Brown Bears (Info, Pics and Videos)

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One case from Kainuu, Finland. Originally happened 6.5.2006. Posted to a newspaper by a reader.
Writer lives in forest and house on the shore of a lake. So practically in the middle of wildlife and seeing a lot of wild animals. He say, that this incident is still highlight among all.


Story synopsis (when there is I/we etc., it is about writer): Old-man Topi, neighbour, rushes in the house and shouts: "Come to watch, on opposite shore is a bear attacking a moose!". So it really was. About half an hour water of shoreline in river delta was splashing on opposite shore (about 400 meters). With binoculars it was seen clearly how a good sized bear was "riding" on the back of the bull moose.

Occasionally the moose fell and we, four viewers were absolutely sure, that it wouldn´t get up anymore. With his last strength the moose managed to get up and escaped to melt shore water, bear on his back. In the middle of the lake was still ice cover. Finally only head of the moose could be seen on water and obviously the bear started to have lack of oxygen. Suddenly the bear emerged and swam away, maybe after some kick (estimation) from the moose underwater too. The bear swam to the ice cover in the middle of the lake, but it didn´t support his weight and heavy beast sunk time to time through ice into the water, before it reached, exhausted, the shore again. The bear was approximately age of 2-3 years, just woken up from hibernation. The moose was able to swim to shore too, well away from the bear and stood there badly injured (both sides with open wounds) and stiff caused by terror, totally immobile. I called immediately to Heikki Manninen of gamekeeping association and asked if the moose should be finished (miracle, that it survived so far). He said, that it would be better to let the nature to do its work to the end, pointing out, that if shot, then often the carcass doesn´t be suitable for bear anymore and it would for sure go back there to find the moose.

After that I called to two nature photographers (Hannu Huttu and Kari Kemppainen), who arrived in no time with their telescope objectives. Kari (internationally known wildlife movie director from Kuhmo) told me, when I was helping him to carry those heavy camcorders and batteries to shore, that if he is able to film returning of the bear and final battle, then it would be one of those highlights, which are served only once in a lifetime. Unfortunately fight so far was recorded only in hardrives inside heads of four viewers for the rest of their lives... From attached photos can be seen though, how badly injured moose is standing in shock on the shore and the bear is planning anxiously returning to the moose. We brought to photographers coffee and they stayed to look how situation developes. Kari and Hannu told, that the bear went back on night, but wind direction revealed it to the moose, which then escaped outside the area, which could be photographed/filmed...

After that day I was looking for from the nearby forest a long time, that where the carcass of that moose might be and I especially looked where ravens flew (best ones to help to find a carcass), but without results. Not until next year a local woodsman found the carcass and not a long way from our house. The moose had swam with his last strength over river (Suoronjoki, offcially Suoronjoki-Isojoki) before the bear started to eat. My own search had ended on the other side of the river because I would never had believed, that the badly injured animal would have been still able to swim and cross that river. Two photos taken by my colleague Hannu Huttu (his website www.hannuhuttu.com ).

http://ilmari.puheenvuoro.uusisuomi.fi/4...n-taistelu

Well, story synopsis is pretty much whole story there :) Reply