Summer series: with “Grandeur Nature”, “24 heures” explores the wilderness

Do you know springtails? If not, rest assured, we knew nothing about these tiny creatures until researchers from Naturéum draw our attention to this unique fauna which swarms, neither seen nor known, just under our feet, playing a crucial role in the quality of the soil. And the most incredible thing is that there are millions of species, most of which remain to be discovered! In a few days, we will therefore leave on a scientific expedition to the summit of the Dent de Morcles to try to discover new Swiss springtails. Exactly like 18th century naturalists^e or XIX^e centuries in search of unknown animals or exotic plants.

Entitled “Grandeur Nature”, our summer series resolutely focuses on the natural sciences. From Monday July 1 and throughout the school holidays, over the course of around forty episodes to discover on the back page of your newspaper and on our digital platforms, we will explore together the wild side of the world around us.

Not only will we marvel at the beauty of our mountains, lakes and forests, but we will also learn to better understand and respect the living things that pulse in our regions, thanks to the experts at the Naturéum. Scientists who, far from dozing in a Palais de Rumine frozen in its juice, work hard on the museum’s collections and contribute significantly to the most advanced research on biodiversity.

Geological walks

Geological walks will allow us to better read the landscape, to understand how mountains are formed or to teleport us to a very distant past under the palm trees of the Alps. This is how we will get to know the mysterious hippopotamus of Morges or the dwarf crocodiles of Arzier and that we will follow in the footsteps of the Vaudois mammoths.

Less funny, we will cry about the scarcity of insects, these reputed pests against which we still rail too often even though our destiny as humans is intimately linked to their survival.

Open your nostrils!

We will also allow ourselves a few excursions outside the cantonal borders. We will go to Northern Norway, for example, along high black cliffs where one of the most terrible sea currents roars, the maelstrom of the Lofoten Islands. We will walk in the Grisons where we will learn to close our eyes to experience nature in a different way than by rinsing our eyes: through touch, taste and hearing, but above all by savoring its smells, all nostrils deployed. An extraordinarily generous nature, within reach, whose wild plants we will learn to identify as well as their gastronomic and curative virtues in the wake of François Couplan, the ace of picking.

Capybara, my love

We will accompany the famous crystal makers of the Chamonix valley, we will unravel the mysteries of the tidal bores which go up the Dordogne, in Gironde. And we will also smile, by getting to know the capybara better, this illustrious stranger with thick hair and a clumsy figure who has become the darling of social networks.

We will also follow another large rodent which is making a comeback in the canton: the beaver, this tireless builder which seems determined to colonize our renatured rivers. We will leave under the stars with a wildlife ranger, to discover all these little unsuspected lives that are active while we sleep. In total, around forty adventures and discoveries will punctuate your life-size summer from Monday. You come with us?

Joëlle Fabre has been deputy editor-in-chief of “24 Heures” since March 2013. Passionate about social issues, local politics and the lives of local people, she won the Swiss Local Journalism Prize in 2003 and 2007. She has been a member of the Swiss Press Council since early 2021.More informations

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