According to Dr László Patkó wildlife biologist, as the number of large carnivores in Hungary is gradually increasing, people have to learn the guidelines and strategies of coexistence with these animals. Every year, brown bears come to the area of the Bükk National Park from Slovakia, but we also hear about the permanent presence of wolves, lynxes and bears in some areas of the North Hungarian Mountains. In April, a mother bear and her cubs were spotted by a camera trap in Northern Hungary and on Monday, a forester saw a wandering wolf cub in the Bükk Mountains.

Balázs Szívós Hungarian forester shared a special video on his Facebook page about a wolf cub curiously approaching the man, 24 reported. This was not the first time he saw wolves in the Bükk Mountains, but he could not film them previously. The forester did not reveal the exact location where he spotted the cub to protect the animals.

The presence of wolves does not imply any particular danger, the species have been deemed endangered in Hungary since 2001.

“Large carnivores have disappeared from a significant area of Europe due to loss of natural habitat and human persecution. However, owing to more strict conservation regulations, more accepting views, multi-actor (wildlife management, environmental protection, livestock) species conservation programmes, natural habitats with many preys and their own capability to adapt rapidly there’s once again a promising future for wolves, lynxes and bears,” wrote WWF Hungary.

24 did a lengthy interview with Dr László Patkó wildlife biologist, programme director of WWF Hungary Large Carnivores Programme. He explained that people can ensure their safety in the forest by applying certain guidelines and practices that help mitigate conflicts between humans and large carnivores.

Bears come to Hungary regularly from Slovakia, and certain precautions are warranted in the affected areas, but any kind of bear “invasion” is unlikely. Bears mostly inhabit dense mountainous woodlands. The nearest core bear range is located in the Carpathian Mountains and the densely populated North Hungarian Mountains do not provide suitable habitats for bears. As far as the safety of local inhabitants and tourists is concerned,

bears do not regard humans as prey. They are “vegetarian” predators, plant foods make up the majority, 40−60%, of their diet. The problematic cases are mainly caused by human activities such as direct feeding.

These carnivores are very adaptable, opportunistic animals, they eat what they have access to. Dr László Patkó told that he came across a relatively high number of problematic bears in the vicinity of Lacul Sfânta Ana (Saint Anne Lake) in Transylvania. However, after grilling had been banned and regular garbage cans had been replaced by bear-proof ones, bears disappeared from the immediate vicinity of the area visited by tourists within a year. Local farmers have always had to deal with the problem of bears killing livestock, but with the use of electric fences and large guardian dogs, they can eliminate this danger.

Wolves have always inhabited the North Hungarian Mountains, but since the territory of a wolf pack is typically 150−300 square kilometres in Europe, there is no space in Hungary for thousands of wolves. A pack usually consists of four to ten individuals.

Currently, there are maybe two packs in the Bükk Mountains, two in Zemplén and two or three in the vicinity of Aggtelek karst. Based on camera trap observations, the total number of wolves in Hungary is between 20 and 60.

We should not ignore the dangers encountered by humans when interacting with these large carnivores, but they usually avoid humans. Dr László Patkó highlighted people should not throw away any garbage and leave the children alone in the affected areas.

Read alsoResearchers are looking for signs of the collapse of wildlife in the Carpathians

Living in Hungary feels extra special after watching Netflix’s documentary series Our Planet. Elements of Hungary’s wildlife appear not once but twice in the eight-part series narrated by David Attenborough. Here is everything you need to know.

Our Planet

Our Planet is a British nature documentary series made for Netflix. It was created in collaboration with Silverback Productions and WWF. The series is narrated by David Attenborough, and it was filmed over four years. It combines breath-taking photography of planet Earth with raising awareness to what our actions and the results of climate change do to the remaining wilderness areas and their animal inhabitants.

The series won two Emmy awards for Outstanding Documentary Series and Outstanding Narrator in 2019. The eight-part original documentary series is streaming globally on Netflix.

The series includes two clips that were captured in Hungary.

The blooming of the Tisza river

Interestingly, what we Hungarians call a tiszavirág (tisza flower) is in fact an insect and not a flower. Tiszavirág (or Palingenia longicauda) is an aquatic insect, named after the Tisza river, where it is found. It is also called the long-tailed mayfly or giant mayfly because it is the largest mayfly species in Europe (12 cm from head to tail).

In the 7^th episode of Our Planet titled ‘Fresh Water,’ there is a segment on the wonderful natural phenomenon that happens every year on the Tisza river. The clip can be seen from 16:35.

Tiszavirág larvae develop underwater for as long as three years before hatching. The presence of mayflies is a great indicator of clear, unpolluted water. 

Mayflies hatch and mature during one week in June. This natural phenomenon is known as Tiszavirágzás (“blooming of the Tisza”). Millions of larvae become winged adults who have only a few hours to mate before they die. While they are mating, they perform this beautiful dance on the river. They fly very low, never moving away from the water.  

We can learn from the clip that this spectacle used to be quite common in Eastern Europe, but due to the stabilised banks, the rivers become badly polluted, causing the majority of mayflies to disappear.

The unbelievably complex life cycle of the Alcon blue

In the 5^th episode of Our Planet titled ‘From Deserts to Grasslands,’ creators focus on a species of butterfly with an “almost unbelievably complex life cycle.” The clip can be seen from 32:49.

The ancient hay meadows of Hungary are still farmed in the traditional way. Only a few of these ancient meadows are left in Europe. Butterflies are abundant here; most extraordinary of them is probably the Alcon blue.

Females lay their eggs only on one species of plant: the marsh gentian. The eggs hatch into caterpillars who abseil down on threads of silk to the ground. They are producing a scent similar to that of an ant larva, so marauding ants carry them off to their nest. They deposit them into the colony’s brood chamber so that the caterpillars lie amongst the ant larvae and the nurse ants feed them like their own. In fact, caterpillars can mimic the sound of the queen ant. The ants tend to feed the caterpillars rather than their own larvae when food is short. The caterpillars feed and grow for up to two years underground until they pupate. A few weeks later, an Alcon blue butterfly crawls out.

If anything happened to the ants or to the marsh gentian, they would become extinct.

You can watch the behind the scenes below.