PLURAL MAGAZINE

The Danube Delta is a land inhabited by Romanians coming from Transylvania, Moldavia and Oltenia (Little Walachia), as well as by people who came here from Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. There seem to be two causes that led to this ethnic mosaic: a political one –

The Stork's an absolutely cool girl…None is svelterIn the Delta – She'll shriek, she'll jog, she'll comb the bogIn search of the odd fish and frog. She walks aroundTouching the groundWith one foot at a time, thereforeHer feet are never ever sore.

He'd come with his head down, as if searching for something among the rocks on the road. What could he have possibly found new here, in a land surrounded by waters, on the shore laden with miasma? The narrowness of the bank? He knew all about it; the shiny grit? –

Head of Romanian Ornithological Center Over hundreds of thousands of years, Nature has searched for and found the most efficient adaptation mechanisms for each species, as well as for ways in which groups of animals and plants could support the big natural systems. In their

At times, in vernal Romania, one may observe large birds migrating in triangular formation, high above towns, in a north-westerly direction. Their elongated necks remind one of our storks, still – the swift, fast propelling pinion flaps make one acknowledge a different

excerpts The Austrian Eduard Hodek made a series of trips on the lower Danube between 1869 and 1886, which resulted in his thorough studies of the Danube pelicans and brought important contributions to the information on their life and habits. At the time, birds nested

As it is quite rare in Romania, the pelican has been declared a monument of nature. There are two species, which are hard to differentiate: the white pelican (Pelecanus Onocrotalus) and the Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus Crispus). The Dalmatian has red eyes and is slightly

In the Danube Delta the birds take shelter on considerably large areas. They live and breed there in fantastic numbers. The Danube Delta is a virgin piece of land, a gathering of alluviums just like at the mouths of the Congo or Amazon rivers… Geese, ducks, swans and pelicans,

Among hundreds of vegetable species of the Danube Delta, I insisted only upon reed (Phragmites communis). It deserves to be called an amazing plant even though it doesn't belong to the rare or unique botanical species which can ensure the celebrity of an ambitious academician

After a bewildering trip by boat on the old branch of the Danube, to the left of the village Mila 23, at the end of the channel Madgearu you run into a strip of dry land, a stable island in an infinite kingdom of reed. It is the Letea grind (sand bank) that welcomes you

The National Museum of Natural History has its origins in the National Museum of Natural History and Antiquities, founded through Act no. 143/3rd of November 1834, signed by Alexandru Dimitrie Ghica – the first ruler of Muntenia after the modernizing Organic Regulations,

Institute for Ecomuseum Research in Tulcea Located in the center of Tulcea in a beautiful building that is also an architectural monument, the Natural Science Museum of the Danube Delta has been for almost half a century one of the important cultural elements in Tulcea