During this tour you spend a night in brown bear watching hide and from there it is very good possibility to see the bears. Brown bear watching takes place every night in May-June and September-October. The hide is comfortable and cozy, inside are bunk beads, dry toilet.
It is possible to make pictures is thru glass. The tour takes place in Alutaguse, N-E of Estonia, the core area of Estonian 700 Brown Bears. It takes 1,5 hours drive from Tallinn or Tartu to Alutaguse.
Besides the bears it is the great chance to see Racoon Dog, different birds, sometimes Fox, Wild Boar and rare visitors are Pine Marten, Wolf, Elk, Badger, Golden and White -tailed Eagle.
Duration
About 15 hours, including a night in the Brown Bear hide.
Level Easy walking from car to hide 1km.
What to wear Warm clothes and comfortable (preferably waterproof) footwear are necessary. It can be quite chilly at night. .
Departures End of April – beginning of July and September-October. Tour takes place every night, 17.00 – 8.00
Ben Hoare from BBC Wildlife visited Natourest Brown Bear hide in May 2010:
I was determined to see my fist brown bear. Not least beacuse bear tourism has become big business in Europe, with hides in Sweden and Finland offering success rates of higher than 90 per cent. By now, our party had recorded bear prints, scats and claw marks raked across tree bark, and even the remains of a boar that had been stripped to the bone by these opportunist omnivores. So we were quietly confident of observing the real thing. Waiting for the bears to appear was nerve-racking. Two ravens and, bizarrely, a nuthatch of the ghosty northern race visited the site to pick at its flesh, while a pine marten zipped across the cleaning and vanished up a tree. And then, illuminated by the setting sun, a mother bear and her cub ambled into view.
Dipl. Biol. Sebastian Rogahn in May 2011:
Watching time really was great! The adult male (Brown Bear) came out at 21:03 PM and stayed there for almost half an hour! Before there only was one red fox, a goose hawk, ravens and one magpie.
The hide location
View Natourest Brown Bear Watching and Photography Hide in a larger map
