Bear Kuusamo: Ethical Bear Watching in Finland

Bear Kuusamo: bear watching in Finland, on the edge of Lapland

In the border forests east of Kuusamo, where the boreal forest runs unbroken toward the frontier, brown bears step out of the treeline in the long northern dusk. Bear Kuusamo has guided travellers into that quiet for more than twenty years. It is the oldest bear-watching operation in the Ruka–Kuusamo region, and the northernmost in the country.

Seven timber hides sit at the forest edge, built to keep human sound and scent inside. Panoramic windows give watchers a clear view of the clearing, and photographers have dedicated camera openings with bean bags and video heads, so nobody shoots through glass. The main hide is wheelchair-accessible, and the toilets sit in their own separate rooms. From the windows you may see brown bears, and in spring a wolverine slipping past, white-tailed sea eagles overhead, and the ravens whose calls tell the guides a bear is close.

A young brown bear climbs a pine near the hides.

A guided walk to the hide and the best-lit hours of the northern evening.

The evening extended until morning, and often the richer show. The night hours tend to bring out considerably more bears, from big males to, even at midsummer, a mother with her cubs, and on summer nights the bears go swimming.

Guiding and insurance are included, and the season runs 1 May to 30 September. Spring brings mothers with cubs, and at midsummer the sun does not set here at all, so you can watch and photograph bears right through the bright night. If the forest stays empty, the Original Bear Guarantee brings you back for another evening free.

A wild female brown bear with two cubs at the forest edge near Kuusamo. Photo: Piritta Paija / Bear Kuusamo

A young wild brown bear climbing a pine tree near the Bear Kuusamo hides. Photo: Piritta Paija / Bear Kuusamo

The oldest bear hides in the Ruka–Kuusamo region, on the edge of Lapland. Evening and overnight tours, 1 May to 30 September.