A  series  of  Natural  History  films  about  Italian  wildlife  

directed by

Francesco Petretti

The series

In the heart of the Mediterranean region there is a special world, where bears and eagles live still free among the remains of a distant past.

It is a true treasure-trove of biodiversity that, from the Alps to the beautiful islands facing Africa, is home of  riches of inestimable value, thousands of species of plants and animals, including the continent’s largest predators.

This is Italy: here, a wild heart still beats side by side to art and history.  ( look at Catalogue)

For 350 days a year it is impossible to approach the rocky shore on the western side of the island of Marettimo, in the archipelago of the Aegadian Islands, off the coast of Sicily.
In front is the open sea and, almost 120 km away, the coast of Africa. The slightest wind, and the sea begins to heave and the waves beat violently against the rocks.
This is one of the few places in the world where one of the Mediterranean’s most mysterious inhabitants, the storm petrel, breeds.
Very few have ever observed them or visited their breeding colonies and very few know for sure where these little seabirds spend their time when they are not busy nesting.
Even the fishermen, who are very familiar with shearwaters and gulls and the other inhabitants of their waters, know very little about storm petrels.

The bee eater Merops apiaster is one of the star of the new film The Serengeti of the insects - The grassy plains, part of the series The land of Biodiversity,
It is written and directed by Francesco Petretti, biologist and film maker.
The photos which show this magnificent insect hunter have been shot by Omero Rossi.