He was a noted popularizer of natural history and a campaigner for elephant conservation who worked to stop the trade in ivory.
His mother was of Russian and Polish origins who moved to Eastern Europe when he was a young child after his father was killed in the war.
He joined the Free French Forces in Ardeche and served in the Rhone valley and Alsace where he also became interested in alpine wildlife.
Berlioz offered Pfeffer a position as animal collector on an expedition to Borneo in 1956 with film maker Georges Bourdelon.
He became a popular figure in France after he produced a television series on the animals of the world started by François de La Grange with fellow presenter Antoine Reille from 1969 to 1975.