Postcard from Transylvania
What is it like to walk through healthy European forests, complete with their predators and other large mammals? What is it like for people living alongside them, and how are they affected? What might be the real issues we would have to tackle if we consider restoring missing wildlife species to Scotland?
I was woken by howling below my bedroom window, instantly transporting me from deep sleep to being fully awake. All senses primed, the realisation soon came that this was not a wolf, but a Malamute, the husky-like dog owned by my hosts, and one which was used for tracking wolves in the winter. It seemed to prefer this ancestral form of communication to barking!
This summer I had the chance to visit wild and mysterious Transylvania, in central Romania. Tales of Dracula may spring to mind, but I was far more intrigued by the true stories I'd heard of its wild forests, teeming with wildlife. With over half of Europe's brown bears, and over a third of its lynx and wolves, Romania was calling me!
I had lots of questions. For example, what is it like to walk through healthy European forests, complete with their predators and other large mammals? What is it like for people living alongside them, and how are they affected? What might be the real issues we would have to tackle if we consider restoring missing wildlife species to Scotland? After a three-day train journey, I arrived at my destination in Piatra Craiului National Park in the Carpathian Mountains. It contains a beautiful landscape of jagged limestone peaks, beech, spruce and fir forests and a farming system that has changed little in centuries.
Our local guide had an in-depth knowledge of the wildlife, and particularly the large carnivores in the area. We were treated to glimpses of a fantastic array of animals (including a bear and a boar!), plants and other life. He also patiently and expertly responded to my barrage of questions! After a steep walk through the forest one day, we emerged at a shepherds' camp - one of many scattered through the alpine meadows in these forests. The sheep are guarded by fierce dogs, which protect them from wolves and bears. It seems that while these predators occasionally kill livestock, I encountered a surprising amount of tolerance towards them.
Captive wolf in a large enclosure in the park - this was formerly part of the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project. Photo by Dan Puplett. |
It got me thinking that while I personally believe that wolves and bears should return to Scotland in the future, we would need to do a lot of work on methods of livestock protection and compensation to make sure that farmers' livelihoods are not adversely affected. Wolves pose no real threat to humans, but bears can attack if provoked (although such attacks are rare), and we would need to learn how to avoid conflicts with this magnificent creature. So time and public education are essential, in addition to providing adequate space for these predators to live in.
During my stay I was also taken to see a very successful beaver re-introduction project, which left me in no doubt that this aquatic rodent's return to Scotland is long overdue. What about lynx? The question burned in my mind. This beautiful and elusive cat is no threat to humans, and in the area I visited, caused virtually no problems for livestock, partly because of the guard dogs. In fact, my guide told me that these cats are so secretive that some shepherds weren't even aware that they existed in the forests where they'd worked all their lives! Experts believe that in Scotland there is already enough prey and habitat for lynx, and that because sheep live out on open ground, while lynx would stay very much within woodland, there would be very little conflict. So maybe lynx could be with us again sooner rather than later!
It was awe-inspiring to look over vast areas of forest, knowing that somewhere these animals were living out their lives. While the large predators, as well as beaver and wild boar, are very secretive, there was plenty of tantalising evidence of their presence in the forest: fresh footprints of huge red deer, fresh wolf scat filled with fur and the territorial scratchings of a bear, high up the trunk of a tree. All this and more told of the presence of other, wilder forms of life.
Dan Puplett
Related Pages
- Our Once and Future Fauna
- Wild, Free and Coming Back?: A two-day conference hosted by the Wildland Network and Trees for Life, 16 & 17 September 2008
- Postcard from Slovakia, from Caledonia Wild! Summer 2009
- Postcard from Transylvania, from Caledonia Wild! Winter 2007
- Return of the Wild by Roy Dennis
- The Meaning and Relevance of Rewilding in Scotland (abstract of MSc dissertation)
Pages about the Wolf on this site
- Missing species of the Caledonian Forest: Wolf
- Return of the Wolf?
- Ecological Features of the Caledonian Forest: Predation
- Wolves and Ravens
- Postcard from Transylvania
- Mythology and Folklore of the Wolf
- Can an area of the Scottish Highlands sustain a pack of wolves? (abstract of BSc dissertation)
Return to Missing Species of the Caledonian Forest.
