these animals that made us goats in 2024

The story of Bouboule, this 10-month-old cocker spaniel, has unleashed passions at the end of 2024. Alain Dieryck, 76, lives in Saint-Vaize, near Saintes. Happy owner of his cocker spaniel since last March, the septuagenarian learned that he had cancer two months later… Upsetting news which forced him to make a difficult decision: to find a foster family for Bouboule. At an impasse, he picked up his phone to contact the “Sud Ouest” agency in Saintes, with an unusual request.

On Wednesday November 27, the article relaying his appeal appeared on sudouest.fr. In the space of 48 hours, Alain Dieryck received more than 70 calls and SMS messages from all over France. “I even got a call from Belgium,” he said, when informing us that he had found the ideal people in his eyes to welcome Bouboule into their home. They are Théo Ducept and his partner Elisa, who live in Lagord, near La Rochelle. “The young man grew up with cocker spaniels, I immediately felt his motivation in his voice,” he confided “relieved”.

The incredible dolphin show in the La Rochelle port

The saga lasted two days and attracted many curious people to the port of La Rochelle. On Tuesday, June 25, three common dolphins managed to suddenly enter the Chalutiers basin. The mammals took advantage of the opening of the gates during high tide and managed to enter the lock. The Pelagis observatory and the captaincy tried to keep them away, in vain. Several boaters had the chance to observe them first during the evening chasing mules. Although several solutions were considered to get them out so that they did not disrupt port activities, the trio of mammals ended up leaving the basin on the evening of Thursday, June 27, without requiring human operation. During their two-day parade, the dolphins attracted a large number of onlookers around the pool. The crowd remained compact throughout the day, going into ecstasy at each jump of one of the three mammals. The loving spectators would have liked this escapade to be eternal.

At the La Palmyre zoo, the birth of two giant otters

The pink notebook of the La Palmyre zoo was enriched, in February 2024, with Tayel and Uma, two small females of the species of giant otters released from the belly of Gata, their mother. Very good news for the park which has recently welcomed the species and for the European breeding program which currently brings together 73 individuals spread across 24 institutions.

This type of birth is indeed very rare in a zoo, these animals being particularly sensitive to disturbance when raising young. The comings and goings were therefore limited to only the caregivers in the sector and for extremely short intervals during the first weeks.

“The behavior of the two adults with their young could be followed from the first day of birth thanks to cameras installed in the nest boxes serving as burrows. Around the age of two months, the parents began to regularly transport the otters out of the burrows to the indoor pool so that they could become familiar with the water and learn to swim,” says the animal park.

Crayfish are causing misfortune in waterways

Imagine: you are riding your bike peacefully along the banks of the Charente, and slap, you crush a Louisiana crayfish. In the spring, the invasive species saturated the river so much that it was seen crossing roads to colonize other areas of water. “There was no winter, with less than ten days of frost. The fairly favorable temperatures meant that the crayfish came out earlier than usual. And they reproduce several times a year,” analyzed Yann Davitoglu, project manager for migratory fish and aquatic environments at the EPTB Charente (territorial public basin establishment).

This has delighted the otters, herons and storks, who feast on it. From a few walkers too who only had to bend over to make a fricassee. Much less of the banks, undermined from the inside, and of the other species, which were pecked by this voracious creature. When there are only them left, the crayfish eat each other. The population falls, until the next invasion…

The little bustard pecks at the basins

Stronger than thousands of black blocks determined to do battle with the police, the little bustard! It is indeed this bird, and not the violent clashes of 2022 and 2023, which allowed environmental activists to win, on December 18, a legal battle against the “megabasin” of Sainte-Soline and three others of the 16 basin reserves. of Sèvre Niortaise and Mignon. The courts considered that their establishment in “one of the last areas suitable for the reproduction of the bustard” would harm the conservation of the species. Because the large cultivated plains of Poitou-Charentes are among the last territories where Tetrax Tetrax survives, with its black and white collar (for males) and brown plumage. A protected species, migratory in the center-west of France, the bustard is on the verge of extinction. Its numbers fell from 6,800 to 400 singing males between 1978 and 2000, a reduction of 94% of the population in 22 years (LPO).

Boris Pierre is still looking for his six missing parrots