Bear Watching and Photography

Our stay was one of the biggest highlights I had ever had! Also, our guide which led us to the hide was very nice! At first, we saw a bear- then a raccoon dog (so cute) and then a wildpig with many baby's! And the biggest highlight was a whole bear family with 3 young bears! It was so cute! In the morning we also saw a bear, a group of wild pigs, and a raccoon dog. I didn't think we'd see young animals too. do you know in which months the animals have young babies? I think we came at the perfect time! One day We will definitely come back/ it was so perfect! Thank you for this stunning experience!

We found the starting point with no problems – I had downloaded it from your website to my phone before we left. Andres was waiting for us and so we knew we had arrived. The weather was not great as it was raining and the overcast sky made it a little too dark for photographs. It also made the mosquitoes particularly troublesome. However, we found the hides and once we had changed our wet clothes we settled in. We saw what we came to see. About 21.30h, a raccoon dog visited 4 or 5 times staying a few minutes each time (searching out the bait that had been left). The light was good enough for viewing through binoculars and we watched it for a about 30 minutes in total. That was really good as I didn’t expect to see a raccoon dog. Each time it visited, it took away some of the bait it could drag from where it was placed under the fallen tree. Had the light been better, it would have been easy to photograph. Even though the light was quite good for viewing but for photography – iso set to 2400 and with F4.5 lens – the resulting shutter speeds were still too slow. About 23.30 a large brown bear visited. We had a good view of the bear for about 1 hour. Even at this time of the day it was not very dark and so we could watch the bear easily (Even though it was too was too dark for photography – 1 s exposure times at ISO 3200). Again, it took the bait that was left (the bait the raccoon dog had left behind). Clearly the bear found no problem in moving the tree and revealing the bait. Again, the bear would take some bait and go and eat it a few meters away and then return. We also saw a fox 3 times and had a visit from a group of 3 wild boar – they looked young to me and were quite entertaining. Also seen, 3 visits from a fox, a small bat, and pair of woodpeckers. So, overall we were very satisfied. Clearly, if we want to see bears in daylight, we need to think more about the best time for a possible visit in the future.

he adult male (Brown Bear) came out at 21:03 PM and stayed there for almost half an hour! Before there only was one red fox, a goose hawk, ravens and one magpie.

I was determined to see my fist brown bear. Not least because bear tourism has become big business in Europe, with hides in Sweden and Finland offering success rates of higher than 90 percent. By now, our party had recorded bear prints, scats and claw marks raked across tree bark, and even the remains of a boar that had been stripped to the bone by these opportunist omnivores. So we were quietly confident of observing the real thing. Waiting for the bears to appear was nerve-racking. Two ravens and, bizarrely, a nuthatch of the ghosty northern race visited the site to pick at its flesh, while a pine marten zipped across the cleaning and vanished up a tree. And then, illuminated by the setting sun, a mother bear and her cub ambled into view.