Playing hide and seek with bears in Finland
OVER the years, I have built up a large number of contacts in the world of natural history, many of whom are great friends.
They include writers, researchers, reserve wardens, eco-tour guides, painters and photographers, and I am fairly sure that, they have all featured or contributed to my articles in some way or another, however the latest to hit these pages is photographer and tour leader, Jari Peltomaki, Director of Finnature in Finland.
His website at www. finnature.com is, to use an overused adjective, awesome. One browse and I guarantee you’ll stick it on your ‘favourites’.
He sent me some pictures this week which I felt honour-bound to share with you, especially the brown bear shot seen here, enough to make you want to bin your camera gear.
Finnature arranges all manner of wildlife watching tours in Finland and many of their photographic hides are suitable for brown bear, wolverine, wolf, and, if you’re really lucky, lynx.
Other mammals passing by on a regular basis include, elk, red squirrel, flying squirrel, arctic hare, roe deer, white-tailed deer, wild forest reindeer, otter, red fox, muskrat, raccoon dog and beaver.
The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is the national animal of Finland, and the population is estimated at around 1,000 individuals, but despite this low figure it is still hunted. Without reinforcements from behind the Russian border, Finnish bears would long since have been hunted to extinction.
Most of the bears, perhaps demonstrating that evolution does not take too long, live in the large wilderness areas on the Russian side of the Finnish border, but do cross into Finland, however, when the hunting season starts, many move back to the quieter Russian back country and then return in spring after hibernation.
Martinselkonen nature reserve is situated in Suomussalmi municipality in the vicinity of the Russian border, and bears have been fed here for ten years now, and on the best nights 15-20 different individual bears have visited the carcasses.
There are some who believe that ‘baiting stations’ are cheating, but in my view it is only the same as feeding blue tits in your back garden, as the bird is still ‘wild’ and the feeders just let you have a closer look. Likewise with the bears.
Jari’s photography hides are located on a shallow slope and the feeding point itself is in a boggy depression, with the forests as a backdrop, and that’s good enough for me.
The hide windows give excellent views and are perfect for obtaining photos of the animals with their natural habitat in the background.
I have been to Finnish Lapland myself and, as usual, decided to wander off into the trees by myself.
I love that feeling of expectation, the sound of snow crackling underfoot, the ‘rat a tat tat’ of a woodpecker, then silence, and then what?
Well, you just never know what will turn up, fly past or startle you, and you invariably see something other than what you set out for which proved true on this particular adventure.
I had been pointed in the direction of a roosting and seriously moon-faced Great Grey Owl, and although I was sure I heard his gruff and primate-like call in the distance, and indeed had tried to call him by impersonating the sound did not catch a glimpse of the bird.
At this stage I was completely out of sight of any human, hide, telegraph pole or vehicle, and if you spun me around, it would only have been the sun which told me which way was back.
After another five minutes I came upon a small boggy lake, which did not look deep, but as I deliberated the decision was made for me.
On the far side of the water, a single brown bear stopped in his tracks and looked at me, our eyes met for a couple of seconds, before he set off again, unperturbed. “Good lad,” I whispered to the bear, and “Get in Woody,” to myself.