Camargue : Fauna and Flora

The rich­ness and speci­fici­ty of the Camargue’s veg­e­ta­tion derives from the dual influ­ence of water and salt. Irri­ga­tion water soft­ens the north of the delta, while sea­wa­ter intro­duced to the south for salt pro­duc­tion increas­es soil salin­i­ty. Halophilic plants are pre­dom­i­nant in these con­di­tions since they adapt well to salty envi­ron­ments. Sam­phire, grow­ing in small bushy clus­ters with green foliage, is most rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Camargue.

Locat­ed on the migra­tion route between north­ern Europe and Africa, the Camar­gue is an impor­tant migra­to­ry stopover for many water birds and ducks, mak­ing it an out­stand­ing bird­watch­ing site. More than 150,000 birds, rep­re­sent­ing over 250 dif­fer­ent species, trav­el through the Camar­gue dur­ing their migra­tion or live here through­out the year. The species most rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Camar­gue is the pink flamin­go !