Snowy Finland: Brown Bears, Wolverine, Wolves and more!

Since I took up wildlife photography seriously back in 2014 I’ve only ever visited locations in the UK, and almost all of those were in Scotland. I love British wildlife, and there’s so much yet to learn and discover that I’m quite content staying local. However, there are places and animals I’d like to visit and experience out with the UK so I decided to take the plunge and book a foreign photography holiday. If you follow me you’ll know that I love winter and snow most of all. Given that my busiest season is winter this does prove a little problematic when looking for a snowy location. Fortunately parts of Scandinavia remain in winter for much longer than we do, so I was able to go in April and still experience the conditions that I love.

There are so many companies offering photography trips now that it was easy to become lost in the choices available. Eventually I decided on Paul Fowlie, a wildlife photographer himself, based down in Yorkshire. Not only was the tour reasonably priced but it offered the chance of brown bears, wolves, black grouse, capercaillie, wolverine and more. This seemed to be to be a perfect mix. Obviously nothing was guaranteed, but we did see all of the above with the exception, very sadly, of Capercaillie – it was far too cold and snowy so they weren’t showing as yet. One for another time…

For camera gear, I chose my Nikon Z8 with my Z50 as a back-up. The Nikkor z 100-400mm was my primary lens although I also had my 70-180mm f2.8. I used a battery pack to power the camera rather than batteries and this worked brilliantly. We didn’t require tripods, just tripod heads. Obviously some of my heated clothing (socks and deer hunter top) came with me too! I have a tiny suitcase, so fitting all my warm clothing in was a bit of a challenge, but I made it.

I flew from Inverness to Helsinki via Amsterdam and then on to Kajaani in the East of Finland. It didn’t all go to plan as there were both weather and technical issues in Amsterdam the day before I was due to fly out which meant none of the evening KLM flights made it to the UK, so weren’t there for the morning outgoing journey. I spent a frantic 4 hours on the afternoon prior to my departure trying to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together to get me to my final destination. Very stressful! This eventually meant a night in Helsinki airport sleeping in one of the Hotel Glo restpods and an early flight to Kajaani the following morning, a good few hours later than all my fellow clients. Fortunately Kari Kemppainen one of the co-owners of the Boreal Wildlife Centre and a renowned Finnish wildlife filmmaker, came and collected me for the onwards 2.5 hour journey to the centre. We had an enjoyable drive and it was interesting to learn more about the area and wildlife. What did strike me was how samey the scenery was. Not in a bad way, but the terrain was very flat and covered in coniferous forest with some silver birch. The odd wooden house or shed appeared but mostly it was wilderness. The ground was covered in snow and all the lakes were white and frozen. Perfect!

The centre is situated very close to the Russian border, in fact their hides are currently in no-man’s land between the two countries (they are having to relocate them for next year). This is a prime location for brown bears who mostly hibernate in Russia, only crossing the border when they emerge.

The accommodation was fairly basic, but comfortable. I’d paid a little extra for my own room and was actually given a suite of two rooms with a choice between 3 beds! We spent three nights in hides at the bear site which, fortunately, had gas heaters as the temperature fell to -10 most nights! Food was good. We ate breakfast (porridge, eggs, cheese, ham) at 8am on our return from the hides and then had a meal at 2.30pm before returning to them. Sandwiches and hot drinks were provided for our stay in the hide. Kari, Tommy and Mrs Tommy were the perfect hosts, nothing was too much trouble for them and they made our stay a real joy. Here are images of the accommodation, main building and the view from my window.

Although I arrived later than everyone else I didn’t miss a night of bears which was a relief. I did miss a visit to the black grouse lek though although apparently they weren’t very active. Fortunately Kari and Paul both assured me I’d get my chance to experience it.

Enough preamble! What about the wildlife?? Suffice to say it was fantastic. Given the unseasonably cold weather Kari and Paul were a little concerned that the bears wouldn’t yet have emerged from hibernation. In fact the first one was sighted on the 15th April, only 2 days before our first night in the hide – phew! At this time of year the centre only bait one of their three sites as there are fewer bears around. We were at the swamp hide, although you wouldn’t have known that given the amount of snow on the ground. For the first two nights all 8 of us were in one hide. I’d initially thought we’d each be in individual, unheated hides without any facilities. Fortunately I was mistaken! This hide was relatively comfortable and had two gas cannister heaters, a composting toilet and comfortable bunk beds. Other than the snoring from some of my companions overnight, it was way better than expected.

The site was baited with a pig, salmon chunks and dog biscuits. The carcass was quite unattractive, but the smell would bring in the predators. First to arrive were three corvids well known to me – ravens (lots of ravens!), hooded crows and magpies. These became a bit of a pest, getting themselves into almost every image. Amazingly they weren’t remotely scared of the large predators and hopped/flew around them being generally irritating (but amusing at times).

The animal I was most hoping to see was neither a bear, nor a wolf, but a wolverine. Wolverines are a member of the mustelid family (same as otters, badgers, stoats, pine martens etc) – I love mustelids! I’ve been entertained by the antics of the wolverine at the Highland Wildlife Park in the past. They are strange looking animals, almost as though they’ve been pieced together using left-over bits of other mustelids. Much to my delight the very first animal we saw in Finland was a wolverine! He bounded in from the trees at the far right, taking a long route in, and eventually appearing through the trees opposite. So exciting. This was at 6.45pm so good light as well. The females are still nursing their cubs at this time, deep underground, so this was almost certainly a male. He went straight for the carcass.

We saw him a few more times over the next couple of nights. On one occasion he used his exceptionally strong jaws to rip the head off the pig carcass and drag it into the forest, possibly for his mate. The only problem with this was that the next bear to arrive, picked up the scent of the carcass and followed it, rather than coming in.

The final time we saw the wolverine he turned up quite late at night at the same time as a bear. He ran off, but didn’t really know what to do with himself so bounded backwards and forwards for a while in the distance. When this bear left (as another arrived) he plucked up the courage to come in for a wee while, until bear no 2 lifted his head up from his meal and turned in the wolverine’s direction. This was too much for him and he ran off. I honestly hadn’t really expected to see a wolverine and these sightings were one of the highlights of the entire trip.

Brown bears were our target species at the Boreal centre. Arguably, the prettiest of all the bears appeared on our first evening in the hide. He was a real teddy bear. He too approached from the far right and really struggled to walk through the snow, sinking deep into it with every footstep.

Once he eventually arrived, he did what all the bears did, and plonked himself down to enjoy a meal. Kari told me that at this time of year, having just come out of hibernation, the bears’ stomachs have shrunk and they can’t eat very much at a time – the evidence would suggest otherwise though – they all had a huge appetite!

I’m not sure exactly how many bears we saw over the four nights/three mornings in the hide. There was one we probably saw more than any other, and we affectionately referred to him as “ugly bear”. He had a squint nose and a split lip. Not a looker, but he did have character! Sadly not very photogenic though.

Some of my favourite images were as they approached through the trees, it was good to see something of the environment in the photographs.

I do have some close ups too though!

Photographing them through heavy snow proved to be quite challenging. The cameras just couldn’t auto-focus, either with tracking or on spot focus, so it had to be done manually. The bears have tiny eyes too, and it was amazing how many images were spoilt by snow in front of them.

One final bear image – this one also featuring a bird we saw a lot of – a white-tailed sea eagle. When the eagle perched in a tree above the bear I took the opportunity to photograph them together.

The other mammal we photographed at the Boreal Centre was one I’m very familiar with – the red squirrel. Most of the red squirrels in the UK, except the island based populations, are actually descended from Scandinavian red squirrels and they are almost identical to look at… except for their much longer ear tufts. There’s a bird hide at the centre and I spent a few hours there over a couple of mornings watching the birds and hoping for squirrel sightings. On my first morning, one came in, but it sat amongst bird seed on the ground and although great to see, it wasn’t photogenic. A few tweaks to the hide and heavy snow improved things dramatically for my second visit. We had two squirrels come in for a long period. The first one was initially obscured behind a snow-covered log, with only the tufts showing. It did eventually give more photographic opportunities though and it was absolutely gorgeous.

The second came in a wee while later and perched onto of one of the upturned logs. He munched on seed for ages providing some different images. I loved seeing them both.

Our fourth, and final mammal was seen at our second location – Wildlife Safaris Finland. This centre was actually very close to the first, but due to winter road closures took a couple of hours in a van that was far too small for all of us plus our luggage. The location was the exact opposite in almost every way from the Boreal Wildlife Centre where we couldn’t have felt more welcome.

Anyway… the reason for being there was to see wolves. My heart sank when I looked at the sightings board – the wolves were only appearing once every few days. Fortunately it was 5 nights since a sighting so I had everything crossed we’d see at least one. Early on the first of our two mornings in the hide I spotted movement in the trees to the left. Initially I thought it was a bear, but suddenly a wolf emerged from the forest, followed by two more. They were only visible for 13 minutes and didn’t come very close but it was fantastic to see them. The alpha female is the blonde one. She was noticeably pregnant which was great news. They sniffed about for a bit and then each collected a bone from the old carcasses spread on the ground before trotting off to the right and disappearing into the wood again. It was our only sighting of them, but I am so pleased they showed! The same pack also make appearances at the Boreal centre, and were, in fact, seen there a day or two later.

So that was all the mammals we saw in Finland. All brilliant. Of the predators, the wolverine was my personal favourite. Far more interesting and dynamic than the bears. Entertaining to watch too. However it was a thrill to see both brown bears and wolves in the wild and in snow too!

We were also treated to a variety of birds, both big and small. Aside from the aforementioned corvids, there were quite a few white-tailed eagles both adult and juvenile, one distant golden eagle, black grouse, snow bunting, bullfinch, siskin, yellowhammer, chaffinch and marsh tit (I’d never seen the latter before).

Seeing the massive white-tailed eagles in the snow was certainly a highlight. I think these are my best images of the birds. A bit different from those I’ve taken in the past over on the West Coast.

The little birds were a delight to see at the squirrel hide too. Especially as it was snowing – snow always makes a positive difference!

I did manage to get to the Black Grouse hide which was fantastic. I’ve never seen the lek before. Frustratingly, that morning, the sun was strong and facing directly towards the hide I was in which made photography a little challenging… so these are arty shots!

It was hilarious watching the cocks strut around, the females didn’t look very impressed. I didn’t manage to photograph successfully many fights as the snow got in the way as did a bush they decided to fight within – typical!

Finally, whilst in the grouse hide, it was lovely to see some snow bunting right in front of me. The tracking on the Z8 worked well as I attempted to capture their airborne interactions. This is my favourite.

So, all in all it was an excellent trip. The first half was the better, but it was amazing to see the wolves, if only briefly. As a first foray into non-UK wildlife photography it was a success other than the flight issues right at the start. Many thanks to Paul for arranging and guiding us.

My next foreign trip is May 2025. No need for winter clothing here as it’s Malaysian Borneo! I need to purchase an entire new wardrobe. 3 weeks of I hope seeing and photographing some amazing species such as orangutans and proboscis monkeys. Can’t wait!