AUTUMN BROWN BEARS
Ursus arctos arctos
Just had a great trip to Finland to photograph Eurasian brown bears in the autumn colours. Finland is one of the best places in Europe to photograph the brown bear. The brown bear is Finland’s national animal, and this was my second trip to photograph them, having previously visited in June.
This trip was perfectly timed to photograph the bears in autumnal conditions. I enjoyed four great days of photography approximately 5km from the Russian border – purpose-built photographic hides were positioned to offer three different habitats: the woodland hide, the swamp hide and the pond hide.
With wildlife photography you need a slice of luck; you can put yourself in the right location at the right time, but you still need the right conditions and the bears. Fortunately, I was lucky on this occasion that I had both! Fully grown male brown bears can weigh up to 480kg and there were some huge specimens. They had been piling on the pounds for their winter hibernation – remarkable given that only 10% of their diet is meat. They will hibernate for the winter from around the end of November until March.
Thanks to Ellie Rothnie and Natures Images
