12 participants travelled out to Romania in the summer of 2011 to carry out butterfly surveys for our partners, and what a totally amazing time we had!
We recorded 95 species of butterflies, many of them important on a European scale; over 325 species of moths (not including the many micrmoths that we were unable to identify!): we saw amphibians, reptiles, giant carnivorous parthenogenetic bush-crickets, stunning longhorn beetles, bear footprints (but no bears!). We met some wonderful people, ate very memorable meals, watched folk dancing in a ferocious thunderstorm, were shown round a castle by the heir to one of the richest estates in Transylvania, did our bit towards the hay harvest using local scythes, camped overnight (and shared our beer and pálinka) with Hungarian charcoal burners, visited a sheepmilking enterprise where four men milk a huge flock of ewes three times a day and make the soft cheese in the shack on the hilltop and where the dogs have to wear special collars to protect them from wolves and bears…
We are planning to return to Romania in 2012 if we can organise the funding – in April to help remove scrub from abandoned pastures just after the snows melt, and in July or August to continue our biodiversity surveys and to help with the haymaking.
Itinerary | Participants’ Comments |
Moth List | Butterfly List |
Butterfly survey report | EuCAN visit report |
Cat Laverick Traditional Agricultural Practices |