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Tours in Romania blog

Nature and Animals of Romania. Nature Parks from Oltenia.

Wallachia

I will tell you some important things about Romania’s flora and fauna. Nowadays, one-third of Romania's territory is a mountain area, largely forested, where most of the interesting flora and fauna are to be found. Another third of the country territory is hills and plateaux areas, with a fair quantity of woodland still remaining, and another third is a plain area, most intensively farmed.

Highlights

National Park Domogled-Cerna

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The National Park is situated in the southwest part of Romania and covers three counties: Caras-Severin, 23.185 hectares; Mehedinti - 8.220 hectares and Gorj - 29.806 hectares. The diversity of landscapes, unique thermal caves, thermo-mineral springs, as well as the endemic and rare flora and fauna offer a unique and special trip for all visitors. Experiencing the park will take you through many landscapes, including calcareous slopes with the Black Pine of Banat, canyons carved by streams, calcareous peaks with sub-Mediterranean vegetation, vast beech forests, high alpine meadows, mountain reservoirs, and calcareous gorges and precipices.

Established in 1990, the Domogled Cerna - Valley National Park has been administrated since 2003. The Domogled-Cerna Valley National Park has a remarkable floristic diversity, in part due to it`s complex physical-geographic, climatic, and abiotic conditions.

The park flora includes 110 species of vascular plants. The excellent biodiversity of the flora has attracted foreign botanists since the end of the 18 century (Griselini 1780). Of the total unplaned plants (1110 species), 66 types are endangered or rare, while others are very localized. This means they are rare or unknown species in other parts of the country. Examples of this are Vicia truncatula, Tragopogon balcanicus, Cerastium banaticum, Lamium bithynicum. Due to biogeography, biological, and climatic conditions, the national park preserves a very interesting and rich fauna.

The park fauna has numerous scientifically valuable species. Some are unique in the country and worldwide; the park especially excels in the diversity of insects. The national park is characterized by high biodiversity regarding the butterfly fauna. More than 1500 species are concentrated here, including 45% of Romania’s Lepidoptera species. A large number of butterfly species are endemic, such as Lampronia aeripenella, Brevantenia banatica, Eupithecia domogledana, Melicta athalia mehadiensis. Presently, the studied invertebrates have included some very rare species, emphasizing the park`s importance.

From among the vertebrates, the birds have been studied best. Still, the results and data are incomplete. The bird fauna is diverse and rich. As an outcome of the research regarding the bird species, the following facts were established: species with meridional origin are present (Mediterranean and Indo-African), the forest avifauna has a specific character, being distinguished among the general characteristic of the Carpathian ornithological fauna, the lower limit of the mountainous species habitat has values less than those recorded in the Carpathian mountains.

The following are strictly protected species of birds in the park: Apus melba, Coracius garrulus, Cinclus cinclus, Oenanthe hispanica, Emberiza citrinella, etc.

The reptiles within the national park can be found both in the alpine and nemoral areas, the latter containing more species. Among these exist protected and endemic species, such as Vipera ammodytes, Testudo hermanni, Lacerta vivipara, L.muralis,Natrix tessellato, Vipera berus, etc.

The amphibians inside the natural protected area are represented by the following species: Triturus alpestris alpestris, Bombina variegata, Salamandra salamandra, Bombina bombina, Rana dalmatina.  

For the aquatic vertebrates, the park is home to these species: Salmo trutta fario, Thymallus thymallus, Barbus barbus. Wild mammals have their habitat deep in the forests, mostly in the Cerna basin.

This area is characterized by great richness of important mammals within Europe, such as Ursus arctos, Lynx lynx, Rupicapra rupicapra, etc. Bat guano is common in one of the national park’s thermal caves - Adam’s cave. Here we can find the thickest accumulation of bat guano of all Romanian caves (3m. thick, accumulated from different bat species but primarily from Rhinlophus euryale).

The geographic, climatic and habitat conditions in the Domogled-Valea Cernei National Park have made possible the existence of a diverse and large amount of fauna. The karstic relief within the Domogled-Valea Cernei National has an unequal distribution due to the unequal spreading of the limestone. Therefore, these characteristics are among the main highlights of the national park. The caves located in Cerna’s upper basin are of small sizes (rarely more than 100 m in total length), with one entrance, low amounts of mineral deposits, and generally are hard to access. These caves don’t represent a great tourist attraction.

On the whole surface of the national park, there are more than 300 caves, in addition to some cavities, which can’t be called caves due to their small size. The thermal caves within the national park, in Cerna Mountain, are unique and rare in Romania and the rest of the world. The environmental conditions inside the caves are similar to a tropical climate (35-45C air temperature). Due to this fact the fauna, stalactites, and stalagmites have a unique character. An example is Adam’s cave, which could be declared a scientific reserve for the conservation and study of unique tropical oasis conditions in Romania, for warm air spaces, bat colonies, and jellied stalactites. Another interesting thermal cave is the „Steam Grotto” (14 m in length), in which hot, sulfurous steam (52 - 56 C) comes to the surface from below ground, through a break in a rock. The sounds created by the sulfurous emissions pull our imagination into a complex and curious world. These conditions are satisfactory for a species of moss - Philonotis schliephackei - which can be found only here. The gypsum crusts are also very rare in the park’s caves. These are stalactites and stalagmites on large surfaces, which can be found in the park’s Ion Barzoni cave.

In Mehedinti Mountains are the most beautiful visual relief in the park. The endokarst in this area, or caves containing little mineral deposits, represent a comparatively small land area. The exception is „Pestera mare de la Soroniste”, in which impressive stalagmitic pillars can be found. Other caves in this area that can be visited are: „Pestera de sub Sarban” and „Gaura Ungurului”, which are important due to calcitic stalactites/stalagmites and bat colony.

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