Lynx2 slr camera trap image by Zoltan Nagy
20 March 2022

Romania

Carpathian (Eurasian) Lynx, Lynx lynx carpathicus. DSLR camera trap photo by Zoltan Nagy

I spent a week in Transylvania in March 2022 looking for Eurasian Lynx on a Sakertours trip. I returned to Romania in 2025 for a 10 day Sakertours inaugural mole-rat safari.

Dobruja

European Ground Squirrel, Spermophilus citellus

Constanta

Lesser Blind Mole-rat, Nannospalax leucodon

During 24 hours around Constanta in 2025 we saw a Lesser Mole Rat, European Souslik, European Hare, probable Mound-building Mice, Northern White-breasted Hedgehog, Golden Jackal, Red Fox and European Badger.
The Danube Delta

European Mink, Mustela lutreola

During a 4 hour night cruise in the Danube Delta in 2025 we saw many Brown Rats, Muskrat, a Stone Marten and two European Mink.

Moldavia

Iasi

Bukovina Blind Mole-rat, Spalax graecus

Two nights near Iasi, on the Moldovan border, produced a Bukovina Blind Mole-rat, European Hare, Golden Jackal, Red Fox and a Bi-coloured White-toothed Shrew.

Transylvania

Hargita
During 6 unseasonably cold days in 2022 we saw European Hares, Eurasian Red Squirrels, a Bank Vole, Yellow-necked Mice, Lesser Horseshoe Bats, Serotines, Western Barbastelles, Brown Long-eared Bats, Lesser and Greater Mouse-eared Bats, Red and Roe Deer, Red Fox, Brown Bears and a fleeting looking at a Eurasian Lynx. I returned for a night in 2025 and saw a couple of Brown Bears, Red and Roe Deer, a Northern White-breasted Hedgehog and a possible European Polecat.

European Brown Bear, Ursus arctos arctos

Rimetea

Northern White-breasted Hedgehog, Erinaceus roumanicus

Five days in 2025 on a mole-rat safari finally produced a Meheley’s Mole-rat – Romania’s only endemic mammal – along with a handful of other species including Northern White-breasted Hedgehog, Red Fox, Badger, European Hare and Western Roe Deer. Our group also saw Hungarian Mole-rat here too.

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Community Reports

Zen & the Art of Mole-rats, 2025: Jon Hall, 10 days & 19 species including all four Romanian mole-rats, European Mink and Bicoloured White-toothed Shrew.

Mainly Mole Rats, 2025: Mark Hows’ report (from the same trip as Jon Hall’s above), 10 days & 22 species including the same species as Jon’s report plus additional bats.

Rediscovery of the Grey Dwarf Hamster, 2024: Mark Hows, 6 days & 13 species including Bi-coloured White-toothed Shrew and the first record of a Grey Dwarf Hamster in the EU in 70 years.

Romania, 2023: Sakertours, 9 days & 60 species including Northern Birch Mouse, Lesser Blind Mole-rat, Romanian Hamster, Steppe Polecat and (on the extension trip) Mehley’s Blnd Mole-rat.

Romania, 2023: Mark Hows, 5 days & 21 species including Water Shrew and Romanian Hamster.

Romania, 2022: Sakertours, 9 days & 51 species including Romanian Hamster, Steppe Polecat and European Mink.

Romania, 2022: Ian Thompson, 9 days & 50 species including European Mink, Romanian Hamster and Steppe Polecat (on the Sakertours trip above).

Looking for a Transylvanian Lynx, 2022: Jon Hall, 1 week & 15 species including Western Barbastelle, Brown Bear and Eurasian Lynx.

European Mink Special, 2021: Sakertours, 5 days & 30+ species including Romanian Hamster, European Mink and Greater Noctules.

Romania, 2021: Sakertours, 1 week & 49 species including Romanian and Common Hamsters, Lesser Mole-rat, Wild Cat and Bechstein’s and Northern Bats.

Piatra Craiului National Park, 2021: Ralf Burglin, 2 days including Carpathian Chamois.

Romania, 2020: Sakertours, 9 days & 46 species including Lesser Mole Rat, Lesser and Greater Mouse-eared Bats, Wolf, Bear and two European Minks.

Romania, 2020: Janco van Gelderen, 3 days & 6 species including Eurasian Lynx.

Romania, 2018: Mark Hows, 12 days & 21 species including Lesser Mole Rat and Miller’s Water Shrew.

The Balkans, 2016 (and some flashbacks to the early 1990s): Vladimir Dinets, 6 weeks and 100+ mammals including Martino’s Snow Vole, Romanian Hamster, Western Broad-toothed Mouse, Bicoloured and Etruscan Shrews, a Mediterranean Monk Seal and European Polecat.

Bulgaria & Romania, 2016: Romain Bocquier, 3 weeks & 16 species including Edible Dormouse, Pine Marten, Brown Bear and European Free-tailed Bat.

Carpathian Mountains, 2011: Steve Babbs’s brief notes of a trip including a Wild Cat but no Brown Bears.

Romania, 2009: Stefanie Lahaye, 10 days & 9 species including Chamois and Brown Bear.

Also See

RFI – Marbled Polecats in Romania (March, 2017)

RFI – Romanian Mammals (May, 2015)

RFI –Mammal watching in the Carpathian Mountains (April, 2011)

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