Brown Bear Enclosure at Santillana del Mar, 13/06/15

Yes, that is all concrete. And this opened in 2003.

Part of the newer (honestly!) \'Quaternary Park\' section of the zoo, which features animals found in the region at the time the nearby Altamira cave art was created. Examples from the caves are present on the signage in this area to tie in with each species.

Note the wild White Stork.

Is that a mini-Stonehenge in the center of the concrete monstrosity? Yikes! Some of the enclosures at this Spanish zoo (bears, wolves, chimpanzees, orangutans, small carnivore cages, etc) are very poor. What was the highlight of the zoo?

The bird enclosures ranged from average to very good, the butterfly house is solid and it's always nice to see species like European Mink, Spanish Ibex, Sri Lankan Leopard and Pied Tamarin. It's not necessarily a bad place, but many/most of the mammal enclosures are small, and a few (like this one!) are poorly designed. While not attractive, the small carnivore enclosures were far from the worst thing here.

EDIT: worth bearing in mind that Cabarceno is only just up the road - sharpening the flaws with this enclosure even more...