Thirteen kilometres south of Lourdes, off the D821 near Argelès-Gazost, this fantastic animal park is home to many animals which were once common sights across the Pyrenees. The animals live on special ‘islands’ designed to mirror their natural habitat: marmots, chamoix and ibex inhabit rocky hills; beavers and giant otters dart along wooded waterways; and brown bears lord it over their own boulder-strewn mountain kingdom.
There are also flying displays by birds of prey and the park’s resident vultures. You can even spend the night in a trapper’s cabin (d/f €240/290), with glass windows looking into the wolves’ enclosure.
The park is doubly important given that many of the species here have either disappeared in the wild or are teetering on the brink of extinction – most notably the brown bear (known in the US as the grizzly), which has all but vanished in the Pyrenees as a result of hunting and habitat loss. Despite fierce opposition from local farmers, a reintroduction program using wild bears from Slovenia has attempted to re-establish a breeding population, and it’s thought that there are now between 15 and 20 bears roaming wild across the mountains – including a 26 year-old alpha male called Pyros. Sadly, one of his main rivals, Balou, was found dead in 2014 apparently as a result of a fall – a major blow given the animals’ precarious numbers.
