Photography at Cabárceno Nature Park, Spain

In my previous post I shared the bear photos I recently took at Cabárceno Nature Park, in Cantabria, Northern Spain. This post features a selection of photos of the other animals from the park. I'll also provide more information about Cabárceno, for anyone interested in visiting - since there's not much around online about it, in English.

I first visited in 2013, and these first few photos were all from that trip. I don't think I've shared them on the blog before, so it's nice to find a home for them, though the majority of the upcoming photos in this post are new ones.

I loved my first visit, and intended to return for a second go soon after, but it ended up taking over a decade to happen! If I was going to try to find one reason why it took so long, it's probably that we visited Iceland six months later, so beginning a love-affair with Nordic travel and nature destinations. But here we are, and I finally did get back there recently, and I have to say it still gets a good review from me. It's really unlike any other zoo I've been to.

Giraffe - Head In The Clouds (2013)

Cabárceno Nature Park

Cabárceno (pronounced kah–bar–theh–no) opened in 1990, when a former open-pit iron mine in Cantabria was turned into one of Europe’s largest and most distinctive nature parks. This initiative was led by the eccentric mayor of Penagos at the time, who envisioned a space that would combine environmental restoration with wildlife conservation and education. It's fair to say his grand ambition was met with skeptisism by most, but attitudes changed when he managed to pull it off.

With support from the regional government and a public tourism company (Cantur), the project reclaimed 750 hectares of karstic terrain to create expansive enclosures where animals could live in semi-natural conditions. From its inception, the park was designed not as a traditional zoo, but as a sanctuary for endangered species and a platform for ecological awareness — a vision that continues to shape its development today.

Wildebeast Portrait (2013)

The scale of the park is one thing that makes it so attracive - both as a visitor, and for animal welfare. The park is covers an area of 7.5 km², spanning 4km (2.5 miles) end-to-end. Unlike traditional zoos, animals live in "semi-captive conditions", with large enclosures that mimic their natural environments. The footprint of the Elephant enclosure alone is larger than the entire Madrid zoo.

All of the enclosures are a good size, with lots of space for the animals to roam and explore, naturally. They also provide multiple angles and views of the animals, whilst also providing secluded spots for privacy when they want it. For photographers, the integration of the natural rocks and remains of the mine to create the enclosures means that there are fewer fences, walls, and artificial structures which can ruin a nice photo. The late opening hours also allow visitors to enjoy the best of the evening light.

Ankole-Watusi - Backlit Portrait (2013)

I couldn't write about Cabárceno without crediting Marina Cano for bringing it to my attention with her striking portraits of watusi, bears, and giraffe. Marina is a local, who shared her photos from Cabárceno online, back in the day, and is now a critically-aclaimed wildlife photographer, regularly travelling to Africa for shoots and tours. If you want to visit Cabárceno and would like some guidance and experience, she still runs workshops there today.

Bird Photography at Cabárceno

Back in 2013, when I first visited, I was experimenting with wide-angle nature photography, for a slightly more unusual perspective, often not an option for wildlife. One of the more successful examples was this ostrich photo...

Ostrich Close-Up (2013)

There are bird-of-prey flying displays at Cabárceno, but I don't tend to find them a good use of time for photography, and I also don't particularly want to spend time in a crowd. However, outside flying times, you can see and photograph most of the raptors there, and I spent 20 minutes trying to get a decent photo of this Gyrfalcon, with it's black & white feathers, looking great against the dark background, and accentuating the yellow of the beak and eye...

Gyrfalcon Close-Up

I'm so pleased to see the return of red kites to the south of the UK over the last decade or so, and I now see them out my window several times a day, and any time I go out for a walk. It really perks me up to see them thriving. Northern Spain is home to their slightly smaller cousins, the black kite, and this is one of Cabárceno's black kites...

Black Kite Portrait

This was a photo I initially put to one side because I didn't like the colour of the background, but I came back to it in black & white - drawn by the patten of the head feathers and the intensity of that stare. I think it works.

Aside from the birds kept at Cabárceno, the Cantabria region is home to some spectacular wild birdlife, and this is a shot of a wild black kite, flying low overhead...

Black Kite in Flight (2013)

I was thrilled to catch this shot in 2013, and it holds up now, too, I think. They're so fast, this kind of shot is not easy. It's one of hundreds I took of them in flight that evening, in order to get a few in focus.

Asisde from the many black kites we saw there, we also had good sightings of wild buzzards, egrets, storks, and even griffon vultures circling ominously overhead! The latter two were a first for me, and a real treat :-)

Cabárceno Zebra Photography

Cabárceno is home to two species of zebra; the plains zebra, and the Grevy's zebra. Each are resonably accessible for photography, depending on how sociable the zebras are feeling. This first photo is a plains zebra, photographed as it walked beneath my vantage point. I figured this would make an interesting image due to the unorthodox perspective...

Low Key Zebra - Birds Eye View (2013)

This is a Grevy's zebra, and it's a pretty popular composition, but it's effective, and it creates a nice frame-filling image for wall art...

Zebra - Frame Filler (2013)

We're back to the plains zebra again now, and this is one from this time around...

Zebra on Black

Zebra's are amongst the animals which get direct sunlight for longer/later than some others, due to the geology of the site, so they're worth stopping at on the way out of the park.

European Bison at Cabárceno

Less famous then their North Americaon cousins, European bison have been the subject of some groundbreaking re-introductions in recent years, and continue to show promise in their come-back, where allowed to do so. Most notably in Poland, as well as Denmark, and even the UK.

Key differences between North American bison and European bison:

• Size & Build

  • North American bison are stockier, with a larger head and shoulder hump.

  • European bison are slimmer, with longer legs and a slightly smaller head.

• Facial Features & Horns

  • North American bison have shorter, more curved horns and a dense mane.

  • European bison have longer horns with a more outward curve.

• Behaviour & Social Structure

  • North American bison travel in larger herds and are adapted to open plains.

  • European bison prefer wooded areas and smaller social groups.

This is a photo I took in 2013, again utilizing a wide-angle lens, taking advantage of Cabárceno's characteristic rock formations as a background, which serve as natural enclosure boundaries, rather than unsightly man-made fencing common to most zoos...

European Bison (2013)

I did try some wide-angle bison photos this time around, but they didn't really come off. Instead, here's the other end of the spectrum...

European Bison Close-Up

This younger European bison was very obliging, posing for a minute or so...

European Bison On White

But his mate was probably even more obliging...

European Bison High-Key Portrait

I like the characterful nose-lick you can get from bison and cattle, so I was pleased to capture this one, having taken a similar photo of highland cow, previously.

Low-Key Rhino Photography at Cabárceno

I've wanted to get some decent low-key photos of rhinos for years, and never really achieved it before. At Cabárceno they have a 'crash' of Southern white rhinos. I didn't visit them on my first trip because they're in a one-way drive-through section of the park, next door to the macaques - which I thought would be jumping on my hire car and dismatling it at my cost, so we chose to avoid the area. Second time around, I drove through there by mistake, forgetting about the minature amateur mechanics, and discovered three things:

1. The rhinos are just before the macaques, in an area where you can get out of the car to see and photograph them.

2. They have another classic Cabárceno cliff-face behind them, so you can get them side-lit against that cliff-face in shadow, if you time your run just right. Perfect for my type of low-key photos.

3. I didn't see a single macaque touch any cars through their section, so this probably isn't a big concern.

As a result, I was able to get a handful of nice rhino photos...

Rhino Spotlight

Rhino On Black

Rhino Low-Key Portrait

Low-Key Rhino

I'm particularly pleased with that last one, as I like the perspective of the side of the body and the head turned towards the viewer.

Summary

If you're in Cantabria, then Cabárceno is a great destination for a day with the family, affording such space to both animals and visitors, it feels as close to a safari as I'll probably ever get. If you're a keen photographer, the region might be worth visiting specially, as I did. Most photographers have experienced one-off visits to spectacular places, which rarely yield results, due to unfamiliarty with the geography, the subjects, or plain bad luck. So for that reason, my visits to Cabárceno have all be very targeted trips, visiting the park over several days, for a good few hours a day, at the expense of other attractions nearby (beautiful beaches, mountains, and picturesque villages). It took well over 10 hours at the bear enclosure to get the photos I did. Wild or not, you certainly can't just turn up and expect results where animals are involved. If you do plan to visit several times, you can save a lot of money by getting a 'Friends of Cabárceno' card.

Cantabria is a beautiful region, so there's plenty worth seeing in addition to Cabárceno. From the UK, you can fly to Santander or Bilbao, hire a car, and see the best of the region. I can definitely see myself visiting again in the future.

All that said, I should also mention the language barrier. As a classic 'Brit Abroad', I'm generally spoilt, as we do encounter English-speakers in most places we visit. And there are parts of Spain that are very accessible to Brits (though even they are growing tired of our attention), but Cantabria can be tough if you don't speak Spanish. Almost nobody speaks any English at all, even many people working in tourism, including within Cabárceno itself. And fair enough - If a Spanish-speaker came to my home town (perhaps tired of good food and spectacular beaches, drawn by the lure of the Tesco, or the nail bar), they'd be niaive to expect locals to speak their language. So brush up before you go, and download the Spanish language in your translator app of choice.

If you haven't seen my previous post, featuring bear photos from Cabarceno, that's well worth a look. The bear enclosure is a centrepeice of the park, and one of their main conservation focuses. It's also the place I spent most time; visiting for a couple of hours every evening, and I got most of my best photos there, too.

Or if you enjoyed the bison photos in this post, check out my American bison blog post.

-

George