Why you should NEVER come here…

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]The brown bear is one of the most powerful predators in the world. It can weigh several hundred kilos and run surprisingly fast. Luckily, most of the time they smell you long before you get even close, which is why spotting one in the wild is so rare. But that has always been my dream. So, we started looking into where you actually have a chance of seeing wild bears in nature. And one place kept coming up, Romania. Romania has one of the largest populations of brown bears in the world. And a lot of them live deep in the forests of Transylvania.

[00:00:34]Huge forests, barely touched, and a lot of bears. So, the plan was pretty simple. Go there and see if we can find wild bears. And instead of just passing through, we're actually going to spend the night in a small cabin deep in the forest, which now that I'm saying it out loud, doesn't sound like the best idea.

[00:01:01]To give ourselves the best possible chance, we teamed up with a local guide, Robert, who knew exactly where to find bears.

[00:01:09]>> And I booked someone breakfast if you want, but I don't know.

[00:01:13]>> So, right now we're in Bucharest, but we're going to drive about 6 hours to Transylvania.

[00:01:20]>> 300 km.

[00:01:21]>> 300 km. Wow.

[00:01:25]The Romanian landscape was really beautiful. After many hours in the car, we were getting closer to the forest.

[00:01:32]And our guide became more and more quiet. The tension really started to build. We just changed the car. This is a 4x4.

[00:01:41]And now we're driving up a dirt road. I still don't know if we have is he have like a bear spray or a weapon? To me, it's crazy to think that there could be bears anywhere around us right now.

[00:01:55]>> Do you know the the wild animal is not fair with the car?

[00:01:59]>> It's not it's not afraid.

[00:02:00]>> No, no, no, not not afraid the car.

[00:02:03]>> Example with going the the car in the forest road and there is the bear or deers. It's not run.

[00:02:08]>> We kept driving slowly and Robert scanned the snow searching for tracks.

[00:02:14]>> The wild pig the boar.

[00:02:17]>> Okay.

[00:02:17]>> Wild pig. The bear hunts the wild pig, right?

[00:02:20]>> Sometimes. Yeah. But I seen is a It was a big wild pig.

[00:02:26]>> Yeah.

[00:02:26]>> And attack the the bears.

[00:02:28]>> Okay.

[00:02:29]>> Small uh >> small bear.

[00:02:31]>> Yeah.

[00:02:31]>> Oh yeah. Yeah.

[00:02:33]>> Oh wow.

[00:02:34]>> It's dangerous.

[00:02:35]>> But the dangerous one is the mama bear with the cubs, right?

[00:02:38]>> The cubs are on one side of the road and the mama is on the other side and you're walking in the middle. Then it could definitely attack.

[00:02:45]>> And then out of nowhere Stop. Stop.

[00:02:48]>> There it is. Oh, bear.

[00:02:50]>> Yeah. Yeah. Bear.

[00:02:50]>> Oh my god.

[00:02:53]>> Oh, two bear.

[00:02:54]>> Two bears. Oh, the There's a third.

[00:02:56]Three bears.

[00:03:00]>> Guess we're just going to be silent.

[00:03:02]>> The door is closed. Silent. Come on.

[00:03:05]>> No. Wait. You're going to get outside.

[00:03:07]>> Yeah.

[00:03:08]>> Okay. It wants us to go outside.

[00:03:18]I'm going to keep the door open in case I have to run into the car.

[00:03:30]He has a He has a beer spray, too, in case something happens.

[00:03:37]I think it's still still up there.

[00:03:45]I mean, I'm just looking around to see if there's I don't want to be in between.

[00:03:51]>> You have a good eyes.

[00:03:53]>> Yeah, very good eyes.

[00:03:54]>> Eagle eyes.

[00:03:55]>> That was crazy though. 10 minutes we've been here. We already seen bears.

[00:03:58]>> Smaller.

[00:03:59]>> There's a smaller footprint. Is that fresh though or?

[00:04:02]>> Yeah, fresh.

[00:04:02]>> Fresh footprint.

[00:04:03]>> And very interesting. This is the the back and this is the front.

[00:04:07]>> Okay.

[00:04:08]>> Is the front. I honestly thought like we would have to be lucky to see a bear, but it seems like they're all over the place.

[00:04:16]>> I think for you it's so normal to see bears that you're very comfortable with the bears, but for me, even just getting out of the car, I was a little bit like >> skeptical.

[00:04:27]And you've seen everything. Wolves, lyns, bears.

[00:04:30]>> I've seen everything. And I I made the picture. I made the photos.

[00:04:33]>> But the bears we saw down there, >> it was a mom and two cubs.

[00:04:37]>> It was a mom and two cubs. Okay. So, those are the dangerous ones. Part of the reason why the mama bear is so aggressive is because the male bears, they try to kill the babies >> because the mama bear won't mate with the male bears if she already has cubs.

[00:04:54]Um, so they want to kill the cubs to then be able to mate with the mama bear.

[00:05:00]The thing is though, we're going to be left alone at the cabin tonight. So eventually we have to get comfortable with the idea of having bears around us.

[00:05:10]There are thousands of bears and wolves in this area. They call this the last wilderness in Europe, right?

[00:05:18]>> Yeah. Yeah. The bear population of the Europe. 70% living here in the Romania.

[00:05:23]>> Oh, dear.

[00:05:24]>> Dear. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:25]>> Or is it there?

[00:05:27]>> Deer. Yeah.

[00:05:30]>> Okay. So, we got to be quiet. I'm going to search with the drone.

[00:05:39]It's kind of stupid that the drone makes so much sound.

[00:05:47]>> Home point updated.

[00:05:48]>> I'm trying to look for an open space.

[00:05:56]Now I'm looking for the bears we saw earlier flying that direction a little bit. What do you think, uh, Robert? What is the best best place I should look for bears?

[00:06:06]>> Uh, the right side.

[00:06:08]>> Okay. I think that's where I am.

[00:06:10]>> But not easy. You can find them.

[00:06:12]>> Yeah, I know. Because of the trees, you can't really see that much.

[00:06:16]Okay. But here.

[00:06:18]Yeah. If you see anything that looks like a bear, then I can zoom in.

[00:06:22]>> If you're not moving, look at >> No luck with the drone, unfortunately.

[00:06:27]But we had one more trick up our sleeve.

[00:06:29]We had bought a wild cam and Robert knew exactly where to place it.

[00:06:33]>> This is the furthest from the car we've been so far and he did not bring his bear spray. But you can see even him who's like very used to the bears. He's like looking around and being very careful.

[00:06:50]You can see the bear tracks over there too. That looks like a big one, right?

[00:06:54]>> Yeah. Not not big.

[00:06:55]>> Not big to me. To me that looks pretty big. Also, what what do the farmers here think about the bears?

[00:07:03]>> The farmers has is many many ducks.

[00:07:06]>> Okay.

[00:07:06]>> Many ducks and dogs is >> the dogs scare them away. In Norway, the farmers don't like wolves and bears.

[00:07:14]Uh so they want them gone, but people in the city, they want to have bears and wolves. I mean, obviously because they're not affected by them. It's a difficult situation. Now that we had actually seen a bear, we decided the next logical step was to spend the night in their habitat. So, our brilliant plan was to hike into a tiny cabin in the middle of the forest and spend the night there, hoping we might get a visit. Oh, those are pretty fresh. Look at the bear tracks. Very fresh. Look how big they are.

[00:07:50]Well, you have your bear spray, right?

[00:07:52]>> Yep. And as you can see, the bears are just everywhere here. But it looks like the bear has walked the opposite direction. At least >> he's swimming. We going >> the mama bear.

[00:08:06]>> Two. Two.

[00:08:07]>> Two.

[00:08:07]>> Two.

[00:08:08]>> So, do you think it's a mama bear and the cub?

[00:08:10]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:23]But you're going to have to walk back in the dark, right?

[00:08:26]>> Yeah, no problem.

[00:08:26]>> It's no problem for you.

[00:08:27]>> No problem.

[00:08:28]>> I would have a problem with that.

[00:08:33]>> Ah, here it is. It's just a little cabin that we're going to spend the night in.

[00:08:38]Luckily, it's not that one. Should we go inside and look?

[00:08:43]Nice. Oh, this is cool. The windows cannot be open.

[00:08:47]>> No. I'm going to check if I have cell phone reception here. No, >> I send the message.

[00:08:52]>> Yeah.

[00:08:52]>> Test.

[00:08:56]>> No, I didn't. I don't get it.

[00:08:58]>> There's the base spray. You can usually this.

[00:09:01]>> Oh, we you going to leave it with us?

[00:09:03]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:04]>> Okay. Okay. But do you have another one for you?

[00:09:06]>> No, I don't know.

[00:09:06]>> You don't need one >> for me. Not need.

[00:09:08]>> Sure.

[00:09:08]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:09]>> Okay. So, how you use it? You open this.

[00:09:12]>> Yeah.

[00:09:14]>> Okay.

[00:09:15]>> Maybe function.

[00:09:16]>> Maybe. maybe function >> but uh alone no walk there in the >> we don't walk alone >> alone alone no >> all right thanks for today see you tomorrow and uh see you tomorrow >> we need the mic as well >> that's the thing with bears like there's nothing you can do you can't out climb them or actually I think I could on rock but definitely not in a tree you can't outrun them a lot of people think they're slow but they actually run like 40 plus km an hour. Um, so there's no chance even if you're involved, you're not going to outrun them.

[00:09:53]Okay, I'm going to go leave some uh human remains somewhere, but I don't want to go too far. And you have the bear spray, so you got to watch my back as I'm emptying my back.

[00:10:06]And he also said to shout a bit, then they're going to run away. Hey. Hey.

[00:10:12]Woo.

[00:10:14]Okay, now you can turn your back to to me.

[00:10:19]I don't know. Am I the only one who when I take a I also have to piss at the same time? It's very unpractical.

[00:10:27]Like, it would be nice if you could only take a without pissing cuz then you can take a on like like a can or something. All right, your turn.

[00:10:40]I see some tracks up there. I don't know if they were there earlier. This is a bear, but it's very old though. But yeah, I know it's Oh, and the bear has been laying there.

[00:10:53]You see the He's been chilling right there.

[00:10:58]Since we're not able to lock this door, I was thinking tying a rope from here from the ladder.

[00:11:08]And then I just use this to tighten it.

[00:11:16]It's going to stop it. Or just think that that's going to stop a bear. Maybe naive, but it's going to at least stop it a little bit.

[00:11:28]Seeing a bear and wolves have been on my bucket list. I remember as a kid I would uh watch Animal Planet. That was my favorite TV channel to watch. So, this is sort of a dream come true.

[00:11:44]There's something special about sleeping in a cabin deep in the woods, knowing there are bears just about everywhere.

[00:11:52]That night, every sound felt louder. And I have to admit, it wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had.

[00:12:04]>> Good morning. Are you alive?

[00:12:07]>> Good morning.

[00:12:08]>> I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. So, I went outside cuz I Yeah, I filled up my peeing bottle like right away. I was like going out just in my underwear. I felt so vulnerable. But yeah, excited about a new day in bear territory.

[00:12:24]Hopefully, we'll get even closer to the bear this time. So, this is the biggest one we've seen so far.

[00:12:34]the back paw. So, this is maybe 500 m from the cabin we slept in. It's crazy to think like I didn't think that we would see them so often. I thought it was more rare, but the bears are just everywhere here. Today, we wanted to go even deeper into the woods. So, we got our hands on some ATVs to reach places you simply can't access by car. Do we have a helmet? He also said that uh it's optional if you want to wear a helmet.

[00:13:02]In Norway it would not be optional at all. Okay.

[00:13:14]On the back of these vehicles, we also felt way more exposed knowing that on dirt roads we were pretty much just sitting ducks if a bear decided to attack. Because a fully grown brown bear can run up to 60 km an hour in short burst. That's as fast as a racing horse.

[00:13:31]And there was definitely something unsettling about knowing that >> it was a little bit slippery.

[00:13:35]>> Many bear footprints.

[00:13:36]>> Many bear footprints. Yeah.

[00:13:42]>> So, we've driven for about 1 hour. I think we still have another hour left. Have seen fox, a lot of dare, no bears or wolves yet. It was a lot of fun though. That was really one of the highlights. so far. Now they're going to go and have a beer. They're going to have a beer, not a beer. Yeah. One one one beer is okay with driving. No, it's part of the culture here, you know. No helmet, beer. That's why they say this is the last wilderness in Europe. I love this country.

[00:14:17]Cheers.

[00:14:19]What are you drinking? This girl drink.

[00:14:26]No good.

[00:14:37]There was a deer running right across me. Yeah, the dear was running right across me now. Yeah, I got it on the GoPro.

[00:14:46]>> Yeah.

[00:14:47]>> Yeah, I see it. Yeah.

[00:14:49]>> Was that a bear?

[00:14:50]>> No, I saw >> No, no, it was a dare.

[00:14:52]>> Dare. Dare. Yeah.

[00:14:55]>> That was fun though. Even though we didn't see any bears, but I guess it was kind of expected. Do you think we'll get anything on the wild camera we set up though?

[00:15:04]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:04]>> You think we're gonna have >> Maybe.

[00:15:06]>> Yeah, >> we check. We go now.

[00:15:08]>> Yeah.

[00:15:08]>> But uh before uh you tried special palink drink.

[00:15:13]>> Okay.

[00:15:15]>> This took a turn I didn't see coming. We were invited home to a friend of Roberts. Wild. Oh, that's also wild boy.

[00:15:23]Yeah.

[00:15:26]We played with this dog for a bit >> and then they showed me all kinds of animal videos they have filmed.

[00:15:35]>> Yeah, this is a big bear.

[00:15:38]>> Yeah, it's a male bear.

[00:15:39]>> Look at that. Wow, that's a big one.

[00:15:41]>> Yeah, this a big meal.

[00:15:42]>> That looks like a grizzly. And then we were handed some homemade special drinks.

[00:15:48]>> Okay, it's very very good. So, it's 1:00 1:00 p.m.

[00:15:56]Is it a shot or you take drink slow?

[00:15:58]>> Yeah, sure.

[00:15:59]>> All right. What do you say?

[00:16:01]>> Cheers.

[00:16:01]>> Cheers. Okay.

[00:16:02]>> Hungarian eggy >> eggy.

[00:16:13]Saha.

[00:16:16]>> It's good though. And burning it down.

[00:16:18]>> Burn it down. It's healthy for you, right?

[00:16:24]to test it.

[00:16:31]>> And then they kept showing me videos.

[00:16:36]>> A lot of videos >> climbing.

[00:16:39]>> Oh, that's cute.

[00:16:40]>> That's very cool. Look at that. Huh?

[00:16:43]>> Oh, climbing. Yeah.

[00:16:45]>> Some stranger than others.

[00:16:46]>> Sex movie.

[00:16:49]>> The bears are mating.

[00:16:50]>> Yeah.

[00:16:55]I think we have to blur this.

[00:17:05]I tried to talk myself out of this, but I got another one.

[00:17:11]So, after one last shot for good luck, we got back in the car to check what the wildlife camera had captured overnight.

[00:17:23]Some of you it's still there. I'm going to check on my computer in the car.

[00:17:38]Feel a bit lighted from all the stuff.

[00:17:44]It's impossible to say no. The peer pressure of these guys just another level. You think there's going to be something on here, Robert?

[00:17:53]>> Yes. Positive. Okay.

[00:17:56]>> Oh, there's a bird.

[00:17:58]>> Yeah. Pigeon.

[00:17:59]>> Pigeon.

[00:18:06]And that's one we pick up. There's nothing on it. Oh, there's a pigeon again. That's a little bit disappointing. I thought we'd get something. At least we got something. We got a bird. Pigeon. Is that rare? The pigeon? Not normal.

[00:18:20]>> Not very normal.

[00:18:24]>> Now we were heading somewhere else. A place where the chances of seeing bears were even higher. Robert knew a very special spot deep in the woods.

[00:18:41]But we had to be very quiet to have any chance of seeing bears. So all we could do was wait and wait and wait and wait.

[00:19:05]After a few hours, we started packing up and we're ready to give up.

[00:19:10]It just seemed hopeless.

[00:19:15]But then we heard something ears.

[00:19:40]just keep running from the side. And the mama bear is so big. You definitely don't want to get between her and her cups.

[00:19:48]We thought we weren't going to see anything cuz it was getting dark and then all of a sudden they just ran in.

[00:19:54]It looks like the mama bear has maybe smelled something else. She's like sniffing in air. So, we're thinking maybe there's another bear coming.

[00:20:09]Oh, maybe there's going to be a fight.

[00:20:19]There's a fed. They're coming.

[00:20:25]I'm guessing the mom is going to try to protect her because it's sneaking.

[00:20:35]One, two, three.

[00:20:37]That's bear number six.

[00:20:42]We lost count of how many bears there actually are now. The thing is, we're not protected by anything.

[00:20:53]There's no door, nothing. It's just a little staircase going up to here.

[00:20:59]And we're surrounded by like 10 bears.

[00:21:02]We saw something in the background as well.

[00:21:05]So now we just have to wait it out and wait till they're gone before we can leave.

[00:21:11]And this is not like a sanctuary or anything. This is in the wild. Like it's very wild.

[00:21:19]These are wild bears. Not used to seeing humans at all. So we don't really know how they would react.

[00:21:34]But we know for a fact that a mama bear with cubs is the most dangerous type of bear there is.

[00:21:41]That moment was intense. It was really beautiful. But now we have to get out of there. We had hoped that the bears would move on, but they didn't. So we had to make our way back quietly and carefully.

[00:22:00]Okay, so we're sneaking out and I have no idea where the bear is. It looked straight at us.

[00:22:09]Okay, let's get out of here.

[00:22:36]We're safe.

[00:22:38]It's nice to be back at the car.

[00:22:42]That was crazy though. I think seven beers we saw at once. I've wanted to see bears my whole life. Like, it's been my biggest dream. And now to see first.

[00:22:56]Yes, I'm pissing. The only thing that I didn't see was a wolf. Wolves have also been on my bucket list to see in the wild. We actually looked it up. There's one place in Europe where there are more wolves than here even, and that is in Poland, uh, close to the border with Bellarus.

[00:23:15]So, we might go there next.