Fauna and flora

A diverse array of wildlife

Spot herbivores (deer, roe deer, chamois, and ibex…all of which are abundant in the Vanoise), rodents (the mountain hare, which changes its coat color with the seasons; the marmot, found mainly in the vast alpine meadows; various voles, including the snow vole and the collared vole), carnivores (the fox, badger, marten, stone marten, the ermine), bats (the common pipistrelle, the northern long-eared bat), and insectivores such as the water shrew.

Among the 125 species ofbirds that nest in the Vanoise are: the golden eagle, the crossbill, the nutcracker, the Tengmalm’s owl, the black-throated flycatcher, the eagle owl, the rock thrush, the rock sparrow, the black grouse, the rock partridge, the rock ptarmigan, the black woodpecker, the three-toed woodpecker (found in France only in Savoie and Haute-Savoie), and the wallcreeper.

1,700 different plants

The latest comprehensive survey of France’s flora, *Flora Gallica*, published in 2014, lists approximately 5,000 species of vascular plants (ferns and fern-like plants, conifers, and flowering plants) in metropolitan France. The Vanoise Massif alone is home to 1,700 species— a third of France’s flora —on less than 0.5% of the country’s total land area!

This diversity can be attributed to the variety of habitats found here, which is linked to the significant elevation gradient, the range of aspect types, and the marked differences in the chemical compositions of the rocks and soils.