The Barmus loop trail : Snowshoe Passy

The exhibition an information office Maison de la Réserve naturelle de Passy is located in Plaine-Joux and welcomes you during the school holidays. The permanent exhibition about fauna, flora and landscapes will open the doors to the nature reserve. You may find answers to some of your questions here and can admire the wild species hidden in nature. If the Maison de la Réserve naturelle is closed, don’t worry, go up to the passageway. There is permanent free access to information about former (geological times) and present landscapes, the wonders of biodiversity and the great challenges of the mountains of the future (water, glaciers, global warming...).

Thanks to its robust beak, this bird mainly feeds on seeds or nuts!

In order to feed during the winter, it will collect the seeds of cembros or other pine-trees during the summer and hide them in the ground. By dispersing the seeds while transporting them, it participates in the forest regeneration process.

It is a small forest passerine that often lives in the company of its congeners, such as the Black-capped Chickadee or the Willow Tit, because they like the same habitats.

Its presence is linked to that of old trees, whether dead wood or aging trees, which are also called "senescent wood". It particularly appreciates softwood forests (spruces, pines and firs).

It is a little bundle of energy, lively and in constantly in motion, easy to recognize by its crest. It feeds on small insects, larvae and spiders but also of conifer seeds.

During the harsh winter conditions, animals have no other choice than trying to survive day after day. Our presence on their territory will obviously disturb them, and even frighten them; so let's try to minimize this disturbance:

• Stop and wait quietly untill the animal goes away.
• Do not shout or make sudden movements which would stress the animal even more.
• Do not try to approach it nor follow it.

Highly sensitive to any disturbance, it seeks for resting areas in the northern valleys during the winter. The Black Grouse saves its energy by limiting its activity. An icon of mountain fauna and a shy bird, it was called after the shape of its tail feathers, which are curved like a lyre!

The male, or rooster, keeps its blue-black plumage in all seasons. The hen, which raises the broods on its own, has a less colorful and reddish-brown plumage, providing good camouflage and protection from predators. Homochromy is the word used for this protective coloring in animals that makes an individual visually become part of the landscape.

This species, using mimicry, is able to transform its plumage according to the seasons, becoming visually part of the landscape. During the winter, its plumage is pure white; during the summer, it has brown and black spots on the top; in autumn it is grayish flaked with white on the top.
Its name, which means "hare's foot", refers to its foot digits covered by fuzz in the winter!
It is one of the most endangered bird species in the Alps.
Every year the nature reserves of Haute-Savoie, in collaboration with "L'Observatoire des Galliformes de Montagne", carry out population monitoring in order study their evolution.