Presentation
Michel ANDRIEUX
France
Photographs
Having been passionate about wild animal life all my life, but unable to devote myself to it because of my very important commitment as a sports coach, I decided shortly after my retirement to turn to another activity, photography, in order to record the beauty of animal life. Another objective is also close to my heart, to show what we are losing if we continue to treat the planet and living beings as we do. I retired 10 years ago and the students at the Grande École where I had been teaching for 37 years gave me my first camera and a lens worthy of the name. I began my apprenticeship by photographing the garden birds that came to the feeders that my wife regularly filled in winter.
Exposition
Its appearance and Latin name, Balaeniceps rex, suggest that it is a living fossil from the Mesozoic era (dinosaur era). The Nile hoofbeak is found only in Africa and in the marshes from north-eastern Zambia and northern Tanzania along the White Nile (from Lake Victoria to Karthoum).
The drying up of its habitat for cultivation and breeding, poaching for its meat and the theft of its eggs for collectors are causing its rapid disappearance. What’s more, when 2 or 3 eggs are laid per clutch, the most vigorous of the chicks will eliminate the others.
A protected species, there are currently fewer than 6,000 individuals left.
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