Bear and Wolf tracking in the Southern Carpathians Mountains - 21 Feb 20

Barsa Valley area - Dan

Dan collected us at home at 8:30 and we drove to a private area where he's got permission to take guests walking. Here is the itinerary for the day...

21st February: Barsa Valley area. vast expanses of unbroken forests between Piatra Craiului and Fagaras Mountains, no tourism there, no human settlements either, stunning views over a good part of the Southern Carpathians

Just a few metres from the car and we already found bear prints!!

Then wolves and bears!!

I'm a qualified level 1 tracker (lol, if you know anything about tracking, that means I know next to nothing!!) so this was great fun for me.  For anyone interested in tracking....

Wolves vs dogs...

• Wolves toes are more oval.
• Wolves back toes further back..can draw line between front and back toes.
• Because wolves generally have a smaller chest (the dogs here don't look like Annie - they look like lions!!!) their straddle is narrow (the left and right are in the same line).

The shepherds here keep about 7 dogs in a pack to ward off the wolves and bears. Wolves generally have packs of 2 to 5 only.

Big bear prints everywhere!!

Wolf prints

We saw a XX owl, related to the tawny owl, where this one had black eyes and tawny has yellow.

Lynx

Deer

Wild boar

Vole

(he looks like this)

Dan showed us where bears have rubbed themselves on trees and left behind fur.

Some prettiness

Lunch spot, where it started snowing

We spent some time sitting quietly, willing a bear or pack of wolves to run past, but all we got was some snow. Lots of it!!

Knocked down by storm Ciara

Our host brought us dinner, a traditional meal made with polenta and cheese. It's good.

mămăligă