Wild Animals in France

This field guide lists 69 wild animals whose research-grade iNaturalist sightings are concentrated in France: 40 ray-finned fish, 10 mammals, 9 amphibians, 5 reptiles and 2 other groups. The most frequently recorded are Common Wall Lizard, Western Green Lizard and Giant Toad. Every species below has its own page with a photo, its scientific name, its conservation status and where it is most observed.

69 — the species in the Tracks field guide for which France holds the most verified sightings. This is not a complete national checklist: a species recorded even more often in a neighbouring country appears on that country's page instead, and the Tracks app itself catalogues 40,286 species worldwide. Between them these 69 species account for 208,789 research-grade observations.

Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis), with 69,195 research-grade observations on iNaturalist — more than any other species on this page. Next most recorded are Western Green Lizard and Giant Toad. "Most recorded" means most often photographed and verified by people, which is a good proxy for what a visitor is likely to actually see.

On the Tracks rarity scale the rarest species on this page is Wild Horse (Epic tier), with 383 recorded sightings. Tracks rarity is based on how often a species is actually encountered rather than on its conservation status, so a rare card is a hard animal to find, not necessarily a threatened one.

This guide lists 10 mammals for France, most-recorded first: Lesser Horseshoe Bat, Garden Dormouse, Daubenton's bat, Western Barbastelle, Geoffroy's Bat and Wild Horse, plus 4 more on this page.

4 bird species are listed for France. The most frequently recorded are Short-toed Eagle, Common Firecrest, Alpine Accentor and Wallcreeper.

Yes — 5 reptiles and 9 amphibians are listed for France. They include Common Wall Lizard, Western Green Lizard, Asp Viper, Tyrrhenian Wall Lizard, East Iberian Psammodromus and Giant Toad, plus 8 more on this page. Reptiles and amphibians are under-recorded almost everywhere relative to birds and mammals, so treat these counts as a floor.

1 of the species on this page belong to the groups behind most wildlife injuries — large carnivores, crocodilians, sharks, venomous snakes and big herbivores. It is Asp Viper. It avoids people given the chance. The practical rules are the same everywhere: never approach, corner or feed a wild animal, keep dogs leashed, store food securely, and give any animal with young a wide berth.

Yes. 1 of the snakes listed for France belong to venomous groups: Asp Viper. Snake bites are overwhelmingly a result of handling or trying to kill the animal. Treat every snake you can't identify as venomous, back away, and let it leave.

No marine or coastal species are listed for France. The 69 species here are the ones most associated with France in the guide, not the country's full fauna.

5 of the species on this page are IUCN-listed as Vulnerable or worse: Wild Horse (Endangered), Asp Viper (Vulnerable), Garden Dormouse (Vulnerable), Dentex (Vulnerable) and Common Stingray (Vulnerable). Conservation status is shown on every species page.

No insects or arachnids appear on this page — the guide's France list is mostly ray-finned fish and mammals. A species is shown on the page of whichever country records it most, so any insects or arachnids recorded in France either sit on another country's page or fall outside the guide's 69-species slice.

Dawn and the hour before dusk, almost everywhere and for almost every species: most mammals are crepuscular, and birds are loudest and most active in the first hours of daylight. Weather matters as much as season — overcast, still mornings after rain are productive, and hot midday hours are the worst time to be out looking. Each species page links to its iNaturalist record, where the observation dates show when people in France actually recorded it.

National parks, nature reserves and protected wetlands concentrate both animals and the people recording them, but the edges are often better than the core: hedgerows, riverbanks, coastal paths, and the scrubby margins between habitats. Cities count too — a large share of the sightings behind this page were logged in parks, gardens and suburbs. Because every species here is backed by iNaturalist records, its species page links straight to the map of where it has actually been observed.

Photograph it if you safely can, and note the size, habitat and behaviour. The Tracks app scans the area you're standing in and shows the animals people have actually recorded there, which narrows an identification far faster than searching a national list. If the animal you saw isn't in Tracks yet, add it on iNaturalist: its community will help you put a name to it, and because Tracks is built from iNaturalist's research-grade observations, a sighting verified there feeds back into the data behind pages like this one.

No — and in many places it is also illegal. Feeding is the fastest way to ruin a wild animal. It teaches them to associate people with food, so they lose their wariness and start working car parks, campsites and picnic tables; a habituated animal that begins grabbing food gets labelled a nuisance and is usually destroyed or hit by a road vehicle. Human food is the wrong food too: bread and processed snacks cause malnutrition and wing deformities in birds and gut damage in mammals. And artificial feeding concentrates animals at densities they would never reach naturally, which is how disease spreads through a local population. If you want wildlife closer to you in France, do it by habitat — native planting, a clean water dish, leaving dead wood and leaf litter alone — which supports animals without teaching them to approach people.

No. Keep your distance from every wild animal, however calm it looks — a good rule of thumb is that if the animal changes its behaviour because of you, you are already too close. Don't handle snakes or reptiles, keep dogs leashed near wildlife, and if you find an animal that is injured or appears orphaned, contact a local wildlife rescue or the relevant authority rather than picking it up.