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Agence France-Presse

His neighbours have cats and dogs, but when 72-year-old Philippe Gillet settles down to watch television there is usually an alligator dozing beside him.
His bungalow in western France is also home to a venomous Gabonese viper, a spitting cobra, a python, alligator turtles that can bite off a finger, tarantulas and scorpions.
When someone unfamiliar enters Gillet’s living room, Gator, a two-metre (6ft 6-inch) alligator, growls from under a coffee table.
“Calm down,” says Gillet, and Gator goes back to his snooze near Alli, another dozing alligator.


“When there is a storm he comes to sleep in my bed,” said Gillet. “People think I am mad.”
In the garden is Nilo, a Nile crocodile, which Gillet said was “one of the most dangerous species”. Chickens wander by scratching for food.
Videos of such episodes and other everyday tales of his deadly menagerie of 400 animals have made Gillet a social media star. They also promote his Inf’Faune charity, which aims to educate people about the animals he is so passionate about.
Gillet lived in Africa for 20 years, working as a hunting guide. He said he would often catch crocodiles there to keep them away from villages.
Back in France, he became a herpetologist – a specialist on reptiles and amphibians. He made his base in Coueron, west of Nantes, with his partner, their children, and the animals.


Most of the animals were bought or given to him by people who could no longer care for them. France’s customs department has also sometimes turned to him.
“You cannot just free them,” said Gillet. “With global warming, freed cobras could reproduce and spread. Is that what we are going to leave our kids?”
Financing his passion has become a problem since the pandemic, however.
His association could no longer organise fundraising open days to show off the animals to the public. They used to bring in €100,000 (US$105,000) a year.
Now his social media videos are the main way he gets the conservation message across.


He chooses a different animal for each video, mixing education and humour “to demystify the legends and preconceptions about wild animals”.
Inf’Faune built up 100,000 YouTube followers in its first four months and now has 198,000. Gillet also has almost 700,000 TikTok followers. The revenue allows Gillet – and the 20 volunteers who help him – feed the animals.
But Gillet is still concerned about the future as he ages.

“Alligators can live up to 100 [years] on average, and Alli and Gator are about 30. The volunteers will have to take over,” he said.
He is already training the volunteers on looking after the animals and wants to set up a specialised refuge for reptiles far from the suburbs where there would be less need for cages and pens.
With his internet following, Gillet has already raised €15,000 for the centre. “There are refuges for dogs and cats, why not for these unloved [species]?”


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Pets

Frenchman Philippe Gillet, 72, strokes Alli, one of the two alligators who live in his house, in Coueron, western France. Photo: AFP

Philippe Gillet, 72, opens the door for his crocodile in his house in Coueron, western France. The retired hunting guide in Africa keeps 400 exotic animals. Photo: AFP

Frenchman Philippe Gillet, 72, shines a black light on a pet scorpion. Photo: AFP

One of the two alligators who live in Gillet’s house, in the west of France. Photo: AFP

Gillet with his parrot in his house. Photo: AFP

A tarantula climbs the wall in Gillet’s house. Photo: AFP

Gillet also has cobras in his house. Photo: AFP

Gillet with Australian pogonas, a lizard species also called bearded dragons. Photo: AFP

Frenchman Philippe Gillet, 72, feeds a falcon as his crocodile Nilo heads for the door. Photo: AFP

In Churchill, Canada, polar bears are a tourist draw, and a daily reality for residents

Tourists aboard a special tundra buggy view a polar bear near the city of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Photo: AFP

A polar bear with its cubs in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Climate change is reducing sea ice and pushing the bears onto land to forage for food. Photo: AFP

Conservation officer Sergeant Ian Van Nest scans the area for polar bears, in Churchill, Manitoba. Photo: AP

A female polar bear sits on rocks outside Churchill. Photo: AP

The survivor of a polar bear attack, Erin Greene holds one of her rescue sled dogs in Churchill, Manitoba. Photo: AP 

A polar bear trap outside the Polar Bear Holding Facility in Churchill, Manitoba. Photo: AP 

Tourists stand outside the Polar Bear Holding Facility in Churchill, Manitoba. Photo: AP 

A person walks along the rocks near Hudson Bay while watching for polar bears. Photo: AP

Sex workers and former addicts in Czech Republic’s capital show tourists city’s dark side

Lada (sitting), a 54-year-old sex worker, takes tourists on a tour of Prague’s underworld. Photo: AFP

Lada became a sex worker at 19. Photo: AFP

Lada (right) does one tour a week to earn 400 Czech koruna (US$17) plus tips. Photo: AFP

Lada (centre) spent 30 years on drugs. Photo: AFP

Making food replicas a popular activity in Japan for tourists hungry for the local culture

Japan’s lifelike food replicas are gaining popularity with tourists, who attend workshops to learn more about how they are made and how the art has evolved. Photo: Iwasaki Company

Hands-on lessons in the art of creating food replicas have caught on with foreign visitors to Japan. Photo: Iwasaki Company

A replica of rice, meat and egg yolk. Models of food items are believed to have first taken off after appearing at a branch of the now-defunct Shirokiya department store in 1923. Photo: Instagram/@iwasaki_sample

A replica of a pasta dish. Every day, a factory in Yokohama is bustling with 50 or so workers painstakingly crafting food replicas. Photo: Instagram/@iwasaki_sample

A replica of a Chinese dish. Production of food replicas has evolved, with materials used to make food samples changing from wax to synthetic resin around the 1980s. Photo: Instagram/@iwasaki_sample

Rows of food replicas at a restaurant in Japan. In response to the decreased demand from eateries, which account for the bulk of its revenue, Iwasaki has been exploring other potential markets. Photo: Iwasaki Company

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Philippe Gillet, a former hunting guide in Africa, keeps 400 exotic pets at his house in France and shares his experiences on social media


Philippe Gillet, a former hunting guide in Africa, keeps 400 exotic pets at his house in France and shares his experiences on social media.


Animals

France

Offbeat