The historical loss of natural wetlands in Romania is significant. The building of lakes, ponds, and dams has compensated for some of these losses, as was the case in the study area, the artificial wetlands designated as the Natura 2000 (special protection area, SPA) and Ramsar sites. In this context, to evaluate the conservation status of colonial waterbirds (cormorants, herons, and egrets), we analyzed actual distributions, habitat selection, features, and population sizes. Standardized counting of colonial species was used, supplemented by nest counting and colony-area estimation during winter, and drone footage. All species and their colonies were built in artificial or anthropically influenced habitats. Concerning distribution and population sizes, Phalacrocorax carbo and Microcarbo pygmeus were found to nest only in central Romania. The pair numbers of Ardea alba, Ardea purpurea, Ardea cinerea, and Nycticorax nycticorax in the area exceeded 1% of the national minimum breeding population. There was a statistically significant positive trend of breeding populations for Ardea alba, Nycticorax nycticorax, and Egretta garzetta. In conclusion, these artificial wetlands offer optimal breeding conditions for a relatively large diversity of colonial bird species over areas that are not very large.

Translation of the Bible or any other text unavoidably involves a determination about its meaning. There have been different views of meaning from ancient times up to the present, and a particularly Enlightenment and Modernist view is that the meaning of a text amounts to whatever the original author of the text intended it to be. This article analyzes the authorial-intent view of meaning in comparison with other models of literary and legal interpretation. Texts are anchors to interpretation but are subject to individualized interpretations. It is texts that are translated, not intentions. The challenge to the translator is to negotiate the meaning of a text and try to choose the most salient and appropriate interpretation as a basis for bringing the text to a new audience through translation.

The observation of elusive mammals, is still problematic, particularly in flowing waters or wetlands. But with the usage of camera traps, it was possible to obtain valuable information about otters. The aim of this study was finding the diel activity of the otters that live in Central-Eastern Romania. The diel activity of the Eurasian otter along its habitat was studied from March 2011 to April 2016 over 1356 days & nights of camera trapping. The camera traps have recorded a total of 222 otter visits at all 10 observation sites. Otters, passing through the observation sites, were strongly nocturnal and displayed a trimodal diel activity pattern, one occurring just before dawn (between 04:00 and 06:30 h), the second one occuring just after dusk (between 18:30 and 22:00 h) and the third one occurring in the middle of the night (between 00:30 and 01:30). Otters have been also active during the Civil Twilight (7.2 %), more active during the dusk (5 %) than during the dawn (2.3 %). Seasonally the Eurasian otters were more active during winter (39.6 %) and progressively less active in spring (31.5 %) summer (9 %) or autumn (19.8 %).

Waterbird species from the category of rare or irregular migratory, can have faunistical and conservative value, especially locally, but also regionally or nationally. This paper presents the results of long-term avifauna inventories (25 years) from two wetlands of importance for waterbirds, located in southeastern Transylvania, central Romania. 44 species of waterbirds from these phenological categories have been identified, some for the first time at national or regional level (Transylvania), others with a high number of individuals for the reference area or even records for Transylvania. Moreover, at least one of the species has bred sporadically here, as the only place inside the country and the second in Romania (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus), another is possibly breeding for several years (Grus grus).