Swapping Transylvanian vampires for bears and wild boar
Twilight. The mysterious time before dusk when the sun has almost set and the shadows of night are creeping in. As most people yawn and make their way home, a group of five abandon their vehicle and trek deep into a Transylvanian forest. Sometime later brown bears begin to stir from their slumber for a night of foraging.
What are we doing late at night in the middle of a forest you ask? We’re going on a bear hunt. Figuratively speaking of course!
Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is working to protect Transylvania’s Zarand landscape corridor with forests of European importance which contain brown bears, wolves, and Eurasian lynx. I was in Romania to help with the production of a film showcasing the positive impact FFI’s work is having on communities, wildlife and the landscape.
If you go down to the woods today…
We were off to a promising start as we trudged up-hill and spotted fresh bear paw prints in the mud. I was impressed by just how large and deep they were; never having seen a wild bear before it was difficult to fully comprehend just how big one would be – particularly if I ended up face-to-face with it!
Hiking through the forest there was a sense of urgency to arrive at our destination – a raised wooden hide – as quickly as we could. We planned to arrive five hours early because bears have an acute sense of smell and will often avoid areas with unfamiliar human odours.
Squashed into the hide, the five of us whiled away the hours until dark in stilted, whispered conversation, wincing at the extraordinary amount of noise one plastic pretzel bag can make when opened. We sat, waited and crossed our fingers all the while hoping to catch a glimpse of a bear.
Around midnight, when we were at risk of entering a sleepy state of stupor, we heard rustling and low grunting – not a bear but wild boar foraging nearby. However, the wild boar quickly moved away and all was quiet again, until eventually the pitter-patter of rain hitting the roof sadly washed away our chances of seeing a bear.
In the pitch black, with only the light from our head-torches to see, we splashed through the mud back to the warmth of the car. As we hurried through the dark forest I couldn’t help but wonder where the bear that had left those enormous paw prints was now…
Filming FFI’s Zarand project
Despite not being able to film any bears we did capture plenty of footage from this beautiful landscape. We are using this footage to create three short films that will centre on the themes of human-wildlife conflict, socio-economic change and landscape fragmentation.