18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
A curious visitor

For more than a month we were living in a mountain shelter built on the ruins of an old Nazi bunker during the Second World War. From here they could observe the land passage through the lofoten archipelago as well as the sea passage towards Narvik, where important battles took place. At first we could see an ermine behaving very cautiously and keeping a lot of distance. As the days went by, we would not be the ones who tried to see the ermine, but the ermine who came to peer through the window of the shelter. During one of their approaches to the shelter, we sat patiently waiting looking through the window. Only then was I able to get this very special shot. It was beautiful to know that, while in the next town the neighbors set traps in their garages to prevent the incursion of ermines, this ermine generated a mutual trust that allowed us to observe him while he observed us.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 06.2020
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Kabelvåg, Norway
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Copyright: © Samuel Martínez Llobet