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Europe's Bear Capital

Searching for Eurasian brown bears in Romania

By Nick Gates

December 26^th, 2018

The Eurasian brown bear has an incredible refuge in Europe. I went to search for them in Romania's Carpathian Mountains in October 2017.

Romania has somewhere in the region of 5-6,000 wild brown bears, having recovered from around 1,000 individuals in the early 20th century. The reason that Romania is The Bear capital of Europe (well, excluding Russian Europe) has a large part to do with the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, whereby logging and forest use were strictly controlled - even to the point that bears could only be hunted by a select minority. Ironically, as the people of Romania increasingly went hungry, these forest ecosystems recovered spectacularly and as a result the Romanian Carpathian Mountains boast some of richest biodiversity in Europe.

We settled on Zarnesti as our base, a small hill village that contains all the traditional charm but offers what turned out to be one of the finest guest houses in Romania! The Hora cu Brazi is a beautiful chalet type hotel – perfectly situated overlooking the sheep and cow grazed hill pasture. The staff were extremely helpful and the meals were superb. Be sure to try the rosehip preserve at breakfast!

Twice a day this cow would pass our hotel. It turns out it was being walked from the middle of the village (literally out of someone's house) up to its field for pasture.

As this was only a short break, I got in contact with a local guide to show us around for the first couple of days. Dan Marin can be found at Transylvanian Wolf . He has an extraordinary knowledge of all aspects of the natural history in the area. From unusual flora to subtle footprints, superb mammal-spotting to excellent bird knowledge - I highly recommend booking some tours with him. Alongside these credentials, he's a thoroughly nice chap to go out walking with and is always armed with a flask of home-made herbal tea (all from dried local flora).

We had one key goal on this trip - and that was to see a wild European brown bear. In October, bears are busy feeding up for the winter, looking for fruits, nuts and invertebrates to fatten up on. Dan took us on a tour of the local hills to check out all his likely bear haunts.

Walking between mixed deciduous and coniferous forest cover, we kept coming out into these huge hay meadows. At this time of year they appeared empty, but closer inspection revealed a steady flow of a butterfly species I had never seen - the stunning Queen of Spain fritillary. These are a rare migrant to Britain but here they let me get very close as they basked on the gravel track.

A summer house

Occasionally we would come across these beautiful old shepherd's houses in the meadows. This one was a little tumble down but still perfectly useable for some hill camping. These are still used by the local shepherd's for summer grazing.

Scratching post

As we walked through the stunning Carpathian forests, evidence of bears was everywhere! Many of the trees we came across had damage were bears had peeled back the bark to get to invertebrates underneath. The natural response from the tree is to ooze out resin - which makes a perfect scratching post for a bear. Before I'd even seen one, it gave me a good idea of the size of these massive omnivores. I'm over 6ft tall and their were bear hairs left on this tree above my reach.

Clear trails

The routes in the Carpathian mountains are really well marked out and super easy to follow. Signs are painted onto the trees to help keep you on track.

We're used to finding oak galls in the UK - a response by the tree to an egg laid on it by the oak marble gall wasp. In the Carpathian beech forests there is a species of midge (Mikiola fagi) that lays on beech. This beautiful gall is the result - a perfect little structure that looks like a pine nut balanced on the leaf.

wasp hunters

More evidence of bears. Old tree stumps are a favourite site for wasps to build their nests. And bears love wasp grubs. Evidence of damage like this is a sure sign that a bear has ripped open the rotting stump to get at the tasty larder hidden inside.

ten woodpecker species

The Carpathians are home to all ten European woodpecker species. There was abundant evidence of their presence as we travelled through the forest.

woodpecker workshop

I was amazed when Dan pointed out this awesome tree stump we passed. These cones have been placed in the gaps of this rotting stump by woodpeckers. It gives them a firm site from which they can then hammer out the nutritious nuts hidden inside. Dan told us that sites like these were called 'woodpecker workshops' which I loved!

Even though it was October, there were quite a number of lizards still out. I believe this is a young individual of the local subspecies of sand lizard (Lacerta agilis chersonensis)

Hill farms

To reach one of the bear-spotting vantage points we hiked up through a small traditional farming village. The locals here still practiced traditionally cut meadows, and being October each field was painted with delicately balanced hay ricks - essential fodder for the tough winter here in the mountains. The layout of the land was similar to the crofting hill towns once found across Scotland. Each house had its own field, but everyone had access to graze their flocks up in the hills. We got very excited when a couple of small brown objects appeared on the cliffs opposite (a favourite bear-grazing site) but they turned out to be a small flock of chamois!

Needle in a haystack

Somewhere in there is a bear (or three) fattening up for winter!

The woodland paths were still turning up fresh prints - so we knew we were on the right track. Each time we got to a set of prints, Dan would glance at them and let us know when the bear had likely passed through. We also came across fresh boar tracks - fortunately at that point the swine flu that was devastating European boar populations hadn't reached this Carpathian population. Nutrackers were another regular, the population here seemed remarkably unfazed by people!

A bear's best friend

Walking in the higher hills we often came across small flocks of sheep guarded by sheep dogs. These all had the top of one ear cut off (according to local tradition this makes the dogs more aggressive) and wore spiked collars to prevent predators attacking their throats.

These dogs are without a doubt one of the key reasons that bears are still present in such numbers in Romania's Carpathians. By alerting the shepherds to any predators and working together in packs - these dogs are able to chase off an adult bear before it has had the chance to kill any livestock. This helps reduce the number of livestock incidences and associated retaliatory killings seen in many other countries where large carnivores and farm stock occur together.

bear hide o'clock

We found evidence of bears everywhere but despite straining eyes on every hint of movement amongst the trees and glades, we couldn't pick out an autumn bear. So we went for Plan B - Dan took us up to one of the bear hides in the hills.

These hides are an active part of the management strategy for bears in the Carpathians. By providing limited food (biscuits, nuts and fruit) for the bears well away from human habitation (this hide was a 10km drive from Zarnesti) it reduces the incidences of bears coming into the towns and looking for food. Bears in towns lead to many problems, whilst bears viewed from a safe hide in the mountains are an excellent way to generate revenue that goes back into managing the bear population here.

my first wild brown bears

Over the course of about two hours we were lucky enough to see seven different adult Eurasian brown bears. Most of the bears in the area were known to our guide Dan, which gave us some great insight into the behaviour we witnessed. The third bear to arrive was a large female - the most dominant bear in the area. She proceeded to chase off the next four bears to arrive. She even had a fairly impressive rough and tumble fight with one large male who wasn't too keen on giving up all the free grub. The guttural roars emitted by two of Europe's top predators fighting sent a real adrenaline shot of primal excitement through me!

Brasov city

On our spare half day we went to explore the local town of Brasov. I'd recommend taking the vintage cable car up the mountain to get a spectacular view over the city. Watch out for 'vipers' basking in the sun... The city itself is lovely, full of character and the square is a really pleasant place to enjoy a drink in the sun.

dracula's Castle

I can't forget that the town of Zarnesti is just a few miles away from Bran - home to the famous Bran Castle. Whilst it is well known as 'Dracula's Castle' - I learnt that there is apparently no connection between Bram Stoker's famous character and this place - the castle seems to have inherited the nickname in recent decades.

How to see brown bears in europe

It amazed me how easy it was to see wild brown bears in Europe. It was great to see a country taking such pride in their megafauna (something the UK still refuses to embrace) - and actively managing their numbers in a careful balance that protects local farming as well as eco-tourism. Everyone we met was lovely and the food was superb. Romania is full of fascinating and diverse culture and I can't wait to go back.

If you would like to go and see Eurasian brown bears, here is the simple formula:

Fly from any major UK airport to Bucharest
Hire a car and drive up to Zarnesti
Stay in one of the many available guesthouses, e.g. the Hora cu Brazi
Hire a local guide (I can certainly recommend Dan Marin)
Enjoy seeing the local wildlife!

Did this trip report help you?

If you're planning a trip to this region, I hope this report has proved helpful? If so, why not buy me a beer or a coffee, it really helps the long nights spent planning the next trip: