Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabarceno Parque de la naturaleza de Cabarceno

Sneeuwpanter said:
Thanks, I will be visiting in July. How many km are the footpaths ? The paddocks feel huge. At 750Ha it's 5x the size of Safaripark Beekse Bergen.

Can you use the car to get around ? There don't see drivethough exhibits. Planning my vacation i do hope to fit in a visit to Potes. We don't minder driving a lot and making long days off it, but it has to be within the realm of possebility.

We will spend another full day driving through the Picos Europa, so if you have another tip to possibly combine with the zoo i would love to hear it.
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The zoo is drive-through, in the sense that you drive through the zoo to get to the exhibits but your car doesn't get into the exhibits, just with the excuse of the "Fauna Ibérica" drive-thru paddock (Housing red deer, fallow deer, mouflon and Barbary macaques). The whole park has more than 20 Km of roads, alongside parking and walking trails where cars cannot get into. If you like birds of prey shows I highly recommend the one at the park, it's rather good.
Can't really recommend much else when it comes to generic tourist destinations of the area, but make sure to enjoy Picos. The beaches throughout the whole Cantabric are rather wonderful too, although you won't get the warm waters you get in the Mediterranean.
 

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News:
- After many years, a litter of Lions (Panthera leo) has been born at Cabárceno. Max, the park's current male, was brought to the zoo back in 2020 with the hopes of him being a breeding male, and the 10th of May, Naisa the lioness gave birth to a litter of two cubs.
- A Kafue flats lechwe (Kobus leche kafuensis) calf has been born.
- Two Chapman's zebras (Equus quagga chapmani) have been born at the park!
- Five Bennett's wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus) have been born this year.
- The European brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) cubs have started to emerge in the exhibit, no estimated count of individuals yet.
- The park's Northern lynx (Lynx lynx lynx) population is down to a single elderly individual. Once this last lynx dies the species population at the park is uncertain, given their current exhibit isn't very appropriate (at least in my opinion).
- The African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) that was born back in the 5th of April of last year, Hilda's offspring, is a female and has been named Dobra.
- A set of aviaries has been built near where the birds of prey are at, suggesting that the raptors will soon be moved from perches to individual aviaries, keeping up with a similar trend within zoos with birds of prey exhibitions.

News provided by Iker Olmedo at the Zoosdelmundo forum.
Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabárceno Facebook
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News:
- Another Common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) calf has been born at the park! The park is now up to 9 individuals, with another calf being born as recently as October of last year.
- Several births of European fallow deer (Dama dama) and European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon) have happened at the "Fauna Ibérica" enclosure.
- Third Chapman's zebras (Equus quagga chapmani) foal of the year born at the park!
- The baboon's house and viewing area that's on top of said building have been renovated! The same is being done in the lynx enclosure, renovation of the building itself as well as the viewing area on top of it. Plants have been planted on the exhibit and the last lynx was not seen, it might just be inside or out of the area while the renovations are done. The Grevy's zebra stables are also being worked on, fixing things like the roof but not changing much else.

News provided by Iker Olmedo at the Zoosdelmundo forum.
Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabárceno Facebook
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PossumRoach said:
Not to be that guy but gaboon vipers don’t hatch from eggs.
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Yeah you can even see it in the video ahahah
But I don't know what the terminology is, because technically the egg develops in the mom and then "gives birth" right? I didn't want to write "have been born".
 
SivatheriumGuy said:
Yeah you can even see it in the video ahahah
But I don't know what the terminology is, because technically the egg develops in the mom and then "gives birth" right? I didn't want to write "have been born".
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My bad the video doesn’t work on my end.
 
I visited today. A spectacular park. The scenery is beautiful. It was an old quarry, turned into a nature park, turned into a zoo (i think). There is a spectacular cable car, the views are amazing.

The reptiles and sealions are housed to small in my opinion. Sadly i didn't see the gaurs. The lynx and jaguar exhibit are being worked on.

At first we had a little difficulty to get orientated. I would recommend to use the car the whole day, we did and still walked about 10 km. Also the park isn't flat (that's a bit of an understatement)

The enclosures are huge and beautiful , but the isn't a lot of enrichment for the animals.

It is a top 25 zoo for me, not quite a top 10.
 
Sneeuwpanter said:
I visited today. A spectacular park. The scenery is beautiful. It was an old quarry, turned into a nature park, turned into a zoo (i think). There is a spectacular cable car, the views are amazing.

The reptiles and sealions are housed to small in my opinion. Sadly i didn't see the gaurs. The lynx and jaguar exhibit are being worked on.

At first we had a little difficulty to get orientated. I would recommend to use the car the whole day, we did and still walked about 10 km. Also the park isn't flat (that's a bit of an understatement)

The enclosures are huge and beautiful , but the isn't a lot of enrichment for the animals.

It is a top 25 zoo for me, not quite a top 10.
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Glad you enjoyed your visit! I hope the recommendations I gave you were useful for it. I agree about the sea lions and reptiles, hopefully, this will soon change with the park's proposed plans (I'm guessing you didn't see the farm area, because that's definitely the worst area in the zoo). Sad to hear you didn't see the gaurs, they are one of the the trickiest species to spot because of the geography of their exhibit.
Did you pay attention to what was being worked on in the jaguar and lynx exhibit? Really curious to see what the park is working on.
Lil correction, it wasn't an old quarry but an old open-air iron mine! That and the erosion caused by rain has left the park with it's charismatic rock formations.
 
At the lynx exhibit they were working on the visitors/viewing area. I think it is unsuitable for a new lynx and i don't see where they can expand the exhibit.

At the Jaguars we saw the signs and drove past
 
No i don't think so. It is basicly a small pit. Maybe if they add some climbing stuctures and platforms, but it would still remain small
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Would it be suitable for Iberian lynx (and outreach)?
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Not at all... easily the worst "big" enclosure at the park, at least for felids. It's a pit with some grass and a large boulder in the middle.
Sneeuwpanter said:
No i don't think so. It is basicly a small pit. Maybe if they add some climbing stuctures and platforms, but it would still remain small
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I've been recently thinking that with a few climbing frames it could become a decent red panda enclosure, but personally, I wouldn't bring lynxes in again (The park is currently home to a single elderly lynx). I thought that maybe yellow-footed rock wallabies could make good use of the exhibit's form and structure.
 
Sneeuwpanter said:
At the Jaguars we saw the signs and drove past
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Well, we have a hint as to what is being done in the jaguar exhibit :)
The park has updated a new version of the map to their website, and the spot where the jaguar exhibit is (Number 33 on the map) now marks that you can find Persian leopards (Panthera pardus tulliana)! I hope the renovations really accommodate the enclosure to be suitable for leopards, to house leopards proper climbing structures are a must-have. I really hope the indoor housing is brand new too! Which seems to be the trend as of recently.
The park hasn't said anything so we might learn something new sooner or later, the closest thing I have found on the news mentions an "adaptation on the jaguar exhibit". This post also mentions the upgrade of the elephant facilities, which will be done for 2025, the already discussed crocodile house, and a new one, as for what they mention the lion exhibit will receive some renovation (Hopefully their indoor housing). This whole ordeal will cost 15 million euros.
El Gobierno invertirá más de 30 millones en Cabárceno y Alto Campoo
https://parquedecabarceno.com/wp-co...za-de-cabarceno-web-junio-2024-compressed.pdf
 
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SivatheriumGuy said:
Not at all... easily the worst "big" enclosure at the park, at least for felids. It's a pit with some grass and a large boulder in the middle.

I've been recently thinking that with a few climbing frames it could become a decent red panda enclosure, but personally, I wouldn't bring lynxes in again (The park is currently home to a single elderly lynx). I thought that maybe yellow-footed rock wallabies could make good use of the exhibit's form and structure.
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OK, how old is the elderly lynx still at the facility.

Rock wallabies would only work if the park would invest in an Australasia component. Perhaps it is best to focus on Europe, Africa and perhaps Asia ... Just!

Plus: I wonder what is happening with the white rhino herd. Why is this pachyderm doing so badly compared to the African elephants program. Further, the local Spanish brown bear area needs to be spruced up and the density of bears is unsustainable (I would also advocate genetic studies on these bears compared to their wild couxterparts in Cantabria and other bear presence areas within Spain.

There is an urgent need to have both an in situ and ex situ component for conservation of the local bear populations. The same holds true for Iberian wolves which are far from secure in the country as in Portugal!!!!)
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Plus: I wonder what is happening with the white rhino herd. Why is this pachyderm doing so badly compared to the African elephants program. Further, the local Spanish brown bear area needs to be spruced up and the density of bears is unsustainable (I would also advocate genetic studies on these bears compared to their wild couxterparts in Cantabria and other bear presence areas within Spain.
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When it comes to the rhinos apparently Cosme is very interested on Sena (The new female that came from Pairi Daiza) and is continuously attempting to mount her, maybe something will come out of this.
And when it comes to the bears, the population at the park isn't Ursus arctos pyrenaicus, in that aspect their conservation value is next to none. I always say the same but there needs to be a drastic change when it comes to the population, general sterilization or something of the style.
Kifaru Bwana said:
OK, how old is the elderly lynx still at the facility.
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It should be 22 years old, and the species' lifespan in captivity gets to around 20 years.
 
SivatheriumGuy said:
When it comes to the rhinos apparently Cosme is very interested on Sena (The new female that came from Pairi Daiza) and is continuously attempting to mount her, maybe something will come out of this.
And when it comes to the bears, the population at the park isn't Ursus arctos pyrenaicus, in that aspect their conservation value is next to none. I always say the same but there needs to be a drastic change when it comes to the population, general sterilization or something of the style.

It should be 22 years old, and the species' lifespan in captivity gets to around 20 years.
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Then there is scope for improvement on the Iberian predator front.... I do believe a dedicated area for bears, wolves and lynx would be appropriate for the park and it could play a much needed ambassador role in in situ conservation for Iberian predators.

For rhinos: New bull Cosme is quite young at 11 and the new cow Sena is just almost 5 ..., so no wonder they get on fine and I am hopeful for a calf in future. TBH: I would favour separating the herd and moving out cow Nora (32+) out with cow Majayi (21+ and probably now as nulliparous wasted for reproduction) to another location or a second area for rhinos (they have the space available) plus set up the breeding group around Cosme and Zola (she has previously calved a few times) with new cow Sena and hopefully a third cow from other location.
 
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Kifaru Bwana said:
Then there is scope for improvement on the Iberian predator front.... I do believe a dedicated area for bears, wolves and lynx would be appropriate for the park and it could play a much needed ambassador role in in situ conservation for Iberian predators.

For rhinos: New bull Cosme is quite young at 11 and the new cow Sena is just almost 5 ..., so no wonder they get on fine and I am hopeful for a calf in future. TBH: I would favour separating the herd and moving out cow Nora (32+) out with cow Majayi (21+ and probably now as nulliparous wasted for reproduction) to another location or a second area for rhinos (they have the space available) plus set up the breeding group around Cosme and Zola (she has previously calved a few times) with new cow Sena and hopefully a third cow from other location.
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I'd love a well-dedicated section on Iberian predators, maybe even expand it to Europe and bringing in some wolverines would be the absolute peak. Although most new renovations and constructions have been a step in the right direction, and education whise two years ago a whole museum dedicated to the conservation of the brown bear in Cantabria was opened in the park.
 
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