by Raj Hunjan

I am fascinated with seeing wildlife across the globe, having spent a number of years travelling from the UK to the African continent, I decided to explore the possibilities of large animals closer to home. One place that crept up time and time again during my online research was Finland, because of Bears, Wolves and Wolverines are found along the Russian border. The pioneer who setup here and whose name is synonymous with these wild encounters is Lassi Rautiainen.

Located close to Kuhmo, Lassi has his own fifteen (and counting) covert hides in the ‘Green Zone’, an area sealed off from man between Russia & Finland. Here he has special dispensation from EU government to bait animals for the purpose of capturing their images and studying their behaviour on a daily basis. Photographers are granted special permission by application to visit the area accompanied by Lassi and his guides.  Photographers flock from Europe mainly but also from further afield to experience being in close proximity to these amazing creatures which are elusive and wary of man, through centuries of hunting.

We stayed with Lassi for five nights at his base camp and visited three hide locations he has set up in the Green Zone. Upon arrival we were given a tour of base camp by one of the experienced wilderness guides, Jahu, a seventeen year veteran of working with Lassi, and shown our room, a warm double bunk bed furnished suite complete with wardrobe, sink, fridge, microwave and table. A toilet room shared with one other identical room, both located at the end of the main building in the base camp.

The first night we were taken to their site simply called Paradise. It is clear to see why it has been named as such when we arrived, it was a series of hides on the edge of a wide open area surrounded by trees, with a small outcrop of trees in front of the hides approximately 35 metres away. Here there is a shallow ditch where food such as pig, elk and salmon are placed along for the animals to eat. Initially the birds arrive; ravens and hooded crows as well as the odd magpie. Then we had two white tailed eagles visit, Golden eagles to be exact; initially keeping a watchful eye over the feasting smaller birds: their perching in the tops of the trees on the edge of the clearing and also on the trees above the bait allow you to prepare for a great sequence of shots as they swoop down on a tasty morsel they have spied from their vantage point. If successful they carry their prize to a nearby ground location where you can see them break up the food, under the watchful eye of several raven and crow that are not amused by the eagles snatch and grab tactics.

All the while you must keep scanning the tree line as wolves and bears will view from afar from the safety of tree cover before making their way round the clearing to walk in to the feeding area either from the left or right. Depending on how skittish they are they will either snatch and grab food much like the eagles or stay around eating, the larger pieces that the birds can’t break apart easily. The birds keep a close watch and pounce on any bits that fall as the larger animals move around and fight over the scraps left in the wake of the bears. We found that the birds were as interesting to photograph and observe since they jump, hop and fly often which can make excellent action photography of animals not found in the UK.

Being a cloudy day, the light started to fade very early, by 6pm the light was too poor for photography. The hide we were in had tinted windows which also made it look darker than it was, so again we did find our first night in the wilderness challenging, just as the light had pretty much disappeared, viewing through binoculars we spotted two fast moving white creatures and a further darker version appear from the right, the wolves had arrived. Photographing blind, trial and error with the manual focus allowed us to capture a few blurred images of these great predators. Buzzing from the experience we still value these hard fought images as our first encounter with wild wolves. Soon after the wolves sped off from their fleeting night raid, a large black shape snuck in to the scene, another bear – our second and last of the night. No chance of pictures now but still an exhilarating experience none the less. We then rearranged our two person hide by folding the chairs away, removing our cameras from their ball head mounts and laying out the foam in the hide to lay our sleeping bags on to. We were advised by our guide to wake at 5:30, which we did but alas the clouds remained so light didn’t start to appear until closer to 6am. We watched the scene until our 8am pickup to take us to base camp. There was very little to spot, it seemed the cold and dark conditions had got the better of the wildlife too. No matter. Our first experience in a Lassi hide was still memorable.

Back at base camp, a short 10km from the Paradise sight, we dropped off our overnight bags and camera equipment in our room before heading to the dining room, which also doubles up as a living room with a few sofas, TV and wifi on offer around the picnic tables that make up the eating area in the middle: the kitchen adjoins where plenty of hot food is brought through to guests who have all returned from their night spots and are sharing their experiences over well earned breakfast.

After breakfast, guests are left to their own devices, to catchup on any shortfall in sleep in their rooms, unwind on the sofas, surf the internet, download and edit pictures from the last night, sauna, shower or for those that need some outdoor activities after being stuck in a small room overnight, there are the boats to explore lake that surrounds three sides of the peninsula that base camp is situated on or walk the wooded areas to spot bird such as greater spotted woodpecker, waxbills and also the resident red squirrels. Lassi and his team have setup a large number of nest boxes on the trees in base camp to encourage bird life during spring and also a large feeding station in the middle of the camp to encourage and feed birds as well as the red squirrel all year round.