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Romania has a long history of hunting and remains a remarkable hunting destination, drawing many hunters because of its large numbers of brown bears, wolves, wild boars, red deer, and chamois. The concentration of brown bears (''Ursus arctos'') in the Carpathian Mountains of central Romania is largest in the world and contains half of all Europe's population, except Russia.〔A.G.V.P.S. ''(National Romanian Association of Sport Fishing and Hunting)''〕 == History == Remnants of hunting implements and wild game bones in Stone Age dwellings and burial sites or animal cave paintings like ones in Cuciulat, Peștera cu Oase or Peştera Muierilor indicate the humans have been hunting in Romania for thousands of years. In the Mesolithic age, antlers and animal skulls were used for jewelry and burial sites, and the bow began common and hunt for all game types begun. The Dacians, ancient inhabitants of present-day Romania, adopted the wolf (''Canis lupus'') as a symbol and carried wolf heads and skins on poles as totemic battle flags. Ancient Greek and Roman chronicles also mention hunting as an occupation. The medieval chronicle ''Descriptio Moldaviae'' recorded that Moldavia, one of the three historic provinces of Romania, was founded by Prince Dragos in 1351 while hunting. He was chasing an aurochs or a wisent (European bison), who gored and trampled his favorite dog, a bitch named Molda, across his lands of Maramureş. After killing the aurochs, impressed with the riches and beauty of the land, he named it after his dog, brought his people and settled the lands. The aurochs' head remains until today the heraldic symbol of Moldovans. Beginning in the Middle Ages as a passion or test of manhood, bears, wild boars and sometime stags were killed from close quarters with boar spears after being chased and bayed with dogs. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Moldova and Wallachia paid part of their tribute to the Ottoman Empire in hunting falcons and wild animal furs, such as ermine and marten. Transylvanian rulers, like George I Rákóczi (1591–1648), were ardent hunters, along with most members of the nobility. Since the 15th century, hunting reserves were established, where game was managed, monitored and sometimes introduced, such was the case of fallow deer in Romania. While nobility hunted all range of game and used horses, hounds, weapons and falcons for hunting, the common folk and peasants often hunted only the hare, on foot, relying on spears, slings, maces, pitchforks, throwing axes and snares. The few peasants that lived off hare hunting were known as rabiteers (''iepurari''). But poachers (''braconieri'') illegally hunted all species. Punishments for hunting in royal forest were severe; poachers could be sentenced to death. Aurochs became extinct after disappearing from Romania in 16th or 17th century. The last wisent hunt took place in 1762 in Moldavia and 1790 in Transylvania, and wisent are now confined to total protection in three of Romania's national parks or reserves after its reintroduction from Poland. Around the same time moose and beavers started to disappear from northern Romania. When Transylvania was part of Austria–Hungary, it was a popular hunting destination for the Hungarian nobility; some, like the resident lords like Baron Franz Nopcsa and the Teleki, Széchény and Nádasdy families, who owned large estates maintained only for this purpose. Wolvers (''lupari'') engaged in old wolf hunting (''luparia''), seeking the large bounty of money offered per wolf, as these animals caused destruction to livestock. Wolves' fur was also prized as a material for dolmans and winter coats (''sube''). In 1855, in Transylvania alone, 842 wolf heads were turned in for the recompense. During the interwar period, shepherds used strychnine to control the wolf population, causing an ecological catastrophe. This technique failed to control the wolf population but did contribute to the extermination of the griffon vultures (''Gyps fulvus''); the last one was shot in 1929, while flying over the Făgăraş Mountains. The black vulture (''Aegypius monachus'') was next to disappear. Until World War I, nobility and gentry indulged in large hunts. In 1901, a party of Count Geza Szecheny killed 28 brown bears in three weeks in Transylvania. Another 22 bears were killed by a parallel hunting party.〔Barclay, Edgar N. ''Big Game Shooting Records'', p. 227.〕 Realising that game can only be preserved through protection and education, in 1931, Romania established the world's second-oldest hunting museum, in the Royal Park, Bucharest under King Carol I supervision; unfortunately, in 1940, the museum was destroyed by a large fire. In 1935, by royal decree, the Retezat National Park is created, it was the country's first of its kind. Once Romania declared its independence in 1877 and the Hohenzollern dynasty was established, hunting became a royal sport; royal hunting châteaus and chalets were created on every hunting domain and people employed were appreciated accordingly. Hohenzollern-dynasty kings were taught from childhood to hunt. King Ferdinand I was a fine hunter; film footage from a 1924 bear hunt of his remains. The Foisor hunting chateau was the king's original summer residence in the Carpathians, before the Peleş Castle was used for royal summer vacations. In the 19th century, Romania emerged as a major European hunting destination, notably for its Carpathian stag, chamois and bears. Royalty and world's finest or wealthiest hunters came to Romania in pursuit of big game in the Carpathian Mountains. Sir Samuel Baker visited in 1858 to 1859 together with Maharaja Duleep Singh and Frederick Courteney Selous came in 1899. Other visitors included King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, King Paul of Greece and even today, kings like Juan Carlos of Spain are amongst the visiting hunters. Colonel August Von Spiess chose to remain in Romania, only to became Director of the Royal Hunts under King Ferdinand I of Romania in 1929. Many of the country's most notable writers and poets, including Mihail Sadoveanu, Ionel Teodoreanu, Eugen Jianu, Ionel Pop, Demostene Botez, Octavian Goga, C. Rosetti-Balanescu, I.Al. Bratescu-Voineşti, Nicolae Cristoveanu, were passionate hunters. Some figures, like Mihai Tican Rumano, Dimitrie Ghica-Comăneşti, or Transylvanian-born Hungarian count Sámuel Teleki have undergone extensive safaris and explorations both in Romania and abroad. World's foremost trophy record book of Rowland Ward mentions Romanian lands as provider of world records for stag (by local and foreign sportsmen), chamois (by Frederick Selous) and Eurasian lynx (by the Prince of Liechtenstein). Between World War II and the fall of the communism, big game hunting was extremely limited, and permits were granted almost entirely to the Communist Party members, particularly after 1972. The most famous of all was none other than Romanian former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. For years, he was dubbed as "country's first hunter", a title he acquired after claiming many trophy animals including world record European brown bear, but the sportsmanship of his methods is subject to debate and generally shunned upon. In total it is estimated that Ceauşescu received a total of 270 gold medals, 114 silver medals and 34 bronze medals according to CIC (''Conseil International de la Chasse et de la Conservation du Gibier - International Hunting and Game Conservation Council'') for the trophies he presented in exhibit. Many other communist presidents like Todor Zhivkov (Bulgaria) in October 1976 and 1980s, Leonid Brezhnev (USSR) in November 1976, Erich Honecker (East Germany) in February 1977, Nikita Khrushchev (USSR), Gaddafi (Libya) and in particular Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia) hunted in Romania at Ceaușescu's invitation and used many of the designated hunting chalets and chateaux domains like Lăpuşna or Scrovistea for big game hunting. Between 1955–1989 it is unofficially estimated that Ceaușescu's hunting parties shot over 4000 brown bears. Starting in 1966, he also introduced mouflons as game animals at Neguresti, Timiş and Scrovistea but the numbers remain very low. After the fall of the communism, hunting returned to normal and was promoted, and foreign hunters also started to come. The country is now an international destination for sportsmen. One of these was King Juan Carlos of Spain, who in 2004, at Covasna, bagged five bears, two wild boars and a wolf, while football star Roberto Baggio went for rabbit drive hunts in Bărăgan. Furthermore, Romanian former prime minister Adrian Năstase is the chairman of the national hunting association and a spokesman for the rights of hunting. Other politicians and former prime ministers, like Petre Roman, Teodor Meleşcanu and Gheorge Maurer, or artists like Mircea Dinescu, Ludovic Spiess, and Octavian Andronic were also hunters. Romanian-American gymnastics legend Béla Károlyi is also an aficionado, hunting worldwide. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hunting in Romania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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