It is neither a feline nor a weasel. It is a beautiful animal that can be found everywhere on the Côte d’Azur. Behind closed doors. “He is here, he lives in the same place as us, but no one knows, no one cares, sums up Rémy Masséglia, photographer. It’s great to say that it’s still possible’..
At the end of May, UPA06 filmed another, quite by accident, in Saint-André-de-la-Roche, a town bordering Nice.
They are looking for a white poodle
For almost a month, this animal rights group has been searching for a dog that escaped in the area: Nana, a white-haired toy poodle. The volunteers had installed a camera trap, which films as soon as it detects passage, in an area where the dog’s collar had been found. They had also left food.
Imported from Africa 2,000 years ago
Good morning.
When she got the device back, the volunteer (who wishes to remain anonymous) was surprised. “We really thought the dog had been filmed. We didn’t expect to see one, especially not so close to the city.” Since then, the association has left this sector, but continues to search for Nana.
The genet is a nocturnal, carnivorous animal, extremely discreet, that roams the thickets. Its history is relatively poorly documented: we know that this animal comes from Africa and was imported to Spain 2,000 years ago to be domesticated.
Since then, man has preferred the cat. And the recolonized France from the West and the Franco-Italian border is its easternmost area. It is a protected species.
The photographer and documentarian Rémy Masséglia, who is based in the Roya valley, managed to take several pictures.
“Very sneaky”
“It’s not surprising to find it there, it’s an animal that quite likes cohabitation with humans, but 100% nocturnal, reports the wild enthusiast. They are found almost everywhere, up to 1,600 meters above sea level. It does not go unnoticed aesthetically, but very stealthily in its behavior. You can never meet his eyes.”
“With the cameras, we are more aware of its presence,” he continues. Before, it was almost impossible. It is one of those animals that is hardly studied. This is one of the species that I target for my images: they stimulate the imagination and they are not the subject of research in our country.”
