to catch a fish that can be a courtship offering. The eggs arrive quickly and it is then the feeding of the hungry chicks!

Jackdaws are given the surname "towers", it is not without reason, they are present in the villages, are fond of churches. In mid February and already the first little jackdaws with a piercing blue iris were born, in the heart of France, it is an unusual period, a possible effect of climate change.

How do you not get carried away by the current when you are a small larva at the bottom of a river? Do like human divers and ball! The larvae of trichoptera build a sheath, a real little knitting. This varies depending on the species, some choose to knit small pebbles, leaf or wood debris ...

The cold of the Swiss snow does not slow down the ardor of the male ibex. The latter is in heat at the beginning of the year and approaches the stagnant, the female who is still with her kid. Both brave the cold, scraping the snow to feed on a few blades of grass. Find many photos full of sweetness.

They are thousands under our feet at every moment ... we believe we know them but ignore everything about the incredible life of the earthworm, a tireless plowman who makes our soils fertile, professional decomposer who saves us from organic waste, unknown manufacturer of cocoons , prey to a swarm of other animals who take advantage of its abundance, a strange being who dies withered at the slightest ray of sunlight but can drown in the event of heavy rain.
Here is an unusual journey into the secret life of the most unknown of garden animals.

Far from being the habitat of a single species, the hairy galls present on the roses, called bedegar or barbe de Saint-Pierre, constitute in themselves a kind of ecosystem. The rosebush cynips, a small wasp lays in the stems of roses, leaving a trace of its passage. It is then the beginning of the growth of the bédégar which lodges the larvae of the cynips which only ask to grow quietly. This is without counting the parasitoids, "the parasites of the parasites", like Glyphomerus stigma, another small wasp which lays its eggs in the larvae of the cynips. This is how the bédégar emerges, different small wasps, unless these have made the happiness of the birds that have gutted the bédégar during the winter. Glyphomerus stigma has made a "pact" with the rose bush, the adult feeds on, among other things, secretions produced by the red growths at the edge of rose leaves. The bédégar is an exciting little word!

It was not the snipe but the woodcock which flew in large numbers above Clocher-les-Bécasses, the village of the heroine Bécassine. This is how she would have had her strange name. Unlike the young country maid, the snipe has a long beak which allows it to search the mud in the marshes. Drainage of the latter, urbanization leads to a decrease in numbers.

Osmias have more than 40 species in Europe, they are hairy and stocky. No large colony in hives like their cousins the honey bees, but the most diverse nests: in the hollow branches they find in insect hotels, or more surprisingly in the empty snail shells!

A birth, an apprenticeship of life with his mother, follow the young life of the lion.

The boar has the image of a boorish animal. To get rid of them, you have to observe the sow with her young, she takes care of the boars with kindness, suckling them, sharing life in the forest with them.

The general public often confuses the coot with the moorhen, yet it is easily distinguished with its white beak, in the moorhen it is the red that wins. On the other hand, the little ones are adorned with red on the head dotted with yellow down, giving it an air of crazy ..... lque!

Winter is coming and the elegant ermine will change her costume, adorning herself in snow white, keeping just a black brush at the end of her tail. This small mammal, cousin of the marten and the marten, can be seen above 1000 meters in altitude, but also in the groves of Auvergne or Ardennes. Curiously, it is Brittany that chooses it as a symbol ...

We know that sharks have a bad reputation with humans. Perhaps he would change his mind when he saw the ballets they are performing in the transparent waters of Polynesia. It is about twenty species that can come around divers looking for thrills. The less reckless can see them during a feeding.

A tiny male turns around Madame argiope-hornet ... Once fertilized, her abdomen swells and then the laying begins, orange eggs accumulate forming a kind of large egg yolk! Madame argiope then weaves a cocoon with meticulousness ... At their birth, the little argiopes, discover their universe.

These plants are the aliens of the plant world! Orobanches seek the products of photosynthesis from other plants thanks to a specific organ, the haustorium. Broomrapes still have small leaves, but reduced to scales. The dodders have completely abandoned the leaves, and even the roots! Like little vampires, they plant their suckers directly into the stems of their host plants.

So present in our rivers, that one might think that it has always been there but it is not! He escaped from breeding for his fur in the 19th century. It cannot be confused with the other star mammal of the river, the beaver, the nutria has a long, slender tail. He takes funny postures for his long toilet, but he is not very picky about his teeth which display a beautiful orange color!

The many shallow seas of the Philippines are full of stranger beings each other. In this profusion of life, the crabs have acquired incredible shapes and colors of incredible diversity. Between the orangutan, the cheerleader or the crab which takes itself for a pebble, it is sometimes difficult to navigate. Very clever also the one who can detect the crab of the alcyonarians which resembles to be mistaken for the soft corals in which they are found. Special mention for the decorator crab who thinks he's a gardener, growing sponges on his shell.

White or black when it is young, with spots when it is larger, the gray seal is far from being only a dull gray! We imagine it on the ice floe, but it is visible in France, on the coasts of the English Channel, the Bay of Somme is famous for its presence. Here are photos showing her attitudes, the relationships between mothers and their young ...

This beautiful wader who can live up to 17 years is so threatened that the Bird Protection League (LPO) has dedicated a website to him. Its populations have decreased by 75% in 30 years in Europe. The LPO has initiated a monitoring and protection program for the Barge in Vendée and Pays de la Loire.

On the occasion of confinement, the LPO (Bird Protection League) relaunches its large inventory of birds that can be seen in our gardens or from our window. It is an opportunity to use your free time to help biodiversity.

It is one of the biggest tits and it is also the most common in France. She likes to eat on the fat balls arranged for them to spend the bad season. Spring returns and nests are made, in mailboxes or other more surprising places!

With an imposing surface, varied environments and climatic conditions, Iran presents very diverse reptile and amphibian species.

Our children have wooden rides, the animals have rides "dad-mom". A little ride on the back of the mammal parents as in the grebes, pangolin or in the mouth of mama lion or tiger, but also more surprising, all the offspring on the back of the parents scorpion or spider!

For the French, there is Lake Der en Champagne to admire thousands of cranes in the winter season, for the Spanish, it is the lagoon of Gallocanta in the northeast of Madrid that offers this show! In the midst of the remains of pastoral activities, cranes glean, fly and argue under the sharp eye of our spanish photographer David Jerez.

The Durance is the largest river in Provence, but its dams has led to a decline in biodiversity. There are, however, some heritage species such as blageon and toxostome, as well as apron from the Rhône, which is a very endangered fish. The river loach is still very significantly present.

Really ugly little swan? Just out of the egg, it is not in the canons of beauty, but the cygnons are quickly covered with a nice down. After this juvenile period, the young people become bristling with small feathers, this thankless phase does not last, the adult is a majestic animal, but so common that we do not notice it anymore!

Just sit in your garden, take a magnifying glass, and take the time to observe nature ... it has been shown that our time in nature allows us to live better ...

A funny look, funny habits: the ibijau is certainly a funny bird. This inhabitant of the tropical forests of America has been the subject of very few scientific studies to date, and for good reason! Past master in the art of camouflage, ibijau is very difficult to observe in its natural environment. It is in Belize, this small country of Central America where Frédéric Consejo lives for 14 years, that he was lucky to be able to photograph this bird as a family as rare as bizarre.

The seagull of Gaston Lagaffe had to be inspired by its congeners in flesh and feathers to invent his antics. The black-headed gull does not hesitate to take strange postures for his courtship displays.

Imagine reduced to a small ant, the nature appears gigantic, the dragonflies become impressive flying machines, the flowers of the buildings to climb, a simple channel of water, a river ...

The Rockhopper penguin has a hair characteristic, beautiful blonde feathers ... Find him, doing the clown in the water, preparing for a dive back, but also taking care of his little and protecting his egg ....

But what's going on in a hive? The workers knead the wax, fill the alveoli with pollen ... the eggs become larvae before becoming a worker ... But tragedies are tragedy: the larva of false moth eats wax endangering the life of the hive, young Bees are born with atrophied wings, workers enter the royal boxes to kill the queen larvae ...

From Peloponnese to Corfu Island, here is a focus on wild Greek orchids and their flower cousins. Here is a nature vision far from the crowd of the full tourist season.

Host often present on our French ponds, it is the little brother of the Great Crested Grebe. the adult seems to have never finished his growth! Its nest, directly on the water, its sudden plunges, its little ones, with their black and white pajamas like jailed escaped thugs make the grebe a lovable animal. Its name "castagneux", "chestnut", comes directly from the red color of his head.

His long bushy tail, his coat of fire, his little face can not leave indifferent. Not to mention that the red elf is not stingy with appearances, it is not uncommon to meet him in private gardens and parks in town. What to be loved by everyone!

Sea lions and Marlins join the sardines to perform a ballet in the waters of Mexico. Beauty photos but reality much rougher, its two predators are in full hunt!

Balkis, 8 years old, wants to become a veterinarian, but wild animals! The first step is to feed them. At the Beauval Zoo, she discovers the life of the marmosets and composes a meal for them. An encouraging first experience! She also discovers that animals, although coming from hot countries, suffer from the heat, especially on this day of July 15th, also final of the football world cup! It was an opportunity to see the panda family alone, the queues being totally empty!

The coot is easily observable by all in the wetlands in the countryside, but also in town! She is often confused with the water fowl, however her beak is white unlike the latter which has a red beak. At birth, the young wear a plumage all ruffled red orange, then the "teenagers" prefer a dress more discreet, gray. Parents are very caring for their young, protecting them at the nest, feeding them, teaching them to look for food ...

If some confuse the deer with the deer, it is because they have never seen one next to the other: the deer weighs in the 250kg, his cousin the deer, ten times less! It is true that he shows himself more often leaping sometimes to two meters high over a length of six meters, a sacred performance for this animal one meter high from the top of the ear to the bottom of the hoof ... Discover the birth and life of this beautiful animal from our forests.

One would think that the biggest felin that one can find in Europe would be the cat, but it does not count with the Lynx which made its reappearance in the 70s in the Jura then in 1983 in the Vosges thanks to releases. Of the four species of Lynx in the world, our Boreal Lynx is the biggest with its weight that can reach 35kg. This big cat makes his toilet, goes up to the trees like his cousin Felis catus, but unlike the latter, he does not hesitate to feast on deer or chamois that he himself hunted!

The Canada Goose actually comes from North America, but by its introduction in Europe, it has returned to our daily landscape. It is the largest of the geese and one can only be moved when one sees his little ones, all of yellow dressed to move on land or on the water.

Look for poetry in nature! The spider's spider's abdomens are inspirational: the diadem epithet and its diamond-like dots, the cucumber spangle that blends into the herbs, the "skull" epeeire that sports two empty orbits and a mouth screaming, the dromedary epic and its ... two bumps! the list is long of his little spiders that would not hurt a man, but a fly!

In Europe, we have the fox, in Africa and Asia, they have the Jackal, it is him that we find in fables as smart animal! The Jackal belongs to the family of dogs and has a life that resembles us: a monogamous couple and cubs. Each family monitors a territory and hunts alone or as a couple of small prey or tries to have a rest of the feast of large carnivores!

France has one of the largest plant diversity in Europe, but most of our wild flowers are in decline or even disappearing:
- 80% of the wetlands disappeared in a century, goodbye marsh flowers ...
- Pesticides, deep plowing and sown meadows, goodbye wildflowers and country bouquets ...
- Beaches raked for tourists and sterilized as swimming pools, goodbye flowers of the dunes ...
- Global warming and migration of species to the peaks, farewell flowers of the high mountains ...
Among all those victims who are likely to draw their bow, here are some officially protected in France, but always destroyed with their living environment.

Slice of agate, quartz, Azure, fluorite... they are of all colors and beauty.

They are all at the edge of the river, but do not all have the same fishing technique. There are those who watch from heaven and dive at once and those who do not want to get wet and who only dip their beaks. Conversely, the champions of apnea do after a long drying in the sun ...

If you could not hear or see nocturnal raptors during the night of the owl on Saturday, March 11th, it will be possible to meet the owl of the marsh, which has morals more diurnal than its congeners.

Imagine a four-meter newborn baby ... her mum is the humpback whale aka Megaptera novaeangliae, Megaptera means big wing, an allusion to her so big fins. She does not hesitate to show them with her big jumps.

This young boar seeks company in this herd of Montbéliard cows. He even invites himself in the stable to the biggest surprise of the heifers!

Penguin silted on the beach

Extrordinary caterpillars

Who has never seen chamois?

Halloween, thin bats!

Santa's reindeer really travel!

Census of a rare species, the woodcock

Spring is coming and our national duck is moving in all directions! It is beautiful to please her beautiful. This is a terrible rush that is created between males! Once born, ducklings are very active, learning to hunt insects and not hesitating to rub the other species such as nutria.

Tropical forests are disappearing at a dramatic rate and in Europe a true primary forest is no more than a memory, we have entered the era of the Anthropocene. However, the world is so vast that there are still forgotten places that are kept out of human consideration. Frédéric Demeuse wanted to explore these lost places: primary or highly natural forests in Sweden and Finland, in the Jura, in the mountain valleys of the French Pyrenees and in the Vosges, in Belarus, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Montenegro, Poland, in the various remote regions of the Balkans and Carpathians of Romania, as well as in the temperate rainforests of the Northwest Pacific, in the laurel, a subtropical forest relict of the Tertiary era of the Canary Islands, and in the the most remote parts of the Rwenzori Mountains between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We can ask ourselves the question: what becomes of the relationship of our societies to nature? For Frédéric, entering this spontaneous nature was like a journey through time, a return to a forgotten past. Or perhaps a journey to an imaginary but nonetheless inexorable future, where free-evolving nature has gained the upper hand over humanity?

The Institut Pasteur is an internationally recognized biomedical research center, created in 1887. One of the teams visited Guyana during a small mammal capture session as part of a study on emerging viral diseases.

Treize chevaux Tarpans ont parcouru plus de 1000 kilomètres en camion entre la Belgique et l'Espagne. Leur mission ? Aider leurs congénères à consommer la végétation afin d’empêcher le milieu de se refermer. Mais aussi aider, par leur présence, le tourisme ! Notre photographe, travaillant dans le domaine de la grotte de Han en Belgique a suivi les chevaux jusqu’à leur arrivée.

Quelle a du être la surprise du zoologiste Blainville quand il y a 200 ans, en 1817, il observe pour la première fois un dauphin dans les eaux de l'Amazone! A cause de la couleur de ses eaux, il apparait rose, mais il est en fait gris.

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L'araignée Saltis n'hésite pas à faire de grandes séances d'élongation. Elle fait signe à sa promise qu'il est temps de s'accoupler!

Forêt mais aussi milieu ouvert se partage ce coteau où il est bon de découvrir une faune et une flore diversifiées.

Au zoo de Sigean, c'est toute une équipe (incluant même un vétérinaire de Paris) qui est nécessaire pour cette manucure, le "parage" qui se fait à la meuleuse, après, bien sûr, anesthésie générale!

Un plan de développement durable est mis en place à Guancaste au Costa-Rica. Les population indigènes ont l'autorisation d'un quota de prélèvement d’œufs de tortue selon leur usage ancestral malgré la protection de l'espèce. En échange ils empêchent le braconnage et protègent les adultes. Ce programme a permis aux populations de tortues de remonter dans ce secteur.

Ces minuscules animaux sont juste des petits points à l'oeil nu, mais se revèle plein de couleurs au microscope. En 2015, c'est l'année internationale des sols de la FAO et notre photographe va sortir un livre sur ces petites bêtes en collaboration avec un scientifique.

Jérémy Tornos étudie les oiseaux marins de l'île de Hornøya en Norvège. des GLS, capteurs mesurant l'intensité lumineuse sont placés sur les animaux, pour connaître leurs zones d'hivernage. Des GPS permettent aussi de comprendre les stratégies des mouettes en cas d'échec de nidification.

Héron, grue, bihoreau, ils sont nombreux à se retrouver le long de l'Allier. Le héron mérite qu'on lui attribue trois oscars en tant qu'artiste dans le rôle du pêcheur, du mannequin et du comique. Les grues cendrées, elles, ne restent que le temps de l'hiver, mais forment dans le ciel des grands V qui font la joie des ornithologistes.

Iconic , polar bears do not leave anyone indifferent . Discover them in Alaska and in Wapusk National Park in Canada.

Fontainebleau forest 50 km south of the capital will soon shine with bright colors . What distract Parisian missing out.

French Polynesia, it's not that relaxing on the beaches . Tourists more and more , come see the black tip sharks , the red-footed boobies and their chicks that look like bags of feathers ...

When the visitor walks through the rainforest, he misses most of its biodiversity! animals, birds, monkeys ... and flora , orchids are perched in the canopy. Tanguy Deville is a follower of the photo above sea level.

In late May, early June, births multiply in chamois. Standing in an hour, they follow their mother before joining the herd.

While some fishermen would make disappear seals the English Channel and the North Sea, the Picardie Nature Association organizes an annual relâchage of pups abandoned by their mother. At 3 months, the team is a tag that will leave in the spring.

Thierry Eidenweil ​​plunged into the seas of the world. The Bahamas, Philippines, he met many species of sharks: tiger, lemon .. and the impressive whale shark.

Fishing in the midst of a multitude of salmon, relations between the bear and her cubs, discover the life of grizzly.

3000 inhabitants of these islands off the coast of Argentina, but much more for wildlife that does not go unnoticed. King penguins, albatrosses

Green frog lives near water. She likes to put the sun to warm up. Before becoming a frog, it is transformed! The tadpole will have legs and loses its tail. Singing frogs! They inflate their membranes and thereby more strongly croak! But what could be more fun than the mating season? They are so real stunt!

Every spring there is the great spectacle of breeding common frogs and common toads. The coupling takes place in water, the male clings on the back of the female body by firmly gripping thereof. The couple formed the male let go not taken until spawning. The concern is that sometimes this man is wrong: what's wrong!

In Guinea, the Conservation Centre is a sanctuary for chimpanzees cope with the emergency. Orphans are collected, they are often traumatized by their capture and in poor health. The work of volunteers is to treat but also to teach them to become chimpanzees, return to nature, more group because their lifestyle is clan.

Leisure center, children learn to respect and help nature. Thanks to a host of the Natural Park of Haut-Jura, children recover amphibians along the road and bring them to their place of living.

In Bolivia, a young woman invested in the defense of nature, produces prints. Puma, but also wild cat and agouti.

The world of fungi is a vast universe fascinating, surprisingly varied and often majestic. Variety of shapes, colors, aspects, postures and odors, these issues can turn into true works of art.

An orange flash, just to disturb the green of the rainforest? The male Rooster Rock. Researchers have studied in Guyana GEPOG this magnificent bird. Capture operation, banding and telemetric monitoring were chained to the LIFE + program CAPDOM.

Rhesus monkeys live in cities with the men in India.

This centuries-old forest and "highly natural" covers more than 150,000 acres straddling the north-eastern Poland and Belarus. Over 5000 hectares in Polish territory are classified into full strict reserve and a proposed doubling of the area under protection is underway.

So small, to look so fragile babies bat, just like their parents hang by their feet. When they join their mother, they cling to "false nipples" to suck on pacifiers true. Many behaviors to discover.

They live in Guyana but two are quite different: the Atele and black howler monkeys. Both live in groups, but the howler like leaves, has a fairly low metabolism and a placid temperament. The Atele, mainly frugivorous is more active and moves a lot. Can compare their lives to highlight their relationship to plants and the adaptations that result.

Her mom's kid has been surprised by giving birth, this little deer is leucique. A sharp contrast with his brother who is like other deer.

Here is a park that has a large body of water that hosts a rich fauna, including Asian elephants.

To be continued: Screenshots of Alpine ibex in the Belledonne hypodermic rifle by agents of the National Office for Hunting and Wildlife. Relachage of ibex in the presence of Chantal Jouanno through the reintroduction of the ibex in the Chartreuse (Isere / Savoie).

See birth of a cub is exceptional: we discover the birthing somewhat apart, then the mother takes her to the small group that recognizes. The scenario is repeated for the other ones. Photos taken in early November 2011.

Every year during the austral winter, the cold waters of the Atlantic back along the east coast of South Africa. Huge shoals of sardines then follow suit. Closely followed by a host of predators, the Sardine Run sound for many of them the end of the trip. The orgy is excessive, the struggle to survive, thank you, and the images breathtaking!

Lovers of the North and the great outdoors, we went to look for musk oxen in the last lights of autumn and the first snow in Norway. Different herds, first of all worried by our presence, have come to accept us, allowing us to observe their behavior. 7 days, eye to eye with Ovibos ...

Each year, the Monarchs, who live much of the year in North America, begin a long journey south when cold weather arrives. 4000km migration remains mysterious insect living only two months, several generations pass between the departure and return in the north. How do they do every year to find a place where they have never been?

Beaver, freshwater sponges, life abounds in the Rhone. Most impressive are the clusters of dozens of catfish, fish that can exceed 2m50! These clusters are often several meters thick. Scientifically, the reasons for these groupings are, for now, unknown. One of the photos has been awarded at ASFERICO 2011.

Ecuador moves to the forefront of the international environmental scene, launching a unique initiative, "Yasuni ITT. The idea? Preserving the natural resources of its Amazon basin the price of non-exploitation of oil reserves. The condition? That the international community compensates loss by paying half the price of oil untapped ...

After an initial screening of wildlife apparent, our experimenter uses a Berlese trap. This trap can be made ​​from a plastic bottle whose bottom is cut and the neck netted and placed above a tube of harvest. The compost is heated to progressively through a lamp. Wildlife will migrate towards the bottom of the bottle and fall harvest in the tube.

At all seasons, Stéfane Gautier follows the lives of the natural reserve of the Val d'Allier. Over 250 species of birds, some rare ones like the stone curlew, are present. Bird paradise, it is managed by Bird Protection League, which organizes outings.

The bees have a life that is not easy, they must defend themselves against the varroa mite and wax moth who prey on larvae also attack the Asian hornet hives .. Follow the steps in the life of a bee: egg, larva, birth, participation in community life, communication, construction of the royal box ...

An activity that provides information on the eating habits of the hedgehog.

The Asian Hornet arrived in France in 2004 in the Bordeaux region. Since it continues to proliferate, causing adverse effects on bee populations. Check out this hornet in nature but also in the studio.

Born from the glaciers of the Massif there are over 10,000 years, fueled by heavy rains, the Jura bogs are an important feature of the montane. With a rich ecosystem functioning original, they are home to many species of plants and animals that we reveal some of their secrets ...

The Seychelles are known for their beautiful beaches, very recognizable with their blocks of stone, but also a lush. A quick overview of the lady going to the turtle.

Mountain life is characterized by a reduction in the length of seasons as and as altitude increases. Low temperatures, high thermal amplitudes, strong winds and powerful UV radiation occur on the form and plant biology. This walk in the country of plants you will impress your friends on rides!

These monkeys are endemic to the mountains of Ethiopia are not threatened but may become so its distribution is restricted. They attract attention with their smile "carnivore" long canines for deterrence only, they are herbivores!

The vultures, named "Jatayu" in Nepal have declined by over 95% since the beginning of the 20th. Nepali Associations fight this decline as that followed by Patrick Correia. She buys livestock at the end of life it brings to the vultures: the "restaurant".

Many pictures of beavers at dusk while an animal is very active at night! Thus, Didier follows members of a beaver family, they swim, play, pick up twigs, cut branches, trees, transport them, eat them, and groom often at least ten yards away.

It eats its slough, catching insects with its tongue as long as he, the chameleon is a strange animal ..

The status of tigers today is alarming in India. 100 years ago could still encrypt their population at 100,000 people, today they are more than a thousand good. One reason for their disappearance is poaching, but also the loss of their habitat, the population of India increases by 22 million people per year ... and forests suffer.

Discover the remarkable trees of the forest of Crecy in the Somme (North of France).

Distribution of popcorn from an old lady .. macaques in the town of Lopburi Thiland are pampered! Fun on the electric son, "squat" in the temples .. coexistence with humans are going well in this "urban jungle". The picture of this monkey balancing was awarded at Festival of Montier-en-Der, 2008 and finalist in BBC Wildlife 2008.

Striking photos, a world highly colored, supernatural .. Yet that is alive and well ..

Sylvain and Marie-Anne, two young biologists and photographers spent a year to discover the nature of Costa Rica. They worked in different ecovolunteers as reserves for the Protection of spider monkeys and turtles.

Beavers back in force in the basin of the Loire. Follow them with Sylvain who has the chance to see them through his work at the national office of hunting and wildlife.

Multitude of species in the Bardia National Park.

The association awarded its annual TREES label "remarkable tree" to a dozen French trees. Its president, George Feterman photographer has documented photographically Naturimages among dozens of such specimens.