Bear Tours – Getting Back to Nature
One of the things that you will learn quickly when you set off on bear tours is that you need to be flexible and adaptable. Bears, in their natural environment, are neither tame nor considerate of the schedules of human beings. They don’t own PDAs or smart phones and, try as you may, you’re not likely to be successful in being able to coordinate diaries with them so that they arrive at a given place and specific time.
Bear with the Bears
Now if this, in the context of bear tours, sounds to you to be something of an inconvenience, well, you’d be mistaken! Your holiday is aimed at helping you to experience bears in the wild, and behaving naturally, and not to see a spot where they were a week ago or where someone hopes they may be in a week’s time. One of the major benefits of this type of holiday, is that they enable you to relax into a flexible approach to get ‘in-synch’ with the bears’ natural (and sometimes unpredictable) rhythms.
Wherever you go in the world to see these marvellous animals, and whatever species you’re hoping to see, reputable bear tours will include the services of expert guides. These people have an intimate understanding of the bears’ behaviours and their probable localities, but the bears themselves don’t run their lives to anyone’s agenda other than their own – so you’ll have to be prepared to react to that.
Bear? Where?
As an example, Finland offers some fantastic opportunities to observe bears in their natural forest surroundings. You may find yourself staying in a very comfortable lodge, but to really experience some genuine bear behaviour, you’ll have to be prepared to spend some hours in a hide and go on guided walks to specific locations. You may also have to vary your view of the day ahead, at very short notice.
The same is true in various parts of Canada and the USA, where conservationists are actively seeking to discourage those ‘dependency’ types of activities where, in the past, bears were fed so that they would come out on demand in specific locations in return for food. This is not their natural behaviour and today, on bear tours, you will be asked to fit into the way the bears are leading their lives, rather than vice-versa.
Depending upon the situation, ‘in the field’, you may need to be prepared to make some early starts or stay up very late in order to catch the best bear sightings. Yet, that need to react to your circumstances at a given place and time, rather than as dictated to and scheduled, may also help put you back in touch with your own inner-agenda. Bear tours are the perfect way to not only enjoy the experience of observing these creatures themselves, but to remember what it is to be truly relaxed and in tune with nature.
Paul Stanbury is the Operations Manager for Naturetrek, a tour operator specialising in expert-led natural history and bear tours worldwide. Naturetrek bring over 25 years of experience to their bear tours in some of the most spectacular regions on Earth.
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