Birds
Birds find in the Alpilles, an ideal habitat. Steep cliffs, large wooded areas and a low human pressure, it takes no less to allow the development of nesting. Among the most emblematic birds of the Alpilles, we find :
The Bonelli's eagle. It is an eagle of average size, with contrasting plumage. We can easily recognize its characteristic silhouette that stands out, majestic, on the blue sky. It is a rather solitary animal which likes to nest on vertiginous and well exposed peaks. It also needs a rather vast and wooded territory to hunt. And it is exactly what it finds in the massif of Alpilles. It is a bird which hates to be disturbed and which can easily abandon its nest in this case. Hence the need to respect its habitat.
The Percnopterus vulture. It is a small vulture with white wings and black tips when it reaches adulthood. Like Bonelli's eagle, it nests on cliffs, but it hunts rather in cultivated fields or at the edge of marshes. It is also a real cleaner of cattle, whose skin it rids of ticks, but also of fecal matter stuck on their fur. Its courtship is really spectacular, a real demonstration of acrobatics. It does not spend all its time in the Alpilles. Indeed, it is a migratory bird which leaves towards the south, once its nesting finished.
The Kestrel. It is a diurnal bird of prey of small size, recognizable by its short beak and curved at the base. It is a gregarious animal that likes to be with its fellow birds. Some groups can include more than a hundred individuals. The kestrel feeds mainly on insects, but does not neglect small mammals either. That said, it is a bird that knows how to adapt to its environment and can, if necessary, change its diet.
The Eagle Owl. You will have little chance to see it during the day. Indeed, its domain is the night. This nocturnal bird of prey hunts at dusk and dawn. Its diet is extremely varied. It eats insects as well as small mammals, snakes, lizards, everything that moves in fact. Like Bonelli's eagle, it establishes its nest preferably on rocky walls, but will not hesitate to use the abandoned nests of other large birds, in rock crevices or even on the ground.
Mammals
There are dozens of species of mammals in the Alpilles: wild boars, rabbits... for the most classic. But there are others much more surprising, like the bats (yes, they are mammals) of which the species counts tens of thousands of representatives. There are even 19 species out of the 26 identified in Europe. Contrary to the legend, the bat does not feed on blood (except for some species that live in South America), but on fruits, insects and occasionally frogs, even small fish. By the way, do you know why bats sleep upside down? Well, simply because it is the position that allows them the fastest flight in case of danger. They don't have to take a run-up, they just have to let themselves fall.
On the Camargue side, there are of course also many mammals. The most obvious are horses and bulls, but also coypu and, more rarely, beavers, which have established their habitat on the banks of the Rhone.
Reptiles
There are about fifteen of them in the Camargue: Montpellier snakes (harmless, but sometimes impressive by its size), Aesculapian snakes and even freshwater turtles. Several species of lizards are also present in the Alpilles, including the famous ocellated lizard (which is a saurian, a sub-family of reptiles), which is the largest lizard in Europe. It feeds mainly on insects and beetles, but does not hesitate to modify its menu, if necessary. It is part of the species threatened with extinction, in the short term.
Pisces
Carp, eel, pike, catfish in water douce ; sea bream, bass, sole in salt water. The Camargue has about 40 species of fish. There are also six species of amphibians, forty-five molluscs and a dozen crustaceans. So much so that fishermen find here a perfect ground to satisfy their passions.
Insects
Of course, the first ones that come to mind are those pesky mosquitoes that ruin the lives of tourists. But there are many others: fifty-two species of butterflies, no less than four hundred moths, forty-three species of dragonflies... These small inhabitants of our planet are undoubtedly at home here.
Flore
Aleppo pine, cedar, Scots pine, holm oak... there is no lack of species in the 19,000 hectares of the Alpilles forest. But the forest is not the only ecosystem, since there are also areas of Provencal scrubland, with traditional plants, such as thyme, lavender, iris and small bushes. Some plants, such as the summer snowflake, with its white bells or the helianthemum, which is oriented in the direction of the sun, are rare and are subject to national protection.
On the Camargue side, the plain and the wetlands (sansouires) represent 97% of the territory. The flora is obviously different from that of the Alpilles, poorer from a quantitative point of view. This is due to the high concentration of salt in the earth. Salicornia, soudes, obiones, get their way by adopting a stratagem which consists in gorging themselves with water to decrease the saline concentration in their cells, which explains the fleshy aspect of their branches.
Aquatic vegetation
The marshes of the Camargue are home to many aquatic plants and species. Among the most beautiful specimens, we find yellow water lilies, white water lilies as well as oenanthes, these herbaceous plants which resemble certain edible plants. Be careful not to be fooled by them, as they are poisonous, even deadly. It is said that some species, more exotic, cause a kind of smile on the face of the victim who has ingested too much of them.
Further south, as you get closer to the sea, you will find plants that are known as erectors (which fix the dunes) such as the oyat, which is easily recognizable with its yellow spikelets, or the euphorbia, with its aniseed colors tinged with green that light up in the spring.
