BIG PICTURERuhtinansalmi,
Finland
I took this image in the small hours one
morning last summer in the east of Finland,
close to the Russian border. I was part of a
group of photographers visiting the region,
all of us keen to capture shots of brown bears
with their cubs. This particular morning, we’d
been waiting all night in small photo hides
beside a pond as the bears are often active
when it’s dark. We’d seen a few bears, but
hadn’t managed to get any good pictures.
Then, suddenly, a mother bear came sniffling
along the edge of the pond with her three one-
year-old cubs. Shortly after, a big male bear
arrived nearby — males can be a threat to cubs
and have been known to kill them. Wary, the
mother and her cubs stood up on their hind
legs to get a better view before running off in
the opposite direction. Luckily, I managed to
take this fleeting shot just moments before
they scampered away.
BJØRN H STUEDAL // PHOTOGRAPHER
stuedal.photography
@stuedalBjørn is The Societies’ Monthly Image
Competition’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year
- thesocieties.net
14 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel
SMART TRAVELLER