Antero Korhonen went to get some pictures from his game camera, but the camera was not quite where Korhonen had left it. The photos were the last ones the camera would ever take.
Easter Monday was a sunny spring day. The temperature in Sumiainen in Äänekoski was well above 10 degrees Celsius, and the newly hibernating bear was out foraging for food.
Instead of food, it found a game camera and got interested.
– The bear took the selfies first, then put the camera in its mouth and turned it around, Korhonen says.
After taking the pictures, the bear opened the back cover of the camera.
– Probably tried to adjust it, but couldn’t and the camera broke. I have to go and buy a new one, but that’s okay, the technology has also improved in them.
Korhosen has several cameras and a game field of more than two hectares. He has been shooting with game cameras since 2016.
– I have dozens of pictures of bears, some of them are pictures of puppies as adults. I know those bears, and they know me, and they don’t care what I do.
The bear that got to know the camera better appeared in the landscape last summer.
– It has been eating in an oat field there, and now, after waking up from hibernation, it walked in front of the camera.
According to the Finnish Natural Resources Agency’s estimate, there are less than 2,000 bears in Finland before the hunting season that starts next August. The number is one-fifth less than last year. The population is strongest in Eastern Finland and Lapland.