We all have those unusual friendships, and the animal world is no exception. However the friendship captured by Finnish photographer Lassi Rautiainen is particularly incredible.
Rautiainen documented the unusual friendship between a a female grey wolf and male brown bear, who over the course of ten days went everywhere together.
Often between 8pm and 4am, they hunted as a team, sharing their goods, and even spent time playing together.
Commenting at the time on the unlikely pair’s friendship, Rautiainen told the Daily Mail, ‘It’s very unusual to see a bear and a wolf getting on like this’, adding ‘From what I could find, it’s actually the first time, at least in Europe, where such a friendship was developed.’
“No-one can know exactly why or how the young wolf and bear became friends,” he continued, “I think that perhaps they were both alone and they were young and a bit unsure of how to survive alone…It is nice to share rare events in the wild that you would never expect to see.”
There are no scientific studies on the friendship or why it may have been made, so Rautiainen’s guess is as good as any. “It seems to me that they feel safe being together,” he concludes.
One thing is for sure, this friendship was unique and even more unusual was that it was captured on camera. A reminder to us all of the beauty of the animal world and the importance of friendships.
