Fauna and flora

Aussois is home to exceptional flora and fauna. A third of France's flora is represented in the Vanoise. Here, animal and plant species are protected by the Vanoise National Park, which offers them an environment in which they can flourish.

An exceptional wealth

Ibex, stoat, nutcracker...

The wealth of wildlife in the Vanoise National Park is undeniable. From large ungulates to birds, insects and amphibians.

Herbivores (deer, roe deer, chamois, ibex... they can all be found at Aussois and at Haute Maurienne Vanoise), rodents (the mountain hare, which changes its livery with the seasons, the marmot, which can easily be seen from spring to summer in the vast alpine meadows or in valleys such as the Fond d'Aussois, In addition, the region is home to a wide variety of species of wildlife (e.g., various voles, including the snow vole and the collared field mouse), carnivores (foxes, badgers, martens, weasels and ermine), bats (the common pipistrelle and the northern earwig) and insectivores such as the water shrew.

Among the 125 species of birds nesting in the Vanoise are : golden eagle, crossbill, nutcracker, Tengmalm's owl, black flycatcher, long-eared owl, rock blackbird, black grouse, partridge, rock ptarmigan, the black woodpecker, the three-toed woodpecker (only seen in Savoie and Haute Savoie in France) and the astonishing tichodrome, which can sometimes be seen on the walls of the track leading up to Plan d'Amont.

Here, animal and plant species are protected in the Vanoise National Park, which provides them with an environment in which they can flourish.
Aussois is home to exceptional flora and fauna. A third of France's flora is represented in the Vanoise.

A third of France's flora

The latest summary of the flora of France, "Flora Gallica", published in 2014, lists around 5,000 species of vascular plants (ferns and allied plants, conifers and flowering plants) in mainland France. The Vanoise massif alone is home to 1,700 species, representing a third of France's flora on less than 0.5% of the national territory! In spring, you'll find fields and mountain pastures bursting with color. Wild orchids abound, as do the superb Sabots de Vénus and the famous edelweiss.

This exceptional diversity is due to the variety of environments present, the different levels of altitude (from 1,000 to 3,800 meters at Haute Maurienne Vanoise), the range of exposures and the marked differences in the chemical composition of rocks and soils. Aussois and la Haute Maurienne Vanoiseon the boundary between the northern and southern Alps, also benefit from different climatic influences, offering fauna and flora vast opportunities to flourish.