On the tracks of Carpathians large carnivores

The tour will start in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Upon arrival at the airport in Bucharest you will encounter a zoologist guide and local guide, who will accompany you throughout the holiday. We travel to the village Lepşa (3 hours) located in the Eastern Carpathians on the border between Moldova and Transylvania, where we will stay in a traditional guest house and here we can enjoy a traditional Romanian dinner. On arrival in Lepşa, we will meet to make a brief summary of the tour afterwards you are invited to relax in order to be prepared to meet with the largest carnivore in Europe and explore the virgin forests of the Carpathians.

After breakfast we will be ready to follow the tracks large carnivores and other mammals from the forests of the Carpathians. We have chances to see traces of bears, wolves and lynx on the trails entering the the mountain wilderness and also near human settlements. We install cameras with sensors to capture images of wildlife in the area. Also in this area, we have made a interactive touristic trail, having the subject of the three species of large carnivores from the Carpathians (bear, lynx and wolf) that we invite you to see it. In the afternoon we return to the guesthouse and have lunch. In the evening we go to see bears at an observer by a 4 x 4 car (30 minutes) where we have the chance to observe and photograph bears safely. In this place the bears come very close to our observatory so you can be sure of taking great pictures and a unique experience. On some evenings have been counted over 5 bears. We’ll spend the night here to increase the chance to see the bears in the morning that comes.

Before sunrise we will have breakfast and we will observe and photograph the bears that come in the morning at the observatory. And then we will go to lunch at the guesthouse where we are waited with a good meal. We’ll rest a few hours after a meal in order to be prepared to see nocturnal animals in the forests of the Carpathians. In the evening we go by a 4×4 car to observe and photograph the animals, which have a predominantly nocturnal activity, such as night birds of prey, wildcat, lynx, wolf and many others. After 3 hours spent observing the density and diversity of species living in the primeval forests of the Carpathian we are preparing for a new adventurous day.

The Monitoring and rehabilitation center for large carnivores

After an evening spent on the field we have breakfast later and we go to the center for monitoring and rehabilitation of large carnivores where you encounter specialists, colleagues of your guide, having worked in numerous programs to conserve large carnivores, with extensive experience. Here you will see and even use different equipments for monitoring, rehabilitation and catch of large carnivores such as bears. Here our specialists will present each of these equipment and many aspects of the ecology and biology of large carnivores, especially bears. We will take a lunch served at the monitoring and rehabilitation center for large carnivores talking about large carnivores, afterwards we go to a very picturesque observatory located near the center, where we will spend the evening having chances to see birds of prey, songbirds, mammals, such as: wild boar, red deer, roe deer, various species of carnivores including bears.

We woke up early this morning, we have breakfast and we return in to the wild. This day will require more physical activity because we will need to follow the tracks of the wildlife and visit the bear dens lynx and wolf isolated habitats. In this trip we will go on the trails of wildlife through old and very dense forests, which makes the wildlife observation difficult but with the experience of your guide making observations on wildlife it will be easier and possible. We follow in the footsteps of wolves and lynx using the main peaks and we continue our journey to a hunting lodge built in the rustic style of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania. The area near the chalet has a high density of wolves being identified in this area the presence of numerous packs. In the evening we will do wolf howling to locate the pack after responding to the the howling voices made by us. The night will be spent at the hunting lodge and we will prepare for a new day full of adventures.

Will start early morning after a long and refreshing sleep. We have breakfast and we start our trip from where we slept, in the middle of the wilderness and we seek traces of lynx and wolves that came frequent in the area. With luck we can observe hunting scenes in which the lynx is attacking capercaillie that are present in this area or a pack of wolves attacking a massive Carpathian red deer.

Even if we will not be so lucky, we will certainly see signs of the presence of these carnivors and walk through the woods where the man  never cut a tree, these virgin forests in Romania.

We will return to the jeep that will take us to the guesthouse where we will have a bountiful feast and were we will sleep quietly. The day will be spent photographing and admiring the bears again.

We start to check cameras installed in the second day of holiday, to see if there were captured photos or videos. At the end of the day we return to the guesthouse and see which animals were in the pictures.  Being the last night spent here, we will enjoy a festive event.

The beginning of the day depends on flying hours from Bucharest. After an evening spent in the field we have a natural breakfast and then we will go to check the installed camera traps to see if they captured photos or movies with wildlife.

We will fill the lungs with fresh mountain air for the last time and we headed to Bucharest airport to take the flight back home.