Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Top Experiences
Bear-Watching, Eastern Finland
SEPPFRIEDHUBER / GETTY IMAGES ©
Old Honeypaws, the brown bear
(Ursus arctos)
, is the national animal of Finland.
Around a thousand of these powerful creatures live in the northeast, coming and
going with impunity across the Finnish-Russian border. Several
operators
run
bear hides close to the frontier, where you can sit a silent night's vigil as bruins
snuffle out elk carcasses and carefully hidden chunks of salmon. The best time to
see them is between mid-April and August - with a slight gap in July when the
bears have mating rather than meals in mind.
