A study conducted in the Camargue reveals that Eurasian spoonbills use both moderately and highly protected wetlands. The complementary nature of land management methods in the Camargue seems to benefit the species, particularly the management of hunting marshes and of nature reserves protected according to the annual cycle.
The fragmentation of landscapes represents a major challenge for the conservation of mobile and specialised species such as waterbirds. For this reason, protected areas play an essential role in the preservation of biodiversity. A recent study conducted in the Camargue on the Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) reveals that this species manages to benefit from current global changes thanks to its ability to exploit suitable habitats, whether they are managed in a more or less interventionist way. The monitoring of 91 spoonbills equipped with GPS beacons between 2016 and 2023 highlights significant differences in the spatial use of the territory according to the age of the individuals, while raising the question of the species’ dependence on heavily human-managed natural areas.
Age-related spatial preferences
Analysis of geolocation data shows that juvenile and immature white spoonbills tend to prefer areas with moderate protection status over highly protected areas, unlike adults, who do not show a marked preference and use both. Young spoonbills also behave more exploratively than adults, using a greater number of different sites throughout the year.
According to Hugo Ferreira, the study’s first author: ‘This different behaviour between juveniles and adults could be explained in several ways, which could potentially be cumulative: as a strategy to avoid competition for food with more experienced adults, as a phase of exploration necessary for the acquisition of knowledge about their environment, or simply as a lack of experience when it comes to identifying the most beneficial areas.’
The functional complementarity of private natural areas and highly protected zones
Among the protected areas favoured by young white spoonbills, and also regularly frequented by adults, are numerous wetlands managed by the private sector, particularly for hunting. Through practices such as flooding in summer and maintaining water levels, their management aims to increase the attractiveness of these wetlands for waterfowl, which indirectly favours the presence of abundant food for spoonbills.
In a context where landscapes are becoming increasingly fragmented and wetlands are generally deteriorating, these natural areas, although less protected, play an important role for populations of non-hunted species such as the Eurasian spoonbill, but also potentially for glossy ibises, black-tailed godwits and other waders. Indeed, while highly protected areas ensure a low level of disturbance for Eurasian spoonbills, their management often aims to allow the ecosystem to persist in its natural Mediterranean rhythm with prolonged droughts at the end of summer, potentially reducing the abundance of food available to waterbirds at certain times of the year.
Conclusion
This study illustrates how the Spoonbill, a moderately specialised species, manages to benefit from current global changes thanks to its ability to exploit suitable habitats within fragmented landscapes.
However, Jocelyn Champagnon, Director of Research at Tour du Valat and co-author of the study, points out that ‘the role of protected areas prioritising biodiversity issues and aiming to conserve priority species that are often more specialised in the Mediterranean climate plays an irreplaceable role, not only for these species, but also for less specialised species such as spoonbills.Indeed, their protected status and the implementation of dedicated 5- to 10-year management plans guarantee all protected species access to stable areas within fragmented landscapes that are subject to rapid changes.’
Ferreira, H.R.S., Alves, J.A., Jiguet, F. et al. Role of protected areas for a colonial-breeding waterbird in a fragmented landscape throughout its annual cycle. Landsc Ecol 40, 6 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-02017-5[1]
Eoldist: a web application to avoid bird collisions with wind turbines
Energy transition is accompanied by a significant expansion of wind farms, raising major environmental issues, notably the protection of biodiversity. A new publication, in which the Tour du Valat took part, presents Eoldist, a web application designed to estimate the necessary detection distances for automatic bird detection systems approaching wind turbines, in order to limit collisions.
Automatic detection systems (ADS) are increasingly being used to limit the impact of wind turbines on birdlife. However, it is crucial to determine at what distance these systems should detect birds to enable effective shutdown of the turbines before the birds arrive. Eoldist responds to this problem by providing an estimate of the detection distance to be expected, based on several parameters:
Birds’ speed of flight,
The time needed to stop or slow down a turbine,
The specific characteristics of the species concerned.
The application is based on a comprehensive database containing the flight speeds of 168 bird species in the Western Palearctic, collected from scientific publications and unpublished GPS data. To estimate turbine stopping times, field tests carried out at seven wind farms determined that the average time required to slow turbines down to a rotation threshold of 3 or 2 revolutions per minute was 32.2 and 38.8 seconds respectively.
A useful tool for wind turbine operators
Eoldist allows the user to select a species from the database, the characteristics of the wind turbine and a rotation threshold (3 or 2 revolutions per minute); it then calculates the time needed to reach the selected threshold and provides a distribution curve for the detection distance needed to avoid collision. The application is available free of charge and should help the wind energy industry, ADS providers and environmental agencies to define bird detection requirements using ADS that are compatible with the biology of the target species.
This approach aims to contribute to a better cohabitation between the development of renewable energies and the preservation of biodiversity.
Fluhr J., Duriez O., Blary C., Chambert T., Almasi B., Byholm P., Buitendijk N.H., Champagnon J., Dagys M., Fiedler W., Francesiaz C., Jiguet F., Lee S., Millon A., Monti F., Morcelet L., Nathan R., Nolet B.A., Nuijten R., Pilard P., Ponchon C., Roulin A., Santos C.D., Spiegel O., Schalcher K., De Seynes A., Spanoghe G., Wikelski M., Žydelis R., Besnard A. 2025. Eoldist, a Web Application for Estimating Cautionary Detection Distance of Birds by Automatic Detection Systems to Reduce Collisions With Wind Turbines. Wind Energy 28:e2971. doi: 10.1002/we.2971[2]
3 questions for … Gaëtan Ploteau, in charge of “Trois Marais” Natura 2000 site at Camargue Regional Nature Park
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Gaëtan Ploteau, project manager at Regional Natural Park of Camargue, answers our questions about the “Trois marais” site, which encompasses the wetlands between the Alpilles, the Crau and the Grand Rhône, as well as the tasks of a Natura 2000 project manager in a project such as the Peatland atlas project.
1. The “Trois marais” site, for which you are Natura 2000 project manager, is involved in the Peatland Atlas project. What are the specific features of this area?
The “Trois Marais” Natura 2000 sites are located to the east of the Grand Rhône, between the Camargue, the Crau and the Alpilles. Unlike the insular Camargue, which is supplied with fresh water by the Rhône, these sites depend mainly on water coming from the river Durance.
The coexistence of two distinct hydrological regimes favors a wide diversity of habitats and species, some of which are unique in the Mediterranean. On the one hand, nutrient-rich water from agricultural irrigation canals feeds the wetlands, creating a system similar to that of the Camargue. This water encourages the development of habitats such as reedbeds and salt meadows.
On the other hand, water from the rising Crau water table is purer and fresher, enabling the emergence of rare Mediterranean habitats, such as wet meadows and Marisque marshes. This water table is 70% fed by the gravity-fed irrigation necessary for the cultivation of Crau hay, an activity essential to the preservation of the Crau marshes, just as rice-growing is for the island Camargue. These marshes are home to the main potential peat habitats. On the “Trois Marais” site, peat has accumulated in Mediterranean wet meadows, marsh marshes and, in some cases, reedbeds.
2. In your experience, what is the role of a Natura 2000 project manager? What is the added value in this Peatland atlas project?
Being a Natura 2000 project manager means above all acting as a mediator between public policies in favor of biodiversity and local stakeholders. My mission is to facilitate territorial dialogue by building bridges between environmental issues and the realities of the various local stakeholders.
My role is to preserve habitats and species of Community interest, while supporting local stakeholders in this process. My approach is based on identifying the specific needs of the area, in order to reconcile the preservation of biodiversity with socio-economic activities such as hunting and farming. It’s essential to understand these issues through the eyes of the stakeholders themselves. We don’t always agree, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that these are the people who shape the land, and that their experience is invaluable. I’m not the one who uses the flail mower in the middle of winter, or installs the fences in the marsh: they’re the ones who take concrete action in the field. It’s essential to find solutions together, without imposing constraints unilaterally. Only a consensual and respectful approach will achieve lasting results in terms of biodiversity protection.
A good example of this collaboration is the management of overgrowth. We have succeeded in reaching agreement with hunters and manadiers on a common objective. In recent years, the proliferation of ash trees has led to the gradual closure of natural habitats. Thanks to financing obtained in partnership with the commune of Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône, we set up a flail mowing operation to remove these ash trees, with the aim of restoring a habitat of Community interest: the Mediterranean wet meadow. This action, unanimously approved, benefits both the hunters, who gain in hunting area, and the manadier, who recovers grazing space. This project is a good illustration of our approach: an action driven by local stakeholders and built together.
As territorial coordinator, I’ve had the opportunity to meet many of the farmers and private owners of the “Trois Marais” site. My role, as part of the Peatland Atlas project, is to act as an intermediary and facilitator to establish initial contact with the various parties involved in the project. Although we’ve had a few refusals, the majority of landowners are receptive to this approach. Many of them know their land and marshes inside out, and their expertise in the field is a valuable asset: it allows us to understand the area better, to refine our thinking and to save time in the field.
As far as peatlands are concerned, the main challenge today is to preserve what remains. These ecosystems play a fundamental role as carbon sinks. In fact, preliminary feedback from the field suggests that there are still some active peat bogs in the area. In addition to preserving these remarkable habitats, we note that respectful agricultural practices, maintained for decades, have contributed to their conservation. Highlighting this aspect, both among farmers and public authorities, could encourage greater awareness of the links between agriculture, habitat preservation and carbon storage.
The owners of the “Trois Marais” land also include public managers : it would be appropriate to create a network bringing together these different players, both public and private, in order to encourage the sharing of experience, the exchange of knowledge and the dissemination of best practices in the management of wet meadows and cladia.
3. As a Natura 2000 project manager, what are the advantages of being involved in this project?
The Natural Regional Park of Camargue is currently in charge of the prefiguration of a strategic wetland management plan for the Camargue delta territory. Its aim is to provide a global vision of the state of wetlands, their functions and the pressures exerted on them. The prefiguration of this management plan is scheduled for the end of 2025. With this in mind, we feel it would be interesting to include new protection issues that have not yet been highlighted. As far as the Trois Marais sites are concerned, the “peat bog” issue seems crucial.
Located in industrialized areas and at the intersection of agricultural and environmental issues (EDF canal project, high-voltage power lines, etc.), these sites are of major ecological interest. Unlike the “Camargue island”, which is often highlighted, the “Trois Marais” site are less firmly rooted in the collective imagination, despite their richness in terms of “natural heritage”. Conversely, following on from the “Grand Port Maritime de Marseille”, the Crau marshes have often been impacted by major development projects, despite the exceptional biodiversity they host. At a time when the decarbonization of industry seems to be a priority for the public authorities, taking account of the peatlands’ carbon storage function could help to raise the profile of those areas, and even unlock funding for conservation projects.
In the Camargue, eels reveal the quality of their habitat
The European eel is an emblematic species of estuaries and lagoon, and a surprising animal. As a larva, its very first journey covers several thousand kilometres, in order to reach the European continent, all the way from the Sargasso Sea. There, eels will grow for several years before travelling back across the ocean to reproduce. The eel is an amphihaline species, which means that it is able to live in both saltwater and freshwater. But this fascinating species is critically endangered, notably by the loss of wetlands and overfishing, and is also severely affected by contamination and parasitism.
A team of researchers assessed the quality of around sixty eels caught at three different sites within the Mediterranean lagoon complex of the Camargue. This assessment was carried out from an ecotoxicological (quantification of persistent organic pollutants – POPs – and trace elements – TEs) and epidemiological (infestation by the parasite Anguillicola crassus) point of view, whilst taking into account the individual characteristics of the eels (length, age, growth rate and sex).
Changes in contamination depending on the site
Their results, published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research, show that the quality of eels generally decreases with age. The contamination of eels by POPs and TEs varies according to the site of capture. It is higher in a canal draining farmland and in the Grand Étang de Vaccarès than in a basin less exposed to agricultural inputs. According to Amélie Hoste, first author of the article as well as doctoral student at the M.I.O. of Aix-Marseille University and at the Tour du Valat: ‘The spatial variability revealed by this study suggests that reducing industrial and agricultural pollution leads to an improvement in the quality of the European eels present in these environments.’
Susceptibility to parasites A. crassus
The infestation rates of the nematode A. crassus also increased with the age of the eel, despite the fact that this parasite is known to survive poorly in brackish waters such as those of the Vaccarès lagoon. According to Delphine Nicolas, fish conservation biology researcher at the Tour du Valat: “It has been observed that, in some cases, POPs contamination can weaken the eel’s immune system, thus increasing their susceptibility to infectious diseases and parasites.For example, in the Vaccarès pond, eels that are contaminated by POPs might be more vulnerable to parasitism by the nematode A. crassus, despite their lower prevalence.’
The contamination of eels reflects that of their habitats
The same contaminants as those found in the sediments collected at the capture sites were detected in the eels. In addition, analyses of the eels revealed the presence of other contaminants not detected in the sediments, such as PCBs. Delphine Nicolas, researcher in fish conservation at the Tour du Valat, concludes: ‘It is difficult to determine the impact of all the contaminants on eel biology, especially as there may be “cocktail” effects. It is urgent to limit chemical inputs into aquatic environments, particularly those already clearly identified as dangerous.’
Hoste A., Lagarde R., Amilhat E., Bouchard C., Bustamante P., Covaci A., Faliex E., Migne E., Poma G., Tetrel C., Verbrugghe K., Vey Payre H., Nicolas D. 2025. Investigating the quality of European silver eels by quantifying contaminants and parasite infestation in a French Mediterranean lagoon complex. Environ Sci Pollut Res [Internet] [cited 2025 Jan 27]. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-35815-0[3]
In order to collect data on bats in the Camargue, the Rest-Chir’Eau project is launching its participatory science campaign, consisting of an online survey and participatory monitoring. This initiative offers the general public the opportunity to contribute to the study of bats in the Camargue.
Available from March 10 to autumn 2025, the “Wanted! Have you seen any bats in the Camargue?” will enable Camargue residents and visitors to share their observations of bats in the area, using a simple and intuitive questionnaire.
Whether these observations are made around their homes or in the Camargue countryside, this data will help the Rest-Chir’Eau project team to map bat activity in the Camargue and on the Trame Turquoise, the natural spaces that connect land and water, throughout the year. By studying bat activity in the marshes throughout the year, Rest-Chir’Eau aims to fill a gap in research. Indeed, Pauline Rocarpin, project coordinator, points out that “although the relationship between these small flying mammals and wetlands has been noted, it is rarely studied”.
Four sessions of participatory monitoring at dawn and dusk will also be organized, from spring to autumn. In the field, participants will be assigned to various strategic observation points, in order to count bats and assess their activity.
Open to all adults, no prior knowledge of bats is required. Young people aged 14 and over, accompanied by an adult, are also welcome. Dates for future sessions will be announced on Tour du Valat website.
The “Trame Turquoise” is made up of natural spaces that connect land and water. These ecological corridors are essential to the life cycles of certain species of amphibians, insects, birds and mammals, which require both aquatic and terrestrial environments.
The “Trame Turquoise” is therefore made up of aquatic, wet and dry natural spaces (wetlands, watercourses, grasslands, meadows and alluvial forests, etc.), as well as linear or punctual plant formations (hedges, riparian forests, copses, etc.).
Training workshop: Introduction to National Wetland Inventories
From February 10 to 14, the Tour du Valat hosted a training workshop on “Introduction to National Wetland Inventories (NWI)”, organized by the Ramsar Secretariat with the support of the Observatoire des Zones Humides Méditerranéennes.
This second French-speaking edition brought together 20 participants from 10 countries in Africa and the Indian Ocean. It followed a first session in English, organized in South Korea from September 9 to 13, 2024. Dedicated to an introduction to National Wetland Inventories (NWIs), the aim of this training course was to present them and highlight their importance in national strategies for the conservation, management and restoration of these ecosystems. It also aimed to share and explain to participants the various steps and databases required to facilitate their realization, including those derived from Earth Observation tools.
In addition to theoretical presentations, participants took part in practical exercises and field visits to a variety of environments: typical Camargue coastal wetlands in the Tour du Valat Regional Nature Reserve and the Marais du Vigueirat Nature Reserve; and a freshwater wetland in the Raphèle and Meyranne marshes, also managed by the Association des Amis des Marais du Vigueirat and owned by the Conservatoire du Littoral.
This training workshop is part of a three-year program, with three different annual modules, each in three languages: English, French and Spanish. The aim of these modules is to :
transmit methodologies and best practices for carrying out HZIs to the Contracting Parties admitted to each session;
develop their skills in wetland mapping, in particular using Earth Observation technologies and ;
support them in producing and updating their HZIs.
HZIs are an urgent priority for the sustainable management of wetlands. An inventory enables us to establish the state of an area through three main axes: water, biodiversity and landscape, and socio-economic activities.
What’s more, INZHs simultaneously meet several challenges:
Sharing and pooling, as they require consultation between stakeholders;
A regulatory challenge, with the importance of these ecosystems taken into account in public policies, particularly for the management of resources such as water and land;
Knowledge about the status and trends of these environments, the biodiversity they harbor and the ecosystem services they provide.
The implementation of an HZNI thus contributes to the fulfillment of several international commitments, notably the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly Goal 6), Targets 1 to 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the land degradation neutrality objectives of the Convention to Combat Desertification, and the climate measures set out in the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Flying over Lake Fitri (Chad) to count the water birds
The lake Fitri is a Ramsar site covering more than 195,000 hectares, and currently the third most important wintering area for Palearctic and Afro-tropical waterbirds in the Sahel. Therefore, the assessment of the wintering population is an important step in the monitoring and sustainable management of waterbirds and their habitats.
In the early morning of the 2nd of February, the DFAP-OFB-TDV team, formed by Abakar Saleh Wachoum, Pierre Defos du Rau and Julien Birard, prepares to fly over Lake Fitri to conduct a sample count of the waterbirds. This aerial survey is made possible thanks to the support of African Parks, which is providing the aeroplane, essential for counting such a vast wetland. Innovation for this session: cameras are attached to the wing strut by Alexandre Delplanque (University of Liège – Gembloux): they will be used to test the feasibility of identifying and counting birds by imagery.
Organised as part of the RESSOURCE+ project[7], coordinated by the FAO and co-financed by the EU and the FFEM, this survey will make it possible, among other things, to update waterbird population sizes and assess the sustainability of wildlife capture for food.
On 7 February 2025, a one-day exchange brought together more than 30 migratory bird specialists at the Tour du Valat. The aim was to learn more about their respective work and strengthen ties within research.
Promoting knowledge sharing within research
Many people work on bird migration, often independently, in various laboratories, organisations and teams in Montpellier and the Camargue (CEFE/CNRS, Tour du Valat, OFB). Despite sharing data, methods and issues, it has been observed that exchanges are often limited, whether between institutions or even between teams within the same organisation.
In order to remedy this, a meeting was organised at the Tour du Valat on 7 February 2025. With more than 30 participants and 9 presentations, this day helped to improve knowledge of each other’s work and strengthen the links between those working on migratory birds.
The presentations during the day showed that, within this group, the study of migratory birds is mainly based on telemetry, in particular the use of GPS beacons. This tool is used to improve knowledge of wintering areas, migratory corridors, the migratory strategies of certain species, such as the Yellow-legged Gull and the Greater Flamingo, as well as the exposure of birds to various anthropogenic threats.
In addition to this, other methods were presented as part of the studies: ringing, isotopic analyses and radar studies. Integrating these data improves understanding of migratory dynamics, as demonstrated in the Migralion project, as well as health monitoring. Demographic monitoring by ringing was also presented for the collared pratincole and the yellow-legged gull. Finally, the Habitrack project combines demographic data and connectivity.
So what’s next?
The presentations on migratory birds highlighted the diversity of the species and the areas concerned, as well as the international dimension of this subject, raising major issues for their conservation. Migratory birds connect different countries, regions and individuals – such as those present during this day of exchanges, which underlines the importance of a collaborative approach to their preservation. With this in mind, a next edition is already planned for 2026
Recommendations brochure for “IMPROVING BIODIVERSITY IN CAMARGUESE RICE SYSTEMS”.
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Based on several years’ monitoring of biodiversity and farming practices in the Camargue, the Tour du Valat, in collaboration with Solagro and Agribio 04, is proposing ways to improve the reception of biodiversity in Camargue rice-growing systems. These recommendations are set out in a brochure published in January 2025, aimed in particular at farmers in the sector.
The Camargue is home to exceptional biodiversity, thanks to a mosaic of natural habitats (lagoons, marshes, salt marshes) and those shaped by agricultural activities, such as rice-growing, which plays a key role in creating wetland habitats at the height of the summer season. However, as elsewhere in Europe, the decline of farmland birds is accelerating, as a result of the loss of habitats and resources. In the face of climate change, soil salinization and herbicide resistance, it is urgent to rethink production systems and experiment with practices that are more resilient in the face of climatic hazards and market volatility, while preserving and enhancing the biodiversity of this exceptional site.
Based on work carried out in the Camargue and elsewhere in Europe, and taking into account the specific context of agriculture in Mediterranean wetlands, the Tour du Valat and its partners have published a new brochure containing recommendations for promoting biodiversity in Camargue rice-growing systems. These recommendations target the compartments for which we have expertise: birds, chiropterans, reptiles, amphibians, insects and fish.
We hope that these proposals will provide a starting point for designing new, sustainable and economically viable rice-growing systems that contribute to the biological richness and resilience of this region.
👉 The brochure, enriched with testimonials from Camargue rice growers, is available free of charge in hard copy on request from Tour du Valat and as a download at the bottom of the page (in french only).
Editors
Arnaud Béchet, Thomas Galewski & Pierre Mallet
Caroline Gibert
Clémence Rivoire
Illustrations
Cyril Girard
Graphic design
Garance Guiraud
With the support of
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Béchet A., Galewski T., Mallet P., Rivoire C. & Gibert C. 2024. Améliorer l’accueil de la biodiversité dans les systèmes rizicoles camarguais. Tour du Valat. Arles, France.
Over 700 visitors came to enjoy our Open House 2025. Organized every year to mark World Wetlands Day, this day is an opportunity for curious people of all ages to discover the Tour du Valat research institute and its regional nature reserve, which is exceptionally open to the public.
In addition to the two signposted, free-access tours of the Nature Reserve, the public were able to enjoy a wide range of activities throughout the day. These included tasting products from the Petit Saint-Jean agroecological farm, learning more about pink flamingos at the “Adopt a Flamingo” stand, and a presentation of the research carried out by Clémence Vigneault.
Presentation of Clémence Vazard’s research
Discover the research of Clémence Vazard[8] and Antonio Navarro, two artists who regularly work on the Tour du Valat estate as part of their art and design research with “Atelier Luma”.[9]
The day was punctuated by three round-table discussions:
“The European eel in Mediterranean lagoon environments”, by Amélie Hoste[10], a post-doctoral student who recently defended her thesis at Tour du Valat;
“Flamingos: between nature and culture”, a presentation of the new book by author and photographer Jean E. Roché;
From manade management to bat monitoring, from the analysis of plastics found in gull castings to agroecology, the day’s events were an opportunity to discover the wide range of activities carried out at the Tour du Valat. What do they have in common? Whether they take place in the Regional Nature Reserve or in the Mediterranean Basin, all our actions are aimed at conserving wetlands.
As their name suggests, wetlands are characterized by the coexistence of land and water, whether on the surface or in the ground, permanently or temporarily. Still poorly known and often misunderstood, these environments are essential to human societies and all living things. From water regulation during floods and droughts, to carbon storage, biodiversity reservoirs and the production of natural resources, wetlands provide many essential services.
World Wetlands Day
World Wetlands Day (WWD) is celebrated every year on February 2, to commemorate the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar.
The theme of World Wetlands Day 2025 was: “Protecting wetlands for our common future”.
Every year, the Tour du Valat sets photographic traps near colonies of Eurasian spoonbills in the Camargue, enabling us to collect several thousand photographs. By taking part in the ‘Where is Spoony?’ campaign, you can help us to analyse these photos, identify the Eurasian Spoonbills and gain a better understanding of their breeding and migration behaviour.
Since 2008, the Tour du Valat has been running a programme to monitor Spoonbill populations in the Camargue. This monitoring consists of an annual assessment of the population of the White Spoonbill colonies and the ringing of the chicks. By fitting a white Darvic ring with 4 black letters and numbers, we can then identify them individually throughout their lives. To date, more than 24,000 observations of Eurasian Spoonbills in Europe and Africa have been made as part of this programme.
In order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms influencing the population dynamics of the Eurasian Spoonbill in Europe, the Tour du Valat installs camera traps near breeding colonies in the Camargue. Each year, these cameras capture more than 30,000 photographs! This is a huge amount of information, which would be a long and tedious job for a single observer. What’s more, as some of the rings that appear are blurred or distant, they could easily be overlooked without several checks.
Efficient analysis of this vast amount of data is made possible by public participation in the project. « Where is Spoony ? [12]». By reading and identifying the rings worn by the spoonbills in the images, the survey participants enabled us to extract data from the images taken by the camera traps.
We can then identify which birds have survived the winter and which are breeding in the Camargue. Additional information such as the sex of the bird, the breeding partner, or even unusual events (such as the intrusion of predators like wild boar) can also be identified. To date, the involvement of over 6,000 volunteers has made it possible to process more than 40,000 photos.
The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) is a large bird, averaging 90 cm in length and weighing around 2 kg when fully grown. It takes its name from its characteristic long, black, spatula-shaped beak, which distinguishes it from all other large European waders. Its plumage is entirely white, with black legs and a yellow breast patch. The plumage of juveniles is very similar to that of adults: they can be distinguished by the black tips of their flight feathers. Spoonbills are wetland birds, preferring freshwater marshes, lagoons or estuaries close to the coastline.
In France, the Eurasian Spoonbill is considered to be near-threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s French Red List and benefits from an International Action Plan for its conservation.
Publication of National Biodiversity Observatory key figures on French wetlands
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To mark World Wetlands Day, the French National Biodiversity Observatory (NBO) has published an overview of the state of biodiversity in French wetlands, written in partnership with Tour du Valat.
Marshes, lagoons, estuaries, mangroves… Situated between land and water, wetlands are veritable biodiversity “hotspots”, indispensable to many plant and animal species. They also provide humans with numerous ecosystem services, as well as essential resources – water, food, cool islands, materials, habitats, etc. – for their social, economic and cultural activities. – for their social, economic and cultural activities. For example, one in eight people in the world derives food or useful materials for daily life from them.
In France, around 30% of the country’s total surface area is suitable for wetlands.
Although their current surface area in France is a source of debate, the most likely range is between 15 and 20% of the French territory still covered by wetlands at the dawn of the 21st century. But wetlands are still highly threatened by human pressures and continue to disappear, despite the protection and restoration measures implemented in recent years.
It is more important than ever to continue our preservation efforts, especially as many of them are already bearing fruit: for example, various species of waterbirds, as well as otters and beavers, are seeing their populations increase again. Two indicators that encourage us to step up our efforts to protect and restore these essential environments.
This ONB document was written in partnership with Tour du Valat, Ramsar France, OFB, SDES, Agence de l’Eau Rhône Méditerranée Corse, Forum des Marais Atlantiques, DEB of the French Ministry of Ecology, and IOWater.
Discover the former Camargue salt marshes and find out more about the key figures for wetlands in this OFB video (4 minutes) :
Arnaud Béchet, Thomas Galewski & Pierre Mallet
Caroline Gibert
Clémence Rivoire
