Africa, America, Asia and Australia have all found their way to Cantabria.

A jungle of rock, metal and wildlife to hide a treasure of nature.
Over thousands of square metres you will find yourself living the dream of the five continents.

The Cabárceno wildlife park is a spectacular paradise for fauna which offers a home in semi-liberty to hundreds of animals representing all the zoological communities of the Earth. In this reserve for animals in danger of extinction you can observe, in a way that is unique in the whole of Europe, a host of wildlife from far-off countries: tigers, bears, lions, jaguars, elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, buffalos and many more, living and reproducing in a habitat which is thousands of years old, and has now been restored.

In one of its ages the earth forged the land of Cabárceno.

Changing climates and the passing of millennia sculpted the spectacular landscape. Stone age man walked its hillsides. Later, indigenous peoples, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the impact of the following centuries hollowed out the ground here to create the ghostly needles that decorate all the landscape. The mining past, with its archaeological and industrial heritage, have left on the Cabárceno wildlife park, once a mine, the mark of the work of generations of men, attracted since time immemorial by the prized mineral - iron. Nowadays, the old tracks of the miners lead us along paths where past and present join hands.
Here you will find fauna and flora from all over the world, just 17 km from Santander.

Within the spectacular geological landscape of the karstic formations of Cabárceno, located in the western part of the Peña Cabarga mountains and transformed in 1989 into an extensive zoological park, Cabárceno has, over recent years, become one of the most important tourist attractions of Cantabria. The Cabárceno wildlife park is part of a larger nature reserve, the Natural Park of Peña Cabarga, which extends 25.8 km2 and includes all the mountainous area which overlooks the bay of Santander. Within this reserve, the park of Cabárceno, recreated as a wildlife park, can be visited leisurely and comfortably using the dense network of asphalted tracks which means it is possible to visit all parts of the park by car. The Park, like all the Peña Cabarga area, is formed from limestone which has undergone complex processes of karstic dissolution, so that from a geomorphologic perspective it now presents a really original and interesting appearance. In Cantabria, where limestone abounds, there are many other areas of karstic formations, but those in Cabárceno are without doubt the most spectacular.

Iron mining in the Peña Cabarga area dates back to Roman times as can be deduced from the discovery of various archaeological items nearby and also from a quotation by the Roman writer Plinio.

However, the mining history of the area may go back even further into the past, judging from the discovery of an ancient bronze cooking pot in the Crespa mine of Cabárceno which dates from 900-600 BC and is kept in the Regional Museum of Prehistory. Later, between the 17th and 19th centuries, the mines of Peña Cabarga supplied iron to the royal canon factories of Liérganes and La Cavada. Later still, mining in Cantabria entered its heyday when many Spanish and foreign companies moved to the area, until in 1989 two thousand years of mining history made way for the creation of the Park by the government of Cantabria. Within the enormous reserve of the park there is a complete and varied representation of wildlife, including some of the native animals of Cantabria such as bears, wolves, deer, roe deer, ibex and wild boar. But there’s no doubt that it is the exotic fauna which holds central stage in the park, where you can gaze on elephants, hippos, tigers, lions, ostriches, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, camels, dromedaries, llamas, kangaroos, antelopes, rhinoceroses, monkeys and many more.
Unlike many other zoos, Cabárceno is characterised by the wide open spaces where the animals are able to carry on their lives more normally and where you can observe them in a much more natural setting.
There are also several lakes where you can fish for trout.
In addition to the park itself there is also a reptile house with a specialised collection of serpents. And as if that were not enough, the park also has panoramic view-points, walking areas, a children’s play area, a hotel complex, a car-park and souvenir shops.