Photographing Brown Bears at Cabárceno

If you didn't realise that Spain is home to wild brown bears, then you're not alone. A geographically isolated population of the widely-spread brown bear, Cantabrian brown bears live in the mountains of Northern Spain. They're listed as critically endangered, numbering around 400 in the wild, up from a low of around 80 in the 1990s. Central to the recovery of this species has been the conservation work of the unconventional Cabárceno Nature Park, in Cantabria, Spain.

I first visited Cabárceno in 2013, and intended to return before long. In fact it took me over a decade to get back there, but I did manage it recently, and I enjoyed it just as much, all over again. I'll be following up this post with photos of some of the other animals I photographed while I was there — but the bears were my priority, and this post is all about them.

A mother bear and cub peer over a rocky ledge, surrounded by the spring wildflowers. I'm not normally one for cute photos, but the opportunity to see such a young bear in natural surroundings is rare. We timed our visit to coincide with the emergence of this year's newborns, but they're understandably shy, so sightings were few and far between.

The bear enclosure sits at the heart of Cabárceno, and is as spectacular as it is vast. Visitors are met with a grass meadow, and a steeply rising, peaked hillside behind.

This photo (right) shows the central third of the viewable area. Just a window on the expansive environment afforded to the bears, as the habitat sweeps over the hill and beyond to the left.

Cantabrian bears were once considered a distinct subspecies due to traits like yellow-tipped fur and black paws. However, recent genetic studies place them within the broader Ursus arctos group, closely related to bears in southern Scandinavia.

At Cabárceno, the bears benefit from a conservation-focused environment designed to emulate semi-wild conditions. Spread across a sprawling 36 hectares, their enclosure includes rocky cliffs, grasslands, ponds, and forested areas, enabling natural behaviours such as climbing and foraging. The park facilitates seasonal hibernation by allowing the bears to dig dens or select sheltered areas, providing insights into their instinctive cycle within a natural setting.

Cabárceno Bears in Low-Light

Cabárceno is known for the rocky ridges and peaks which feature in many of the enclosures; remnants of the site's past, as a vast open mine. These give the bears lots of interesting features to explore, in turn offering viewers and photographers the opportunity to see them from this vantage point.

As the sun gets lower and the cliff walls are cast to shadow, these higher ridges create opportunities to under-expose and leave only the highlights of the bear's fur properly lit. It's a favourite style of mine, which I've used in the past with deer, highland cows, and bison, and it was a big attraction for me in visiting Cabárceno.

This juvenile bear used the rocky peaks to give himself a view over the surrounding area.

A side-lit bear, watching over others, at Cabárceno Wildlife Park.

This bear took the opportunity to catch the last rays of warm sun from one of the higher peaks.

These geological mining features also create the opportunity to see and photograph the bears at eye-level, with no fence between us. These brief opportunities don't come around desperately often, but if you're patient, you can experience heart-stopping moments like this.

Back-Lit Bears in Black & White

Having taken the colour photos above, I started to think that black and white might work well; to simplify the image even further. I've written before about how I love to reduce what could be a busy scene, down to just the essential graphic elements, and that theme is very much applicable here, too. I started shooting in brighter-lit conditions, to increase the contrast, and under-exposing further, in order to achieve a set of images which distil the subject down to it's most basic form. In my opinion, this creates a cleaner photo, whilst accentuating the recognisable outline, posture, and shaggy fur of the iconic brown bear.

Silhouetted against the dark backdrop of the hillside behind, a bear cub carefully navigates a rocky terrain, the angled sunlight catching the edges of its fur and highlighting the surrounding foliage.

I think this photo (above) is my favourite in this style. At the time I was focussed entirely on the bear cub, and catching it in a tidy pose, at or near the top of the peak. When I checked the photo later, I saw how well the plants had come out too, and I think that really makes it. The same applies to the following shot, of it's mother moments later.

Shortly after the bear cub summited this peak, it's mother quickly followed, and I got to repeat the image with a the silhouette of the larger mum.

Sadly, I wasn't able to capture them both walking up the hill in the same shot, as they were slightly too far apart. But they stopped to catch up soon after that, and I was pleased to get the next two images of them bonding and grooming.

Here, mother and cub stop for a moment of bonding.

Mother bear reinforces that bond, and takes the opportunity to clean up his fur. A touching moment, or a teaching moment. You be the judge.

I've touched on it already, but the geology of the enclosures make for a really interesting and varied habitat. The bears are so adept at climbing; they would appear out of the bushes, on seemingly precarious ledges, but they navigated them with ease. It's a fabulous enclosure both for the bears and for people like me, who are happy to spend time watching them come and go.

This cub deftly scampers up a steep rocky outcrop

Nearing the top now.

These two cubs are play-fighting. Honing their skills and building strength for times to come.

Below, this mother and cub traverse a path in front of a large hillside in shadow, creating the perfect opportunity to capture this rim-lit portrait.

Mother leads the way — Another of my favourite photos from Cabárceno.

Close-Up Bear Photos

Unlike the back-lit photos above, Cabárceno doesn't have a reputation as somewhere to get close-up photos. But staying open to opportunities and experimenting a little led to a couple of results. Of course it helps if you have the gall to take a large (600mm) lens to a wildlife park. I don't like the attention it garners, but I do like the photos they make possible, like these below. It helps that Cabárceno has a reputation amongst photographers, so there are other people around with even larger lenses than me. Going mirrorless has helped too, as the image stabilisation now enables me to shoot without a tripod, so it's not as cumbersome as it once would have been.

I'm going to start this section with the only decent bear photo I got on my first visit to Cabárceno, in 2013. I found this bear by following a footpath around the perimeter of the park, which is sadly no longer accessible to the public. At that point the path ran alongside the top of the bear enclosure, and I was able to spend some time with him as he rested close to the fence. I love the intensity of a bear's eyes, and the warm stare they give you. I think they're central to why this has been a popular photo.

Brown Bear Close-Up (2013)

Back to the new photos, and this was a very large male with a real intensity in his eyes.

Bear Eyes

I don't love the framing in that shot, but he's got enough about him to make it work, I think.

The last photo was kind of a dream shot for me. I love close-up portraits of animals, and until now an opportunity to capture a bear like this had always eluded me. On this occasion, this large male was close enough to me, and stood up for a few seconds to look back at me. I felt a bit rude breaking our eye contact to raise the camera and capture this, but those moments live on in my memory all the more when I'm able to record them and share them for others like this.

Brown Bear Square

I'm really pleased with this photo, and it's available to order in print from my website gallery. I think it will look fantastic in a drawing room, or a mountain lodge :-)

Summary

I should point out, this was far from a day to the zoo. This was a considered trip to a large and sprawling park, known to be good for photographers, to focus primarily on photography - and especially brown bears. After some initial consideration, I chose to spend the optimal light at the end of each day with the bears, allocating specific ‘bear time’ to ensure I could explore the rest of the park during the day without the nagging feeling that I should spend more time with the bears. Over the course of several days, I spent roughly 10–12 hours at the bear enclosure! Cabárceno obviously offers more consistent sightings than the wild, but all meaningful nature photography still relies on patience, time, and observation. The bear enclosure itself is fantastic, but much of it is also off-limits to visitors. Opportunities for close-ups and back-lit photos need a lot of moving parts to come into place at the same time, so it's far from a case of fish in a barrel.

That said, back-lit/rim-lit photography is one of my favourite techniques, and Cabárceno is known to be good for it, due to it's distinctive landscape and geology. The potential to photograph bears in this way was what most drew me to visit. With that in mind, I’ll allow myself a rare nod of approval for having translated that potential into something I’m genuinely proud to share. Even more so with the 'Brown Bear Square' close-up, which certainly isn't typical for Cabárceno. Not all opportunities in nature photography lead to results, so it's worth savouring the feeling when they do :-)

I’ll follow-up this post with one featuring the other animals I photographed at Cabárceno, and a bit more about the place, for others wishing to visit, as there's not much info about it online, in English.

Check out this blog post for more bear photos. I also have posts about seeing bears in the wild in Finland and in Canada.

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below.

For wall art prints of any of the photos in this post, just get in touch. They're all available read-to-frame on a Fine Art Paper Print, or ready-to-hang on Canvas, Metal or Acrylic.

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George