Romania Part 1: Brown Bears

A the start of June I accompanied a group from Ramblers Worldwide Holidays on a birdwatching tour of Romania. We started in the Carathians, where the highlight was an evening visit to a bear hide. The bears were baited with biscuits, mainly and the first individuals came almost instantaneously. We saw about a dozen individuals, including a mother and two tiny cubs, which I didn't get any photos of.

Nearly all the bears were females of various ages plus young bears of indeterminate gender. When a male turned up, he was flirted with by one of the females, leading to a bit of a game of chase through the forest and the rest scarpered.

One of the highlights for me was hearing bears roaring in the forest. Awesome racket!

A battered older female who visited several times to the clearing. She had a round patch on her right flank and what looks like scarred skin on her left rear leg. Also her left eye looked liek it had been in a scrap...

This is the large male which appeared to have started its summer moult. He typically had the horn for females

The last couple of photos are of a ?year-old bear which was always a tad nervous

Most of the last few photos are of the battered looking female I mentioned earlier

Brown Bears can look remarkably like dogs!