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VIDEO. Fire in the Var: operation to rescue Hermann's turtles from a nature reserve

2021-08-20T09:41:30.908Z


In the Plaine des Maures national nature reserve, a “jewel of biodiversity” affected by the flames of the gigantic fire in the Var


Telemetry antenna unfolded, Dominique Guicheteau, scientific director of the Plaine des Maures Nature Reserve, ravaged by the fire on the Côte d'Azur, is trying to find turtles that would have survived the flames.

A beep sounds.

The scientist lies down and plunges his arm under a rock where a Hermann's tortoise, a rare and protected species, has taken refuge.

A quick inspection reveals that the animal of about fifteen centimeters with the yellow and black shell is in good health.

She is quickly bathed in a basin to drink.

Crossed by fire, the Plaine des Maures Nature Reserve, a true jewel of biodiversity in France with 241 protected species, has become a carpet of ash.

The songs of birds and cicadas have been replaced by a heavy silence.

It is in this lunar landscape that about twenty volunteers from the Village des tortues de Carnoules (Var) and the Conservatory of natural spaces of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, set about Thursday to find the tortures of 'Hermann who could have taken refuge in the crevices of the rock to protect themselves from the flames.

The population of this last terrestrial species in Europe is estimated at 15,000 in the Var, including 10,000 on the Reserve alone. In sharp decline, the Hermann's tortoise, which hibernates by burying itself in the ground, is classified as vulnerable on the National Red List of Threatened Species. "The turtle is our standard bearer", explains Marie-Claude Serra, the curator of the Nature Reserve, deploring "an ecological disaster (…) unprecedented in France". In the Var, if a turtle "survived the fire, we can estimate that it will survive", estimates Sébastien Caron, even if it will take more than "thirty years" to know the exact consequences on the reproduction of the species "whose longevity can reach 60 years." "

The fire that started from a motorway rest area on Monday has already burned 6,300 hectares of cork oaks, poplars and many flowering shrubs which dotted the Massif des Maures and hosted populations of bats, tree frogs and other rodents. … The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) expressed concern this week about the consequences for wildlife.

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"We went to places where we knew that there was a chance of finding living turtles thanks in particular to the rocks, but this is far from being the case everywhere", nuance Dominique Guicheteau on the spot. At the Plaine des Maures National Nature Reserve, the search was short on Thursday: in the distance the fire resumed, the volunteers are reluctantly evacuated.

Friday August 20, the violent fire is now "fixed but it is not under control", according to the prefect of Var, Evence Richard. "The head of the fire is no longer moving, but it is not extinguished", specifies the director of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of the Var, Colonel Eric Grohin, adding that a westerly wind is announced. during the day and therefore resumptions of fire are not excluded. "We must therefore remain extremely careful, with the drop in humidity, the rise in temperatures and the expected wind," insists Evence Richard. The human toll of the fire is, for the moment, two dead and twenty-six injured.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-08-20

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