New Podcast Episode: János Oláh
Happy New Year everyone!
In the first podcast of 2026 Charles and I talk with professional bird and mammal guide János Oláh from his home in Hungary. János set up Sakertours in 1994. Initially focussing on birding tours in Eastern Europe they expanded to run hide-based photography tours and now mammal tours.
János explains how he was drawn to birding as a child, and the formative role an aversion to summer camp chores played in the process. He describes how and why he set up his Romania Mammal Tour, on which participants can expect to see over 50 mammal species in 9 days! And he shares a very important life lesson he learned as a boy while looking for a ‘Dawn Bird’: preferred habitat is far more useful to a successful search than a species’ common name!
The podcast begins with a ‘live from the field’ account of our heroically unsuccessful search for a Sumatran Striped Rabbit, which János was lucky enough to be a part of.
You can stream the podcast here or find it on your favorite podcast platform.
Notes
Here is the most recent Romania Mammal Tour report from Sakertours. Details of the 2026 tour and how to join are here. Other Sakertours reports are on mammalwatching’s Romania page including the 2025 Mole-rat safari we talked about.
A report of our ill-fated trip in search of Sumatran Striped Rabbits is here.
Cover art: János in Ladakh.
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