“If animals did not exist, would it not be even more difficult for us to understand ourselves?” – From Histoire naturelle by Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707 – 1788).

Frédéric Demeuse is a naturalist and award-winning wildlife and nature photographer from Brussels, Belgium.

Frédéric is, since years, truly involved in Nature preservation whose goal is to stimulate others to pause and appreciate the wonders of Earth. His work and commitment are intended to extract the beauty of our common essence from the chaos of the world in an artistically powerful way, as a tribute to the greatness of Nature but also as a wake-up call about everything we risk to lose.

His images are included in several collections, and have been showcased in galleries, while some have ended up in books, calendars, magazines and numerous publications worldwide.

Today the old distinction between what is man, and what is animal, is crumbling. That distinction was set by earlier workers such as Charles Darwin, Konrad Lorenz, and Niko Tinbergen. More recent work shows that most of the characteristics once regarded as specific to Homo sapiens (use of tools, complex social life, communication, emotions, culture, empathy, creativity,…) are also found in the animal kingdom. We are entering an “animal revolution”.

The science of ethology, fascinating in its own right, also helps us to understand our own condition.

This gallery is a celebration and a re-awakening of our child-like curiosity about animals, from chimp to puffin, from seal to gannet. Our pursuit of that curiosity may, instead of diverting us from the human condition, bring us closer to it.

For, as primatologist Frans de Waal asks: “Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?”