From the wolf to the lynx: where and how to see the 'big five' of the Iberian fauna up close

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Seeing and photographing the African

(the lion, the leopard, the elephant, the rhinoceros and the buffalo) has been one of the great attractions of the trip to the black continent for more than a century.

In Spain, of course, we also have our five big ones: the brown bear, the Iberian wolf, the Iberian lynx, the imperial eagle and the black vulture.

The biologist and disseminator Alfonso Polvorinos has thoroughly explored their habitats and ecosystems.

His book

(Ed. Círculo Rojo) is a song to the native fauna and an invitation, as passionate as it is scientific, to encourage us to travel, from Asturias to Andalusia, from Extremadura to Castilla y León, the places where the traveler can go out and look for the Iberian quintet.

"Who does not dream of seeing a bear, a wolf or a lynx in the wild?"

Many years ago Polvorinos discovered nature through travel.

He says that 30 years ago going out to the field to meet these animals was a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"I would leave the house knowing that I was looking for ghost species, but still knowing that they were there and enjoying the nature that they lived in was definitely worth the countless hours invested."

Fortunately, the health of their populations has improved remarkably in recent years, which has allowed encounters and observations to multiply.

is an essential guide to achieve it.

QUESTION.

For you, without nature, is there no worthwhile trip?

ANSWER.

Well, when it comes to travel, what's worth is always subjective.

People travel to be happy, and there are those who are happy seeing monuments, doing gastronomic tourism or simply resting on a beach.

In my case, it is nature that brings me that happiness and gives meaning to everything.

with your way of traveling (doing ecotourism) ,

it makes it even more worthwhile.

Q.

Both in Africa and in Europe we associate the big five with hunting.

When do you start talking about the five greats of photography?

R.

In the first half of the last century.

It initially began in the 1920s, in Africa, although it undoubtedly gained strength as a result of the film

and the priceless marketing campaign that this film carried out with Kenya and with the black continent in general.

Wanting to go see those landscapes and that fauna became the desire of many travelers.

Q.

The African

are animals that have gained prestige for their beauty and for their difficulty as hunting trophies.

How did the Iberian quintet achieve prestige?

R. The five great Iberian fauna, in addition to being beautiful and spectacular animals, are there for what they mean as

.

They are at the top of the ecosystem pyramid so that, under the umbrella of their existence, other smaller species are conserved but with which they are closely related.

Brown bear photographed in the Cantabrian Mountains.

The biologist explains that the

are endemic species while the

is the largest land mammal we have, the Sierra de la Culebra in Zamora is home to the highest density of wolves on the continent and the lynx is our largest wild cat. size and the second most threatened on the planet.

In addition, in Spain we have the world's largest population of Iberian imperial eagle.

"As for the

, the author points out,

although it is not endemic, we do have the largest population and world density of the bird with the largest wing span in Europe".

Q.

Are photo safaris and ecotourism first cousins?

R.

The photographic safari is a traveling philosophy.

It is the excuse to explore a territory in search of its main attractions.

And for a good safari to be successful, the participation of local guides is key, in addition to requiring an overnight stay in the territory and being a tourist activity with little or no environmental impact.

Ecotourism is "the trip to a natural area to know it, interpret it, enjoy it and explore it while appreciating it and contributing in a practical way to its conservation, without generating impacts on the environment and having a positive impact on the local population" definition collected in the Declaration of Daimiel, so we see that the photographic safari, as a product, responds perfectly to that concept.

It is probably the tourism product that responds best.

Iberian wolf in the province of Zamora.

THE WOLF CONTROVERSY

Q.

Can ecotourism save wolf conservation from all the controversy it raises?

R.

I am convinced that ecotourism and nature observation tourism are a fundamental tool, but environmental education and putting aside the anthropocentric vision of nature, apart from the vested interests around the species and the bad practices that in some sectors they are carried out, they would help much more.

Nature itself regulates the populations of living beings so that there is balance and coexistence.

It does not need human participation.

Q.

Which of the five is the most elusive and difficult to see?

R.

_

Without a doubt the

The wolf is a born survivor who has had to permanently adapt to survive despite all the human pressure he has received.

We are a danger to him and he shies away from our presence.

He detects us long before we detect him.

It is also a

, which does not facilitate its observation.

Q.

What has been the most memorable encounter with these animals in your life?

A.

Probably the best moment has been the observation of bears and wolves interacting freely, without carrion, on a hillside in the

It was a morning in September last year and it was a privilege to be able to see how a bear defended her two cubs from the close presence, very close, of a pair of wolves that were returning to their resting area.

Where to see the Iberian quintet

Q.

Can you recommend a viewpoint that every lover of nature and its fauna should visit?

A.

Throughout 2021 different fauna observation points have been set up for lynx (Sierra de Andújar), wolf (Sierra de la Culebra) and bear (Somiedo Natural Park and Fuentes del Narcea, Degaña and Ibias Natural Park, both In asturias).

But, if what we want is to increase the probability of observation and learn more about our most emblematic animals, it is best to do it with the help of local companies and guides.

It's what I've done in most of the encounters I describe in the book.

Q.

Is there a Spanish 'Serengeti' that we should know about?

A.

Due to its landscape similarity with the Serengeti ecosystem (Tanzania-Kenya), it would be the

The meadows of oaks, the deer and the sunsets are reminiscent of the African savannah.

But if we look for hot spots of fauna, far from landscapes reminiscent of the African savannah, the mountain in western

(where the two aforementioned parks are located), the

Mountain or the

,

(from the point of view of the birds of prey), Sierra Morena (with the Sierra de Andújar in front), and

are places of enormous importance.

In fact, they are part of the natural spaces traveled by

.

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