It was such a great feeling to realize that we are deep in the forests of Finland ready to watch and photograph Eurasian Brown bears. This magnificent mammal could once be found across most of northern Eurasia but intensive hunting, habitat destruction reduced their numbers or caused extermination in many countries, including England. Finland on the Russian border has a healthy population of brown bears and Martinselkonen Nature Reserve is a perfect place to witness this elusive mammal. We've chosen to come in July as there is a good chance to see bear moms with cute and adorable cubs.
From the moment we stepped out from a plane we were amazed by Finland’s nature – so many lakes and endless areas of forests. Outside Kuusamo airport we were greeted by couple of reindeer and our driver who took us to Martinselkonen Wildlife Centre.
Our adventure started next day at 4 p.m. when we headed towards a hide in the forest. Just minutes before we arrived, rain had stopped and sun was coming out covering everything in a beautiful golden glow. We didn’t waste our time, quickly prepared our cameras and were ready for some action which started … in couple of minutes.
Couple of hours later we couldn’t believe our eyes when a bear mom with four cubs showed up. All of the cubs were so cute and funny but particularly playful and most adorable was the smallest one. Strange enough but he had chosen to play - fight with his biggest sibling despite the fact he was losing all the time.
There was plenty of action from the little ones all evening.
It was an amazing experience. Most of the night we stayed awake from excitement. We expected to see more bears in the morning, but as we were told later it doesn't happen often.
Back at the Wilds centre we had a tasty breakfast. Every morning we couldn’t resist a temptation to try finnish blueberry jam which was packed full of fruit and flavor. We must admit the food during our stay was really delicious thanks to Markku wife's efforts.
At 4 p.m. we headed to another hide. This time it was built in a swamp. Before we arrived, we had a great conversation about bears with our guide and of course he taught us how to say "a bear" in Finnish. Most of the way we kept repeating: karhu, karhu, karhu. To make the task more difficult we decided to count: "yksi karhu, kaksi karhu, kolme karhu". When we reached our hide, Markku was already on site preparing some treats for bears. We didn't have to wait long for some action to start...
After adults left the swamp little cubs turned up and they simply couldn't stand still...
The swamp have offered climbing bears, an amazing performance of cubs, a nice view of White-tailed Eagle on the top of a pine tree and a night visit of a brown bear cub which was scratching the door of our hide and was eager to get inside...
The last afternoon and night we spent in the hide near pond. This time we had to wait nearly three hours for the bears to turn up. But the waiting was worth it.
There was plenty of action and most of it was from fluffy bear cubs which kept climbing up and getting down the trees all evening. It was simply unforgettable.
A bear mom with two cubs stayed by the pond until 12 a.m.
She cuddled them all the time and was very protective, but when it was getting darker and there were no other bears around we had a possibility to witness a sweet moment of suckling cubs...
Later this family passed our hide couple of feets away and disappeared into the wilderness of Finland…
Back in London we feel happy that we had a chance to experience such a wonderful adventure with brown bears and a smile doesn’t fade from our faces when we look at the photos. At the same time it’s so sad that we have to wait all year to go back to Finland, Martinselkonen Nature Reserve.