Peekaboo - Photographer Captures Playful Brown Bear Hiding Behind Tree In Finland

Amazing pictures have shown the moment a brown bear played ‘peekaboo’ with a photographer.

The incredible pictures show the moment the the bear playfully pokes his head out from behind a tree as he stands on his back legs clasping the trunk.

They were taken by wildlife photographer Jari Peltomaki, 51, in Suomussalmi in the heart of the Finnish forest, just near the Russian border.

He said: “I was sitting in a hide-out trying to get some pictures of the bears, who live in the forest.

"They can be quite aggressive creatures but when I saw this one hiding behind the tree, he looked really tame.

"I pointed my camera towards him and almost immediately he popped out from behind the tree as if he was playing a game.

"I felt like if he could talk he would have said ‘peekaboo’ to me.”

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Jari, from Liminka, Finland, managed to get to within a few metres of the bear, which was searching for berries in the forest.’.

He added: “Shooting with the camera is so much more sustainable way of "hunting”.

“One bear can be photographed thousands of times but it can only be hunted once.

"It was a privilege to see the bear this close up.”