Live ‘Bearcam’ launches in Finland

The world’s first ever live BearCam is launched direct from the Taiga Forest in Eastern Finland to observe brown bears as they awaken from their long winter hibernation.

The BearCam has been installed in the animal observation site of the Wild Brown Bear Company who arrange wildlife tours to view bears in their natural habitat. Although brown bears are usually shy, nocturnal creatures and a rare sight in most European countries, the Taiga Forests located near the Russian border in Eastern Finland play home to a large number of these carnivorous creatures.

Tests leading up to the BearCam launch showed a high probability of capturing bear footage and Jaana Keränen, sales manager of Wild Taiga (a network of the region’s tour operators) claims that during the nights from late April to August, there is up to a 95% chance of spotting bears.

BearCam feeds live videos in the hours between 4 p.m. and 4 a.m. (6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Finnish time) which is when the brown bears are their most active. Daytime visitors of BearCam can browse the video archive and look at any activity from the previous night. From April onwards, the large males are usually the first to wake up from their winter’s sleep. They are soon followed in June by the mother bears and their cubs.

During this period, the Finnish days become longer and daylight can last for up to 24 hours making it is a lot easier to get good quality video material. For darker autumn nights the video camera is equipped with infrared light.

The evergreen Taiga Forest offers many options for guided wildlife observation and photography trips. During these trips, visitors get the chance to admire rare and endangered wild mammals such as bears, wolves and wolverines.

From May 1st the BearCam can be found on the Wild Brown Bear website at wildbrownbear.fi/bearcam/. For more information on wildlife observation tours, visit wildtaiga.fi. Further information about Finland can be found at visit visitfinland.com/uk.