Everyone who comes to Maine to see wildlife wants to see a moose, so say the Mainers who attempt to point visitors in the right direction.

Maine Master Guide Rocky Freda and wife, Lisa, also a Maine master guide, own and operate Sun Valley Sports in Bethel.

The outfitting shop sells canoes and kayaks, and specializes in fly-fishing and fishing trips. To fill a growing, four-season niche, the Fredas began offering guided wildlife watching tours.

“Whether it’s called eco-tours or eco-tourism, basically people who come to Maine want to go out and look at our wildlife and talk about what we take for granted,” Rocky Freda said Friday.

The trips, called moose and wildlife safaris, are primarily centered on finding moose, deer and bear, the top three requests.

On canoe and kayak trips, the top-rated birds include eagles, osprey, herons and waterfowl.

“The spotted titmouse is probably the least favorite request,” Freda added. “Moose is obviously the biggest one, but people are just as interested in seeing wildlife period.”

The Fredas and their hired Maine guides teach people about habitat and wildlife enhancement, how to identify different tree species, and the ecosystem.

They don’t predict that large critters and birds will be seen on every trip.

“We don’t try to get people’s expectations up. This is Maine. We tell the folks that this is a wildlife tour, not a zoo tour.”

On one trip a woman who had just seen a moose said, “‘What kind of beast is that?'” Freda recalled.

“I said, ‘Beast?! That’s not a beast. That’s a moose.'”

On another trip, he and a group of tourists saw five black bears at one time. The people wanted to make sure all the doors were locked in their vehicle.

“I tried to encourage them that bears don’t eat tourists,” he said.

The Fredas’ average 75 to 100 wildlife watching trips a year, mostly out-of-staters. Safari trips, which take in the White Mountain National Forest, Grafton Notch State Park and Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, are at their busiest from June to the beginning of October.

Rosalie Holliday with the Bethel Chamber of Commerce said everyone who walks into the chamber wants to see a moose. They want to know which road to drive on so they can stop and wait to see the popular ungulates.

Bear and eagles aren’t the only large wildlife that Maine has to offer, says Judy Walker, staff naturalist with Maine Audubon in Falmouth.

“We’re getting more and more calls for wildlife watching trips in the summer,” she said. “For us, it’s whales, seals, moose and deer and the most commonly asked question is, ‘Where is a good place to see them?'”

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