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Alutaguse is the largest forested area in Estonia, covering virtually all of north-eastern Estonia. For all who know something about Estonian nature Alutaguse is surrounded by its own particular mysterious aura. The local marshes are so large that few have managed to peek into their heartlands.  Somewhere here Jack snipes and willow ptarmigans nest – hardly found anywhere else in Estonia. Here last year the great grey owl was found breeding – its latest previous nesting in Estonia was documented from the same area a hundred years ago. Here flying squirrels live. Nowhere in Estonia are there so many bears as in Alutaguse. And of course here are also plenty of black grouse, capercaillies, white-tailed eagles and golden eagles, elks, wolves, lynxes, otters ... and whatever else. This is the Estonian taiga, but with a little Central European touch – on the bog islets broad-leaved forests can be found.

When you roam around in Alutaguse your mind is always open to  extraordinary meetings. It may be a bear or a flying squirrel, but chances are there for even more exciting encounters: besides the great grey owl other species with eastern or northern distribution areas visit here such as wolverines, the Siberian jay or the rustic  bunting (Emberizia rustica). Maybe some of the secrets of Alutaguse also come into the new web cam view ....

 

From the forest the signal goes by way of Interline aerials to the Elisa mobile tower 8 kilometres away and from there into the Televõrgud fibre optical cable. Televõrgud carry the primary camera image into the EENet  server, where it is decoded and split for distribution to viewers. The forest part of the system is powered by solar panels (www.napssystems.com).

 

Helping to bring the Bear webcam - Alutaguse forest cam images to your computer screen:

The LK forum keep their alert eyes on all that goes on.

The project was co-ordinated by the  Institute of Technology of the University of Tartu and is funded by EAS.