A dragon in the garden?

During an outing of our association, Connaissance du Médoc, to the Marais du Conseiller at Le Verdon, we learned a lot about the fauna of the marshes. Our competent and excellent guide provided by the Curuma Association, which is one of the bodies responsible for the management of the marsh, had a very receptive audience among the participants of our Association many of whom are of course themselves very knowledgeable with regard to the Medoc, even if in not all the botanical details of the flora and fauna.

This was a very exciting and rewarding experience which ended with the distribution of brochures provided by the Permanent Centre for Environmental Initiatives (CPIE), including one that has particularly appealed to us: A Dragon! In my Garden? (Un dragon ! Dans mon jardin ?) This is an initiative which invites all local residents to record and list the frogs, lizards,newts and salamanders in their gardens. All the amphibians are listed and classified in the brochure. We were thus able to identify a majority of those which are resident in our own garden. Their presence demonstrates a healthy environment: what’s good for animals is also good for us humans! Or in other words, the presence, the number and extent of certain animal species says something about the quality of life for us humans.

Anyone wishing to support the initiative is asked to photograph these animals in their own garden and send their observations to the CPIE. The Curuma association can provide more information if needed.

So we at once brought out the camera in the garden and photographed a marbled newt whose presence we had been aware of for a while. The palmate newt and tree frogs are also our squatters and little concerned by our activities. To cap it all we were able to see the very special emerald salamander in the garden of a friend.

So, it seems the optimum conditions exist in Médoc for us all to live to at least a hundred!

Christian Büttner/Elke Schwichtenberg (Saint Vivien), translation: Christopher Murray