A reddish-brown fur, a brick-colored belly, and a bounding silhouette leaping from tree to tree: this is the description of an animal one might encounter in a documentary about Southeast Asia, but which is now well established along the French Riviera. From the parasol pines of Cap d'Antibes to the gardens of Vallauris, the red-bellied squirrel has quietly conquered a territory that was not originally its own, to the point of forcing the state to deploy administrative measures. This story begins, as often happens, with an innocuous gesture that has become an ecological headache. Around 1966, one or two pairs of red-bellied squirrels brought from Taiwan were released at Cap d'Antibes, giving rise to the oldest population of this species in France. The species competes with the native red squirrel and causes damage to orchards, bark stripping of trees, and predation of eggs and young birds. Despite a 2018 decree prohibiting its keeping and regulation operations involving shooting and trapping, the population continues to expand, notably towards Valmasque beyond the A8. Everything started with a private initiative, around 1966, on the peninsula of Cap d'Antibes. A private individual, owner of a property in this upscale area of the Alpes-Maritimes, reportedly brought some individuals of Callosciurus erythraeus, this squirrel native to Southeast Asia known for its graceful appearance and characteristic red belly. Intended to decorate the garden as simple ornamental animals, one or two pairs ended up being released into the undergrowth of the peninsula, intentionally or accidentally, although no one knows for sure today. What happened afterward is almost like a real-life ecological demonstration. Left to their own devices in a Mediterranean climate that is hospitable, without natural predators to check their expansion, these few individuals gave rise to a population that, half a century later, became the oldest establishment of this species in France. A case study that scientists and authorities still observe today with a mixture of fascination and concern. On paper, nothing predestined this Asian squirrel to thrive under the sun of the Alpes-Maritimes. Accustomed to the subtropical forests of Taiwan, it could have succumbed to the first harsh winter or disappeared due to a lack of adapted resources. However, the particularly mild microclimate of Cap d'Antibes, combined with dense vegetation and an abundance of food available all year round, offered the species almost ideal conditions for a lasting settlement. Even more troubling: as early as 1958, nearly a decade before these squirrels arrived on the French Riviera, the dangers associated with introducing exotic species were already known and documented. Nevertheless, no measures were taken to prevent this establishment or to limit its expansion in the decades that followed. A lack of foresight that is costly today, both ecologically and financially, since the species is now in direct competition with the red squirrel, our native species, for access to food and territories. From the gardens of Antibes to the forests of the Alpes-Maritimes, an unstoppable progression. For more than thirty years, the dense urbanization of Antibes and Juan-les-Pins paradoxically played the role of a natural barrier. Confined to its peninsula, the squirrel population remained restricted to Cap d'Antibes until the 2000s. However, this urban barrier eventually gave way, and the species began a progression that has never stopped since. Vallauris, Le Cannet, Cannes: the neighboring communes have gradually been colonized, the red-bellied squirrel taking advantage of vegetative continuities to expand its territory step by step. Today, its presence is particularly dense along the Antibes-Juan-les-Pins and Vallauris axis, with an ecological impact now well documented: damage to orchards, bark stripping of forest trees, and confirmed predation on the eggs and young of certain bird species. Even more surprising, isolated individuals have recently been spotted well beyond this historical area, in the Valmasque park, north of the A8 highway, probably as a result of a new release by an individual. The loop is almost complete, fifty years after the event.