Rautiainen, Fighters

Bitten by the urge to photograph those elusive masters of the art of survival – wolves – wildlife photographer Lassi Rautiainen made pilgrimages to Estonia, Russia and Alaska. Then, in the 2000s, Russian wolves suddenly began to appear at Lassi’s outdoor photographic ’studio’ in Finland’s Kuhmo with increasing regularity. Cubs were born in Kuhmo almost every year,. Now Lassi’s ’wolf studio’ is globally well-known, safari clients witnessing conflicts between brown bears and wolves in summer every week. The wildlife photographer has thus acquired a second profession in the nature tourism sector. The base camp in Kuhmo is the Kuikka cabin, already familiar to nature lovers from around 30 different countries.Fighters is based on Lassi Rautiainen’s often amusing personal obserbations and unique photographs. It is also a factual handbook. Nowhere else in the world is there a chance to see a bear, wolf, wolverine, sea eagle and golden eagle all on the same day from the same hide.Towards the end of the book Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute researcher Dr. Ilpo Kojola discusses the Kuhmo wolves from the scientist’s viewpoint.