Home > Things to see The natural environment > Fauna

Fauna

The Calanques conceal an abundance and diversity of animal life that is typically found in coastal Mediterranean areas. The wild nature of the animals means that only the most patient, discreet and attentive walkers will manage to spot the small inhabitants of the massifs. Some species are endangered and are protected by law.

Reptiles: numerous lizards - the small, rare gecko lizard - and many species of snake: (smooth snake (Coronella girondica), ladder snake (Elaphe scalaris), Montpellier snake (Malpolon monspessulanus)).

Insects : cicadas, numerous butterflies, locusts and grasshoppers, various beetles, the processionary caterpillar with its irritant hairs, millipedes.

Birds offer the widest variety of species on the massif.
On the massif : the red partridge, the nightingale, bunting, many warblers, the great spotted cuckoo which can be found in the pine forests, the hoopoe which is now in decline and the blue blackbird which prefers the rocky zones.
On the cliffs : the large raven, many swallows and swifts including the pallid swift and the alpine swift, the wall creeper, the alpine accentor and the red-billed chough.
Birds of prey and owls: several couples of eagle owl, the little owl, a couple of Bonelli's eagles and several couples of peregrine falcon.
Multitudes of marine birds : the northern gannet, the crested cormorant, puffins, and of course the seagull. This is also the only nesting site across the Mediterranean of the storm-petrel.

Mammals : wild rabbits, squirrels, the dormouse, the fieldmouse, black rats, shrews, some foxes and weasels, badgers, wild boars and the European freetailed bat (the largest bat in Europe).