With two new bears to their feeding areas in the last week, Karhu Kuusamo predict a great bear watching season for Kuusamo, Lapland with a 99% chance of seeing bears from their hides.

(TRAVPR.COM) LAPLAND  - ^12th July 2010 - Karhu Kuusamo, a bear watching company near the ski resort of Ruka in Kuusamo, Lapland are predicting a bumper year for bear watching in Kuusamo having witnessed two new bears at their feeding areas in the last week.

The brown bear found in the forests of Finland and Russia is a very shy and timid creature, unlikely to be seen under normal circumstances in the forests, but bear watching companies like Karhu Kuusamo build hides and leave food out for them regularly to tempt them out into the open.

On the 8th July two bears previously unknown to the guides made an appearance at the feeding area, just a few hours apart. The feeding area, a swamp on the edge of the forest, close to the Russian border, is used regularly by 4 or 5 bears, although there are known to be around 10 in the area. The appearance of these two new bears at this feeding area bodes very well for the 2010 bear watching season.

Of the two new bears, the guide had seen only footprints before and by the size of the larger ones knew him to be around 300kgs, a very big bear. The second bear was smaller and younger, around 100-120 kgs and maybe 2-3 years old.

Bear watching season in Ruka and Kuusamo starts at the beginning of May and runs through to the 19th of August, when the hunting season starts in Finnish Lapland and the bears retreat back to Russia. Ordinarily, through the summer months, these bears will spend the day times in the forests of Russia where they can stay almost completely undisturbed, the nearest humans being over 60kms away, and then cross over into Finland at night, when the humans are sleeping, to hunt.

The brown bear live predominantly on reindeer and moose which roam the forests of Finland and are drawn to the feeding sites near the hide by the chance of an easy meal.

Although predicting bear sightings, even at these feeding spots, is not an exact science, Tuomo Pirtimaa of Karhu Kuusamo believes that come high season, July and August, you will have a 99% chance of seeing bears at the hide. During May and June the bears will generally come to the feeding area one at a time. By mid July you may well see 2 or 3 at the same feeding spot together and by August it is not unusual to see as many as 5 brown bears all feeding in the same place.

Ruka bear watching trips cost 120€ per person for the evening or 140€ per person to spend the night in the hide. Spending the night is recommended as it's possible that the bears won't appear until the early morning. For more information about these bear watching trips and the Ruka and Kuusamo area visit www.rukakuusamo.com

###