Alternative to viewing foraging European brown bears from a hide in eastern Finland
There’s no marmalade, no felt hat, no duffle coat – but the sight of Paddington’s wild cousin, the spectacled bear, in its natural habitat is more heartwarming even than Michael Bond’s beloved creation.
Classified as vulnerable, due to extensive loss of the species’ Andean habitat, probably fewer than 10,000 adult spectacled bears survive, with the largest remaining population in Peru.
The place to look for them is among the folded, striated mountains of Chaparrí Private Reserve, an 84,000-acre nature reserve that spreads along Peru’s northern coast.
Eagles, vultures and Andean condors soar above the crags here, and endangered white-winged guan – similar to a slender, pink-throated turkey – can be spotted feeding in fruit-bearing trees.
Long protected in the reserve, the bears are seen with reasonable frequency on trail hikes – watch for that characteristic pale facial marking, which varies from a minimal T shape along nose and brow, to full-on goggles.
Even if you’re not fortunate enough to encounter one on the trails (where you might also see peccary or white- tailed deer), you can meet one in semi-wild enclosures at the reserve’s rescue centre.
Top tips: Peru is drier between May and October; September is peak month for bear sightings. There’s another spectacled bear rescue centre at the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel in Aguas Calientes.
Also try: Brown bear in Pindos Mountains, Greece; grizzlies on the Katmai Peninsula, Alaska; polar bear on Svalbard, Norway.
When: Wildlife viewing at Peru’s Chaparrí Private Reserve is best in the early morning and also late evening.