Bearly

There was uproar in recent years when a child was killed by a dog in Bucharest and there were calls to tackle Romania's problem with strays. In 2009 when I visited the capital with friends the dogs were menacing, leading to my friend Lorna panicking and screaming 'they're forming a pack!' To be fair, she was right.

In our project we are trying to ensure the wolf and bear populations of the southern Carpathians are well protected. Dogs and wolves come into competition with each other and wolves are regularly blamed by villagers for killing livestock; often the real perpetrators being savage feral dogs.

As a conservationist I am not compelled to be an animal welfare nut as domestic animals are already outside of any natural system. I believe humane control of dogs would assist conservation efforts in many places.

I'm now heading from Deva (tenement pictured) to the grand city of Sibiu. Before Christmas a disoriented young bear appeared on the streets after it had come down from the hills and raided some nearby orchards. It wasn't acting in an overly threatening manner.

Immediately there was an armed response, with police snuffing out the animal. The most sensible approach would have been to avoid the equation Human + Gun = Neanderthal Power Trip. The bear could have been shepherded away from the city with killing it as an absolute last resort. Romania has several thousand bears but each one that survives into adulthood is already fighting against the odds and its wonderful to imagine them flourishing in the woods, snuffling around, creating more bear babies.

YouTube has apparently captured some of the bear events in Sibiu.

People bloody love drama and playing the hero don't they. It's an inherent human trait.