Romania

Cloaked in the legend of Count Dracula and the truly bloody history of the 15th and 16th centuries, as Transylvania and the other provinces of today’s Romania defended against the Turkish conquest, the dark forests and rugged Carpathian Mountains have symbolized the wild eastern frontier of Europe to most foreigners. Successively part of the Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Communist Bloc in the late 20th century, Romania has been a land of continuous conflict and subjugation. Today it is a proud democratic member of the European Union and NATO. This mountainous country, about the size of the state of Colorado, is thinly populated and still boasts huge areas of wild and remote country, full of wildlife. Fortunately, for the hunting community, its fabulous natural resources are as rich today as ever and a growing tourism industry provides ample opportunity to enjoy hunting, fishing, and other forms of outdoor recreation.

At one time, Romania was arguably the greatest hunting country in Europe. The Communist dictator Nikolai Ceausescu was a fanatic hunter himself and is infamous today for the excesses to which he took his sport. He is credited with having killed more than 200 European brown bears and more than 300 red stags. Witnesses say he shot as many as 30 chamois in a single driven shoot. Today, Ceausescu is gone, and luckily much of the hunting resource remain intact.

Romania is by far the finest country in Europe for hunting the European brown bear. The population is not only higher, but bears grow much larger in the Carpathian Mountains than they do elsewhere in Europe. It is still possible to bring several bears to a single bait each night in the better, more remote hunting areas. Bears as large as 600 CIC points (9 feet) and bigger are still taken each season.

Romania is also famous for the largest subspecies of all chamois – the Carpathian chamois. These mountain goats are found throughout the southern Carpathian Mountains and make for challenging hunting in this awe inspiring terrain. Romania is the only place in the world where this subspecies of chamois is found.

The red stags of the remote Carpathian Mountains have always been prized and Romania has produced some of the largest stags ever taken. In September the mountain valleys ring with the roaring and clashing of fighting stags.

Romania is also one of only two countries in modern Europe where wolf hunting is still allowed and quite successful. There are also good populations of wild boar, which grow to extraordinary sizes in Romania, and excellent roe deer in the lowlands along the Hungarian border.

The Hunting Consortium Ltd. led the way in the re-opening of Romania to foreigners in 1990. We were the first hunting company to enter the country after the revolution and we developed the first hunting programs for foreign tourists and secured the first hunting leases that same year. We are proud to have brought the first hunters to Romania after the revolution and still maintain a full-time staff of experienced coordinators and guides to care for our clients that hunt there.

Species List:

• Carpathian Chamois
• Central European Mouflon
• Eurasian Wild boar
• Eurasian Brown Bear
• European Fallow Deer
• European Red Deer
• European Roe Deer
• Gray Wolf