This fantastic wildlife park, off the D821 near Argelès-Gazost, is home to many rare and not so rare Pyrenean species. The animals live on special "islands" designed to mirror their natural habitat: marmots (which, despite the huge numbers of them in the Pyrenees are not actually native to these mountains), chamoix and non-native Alpine ibex (the Pyrenean ibex became extinct in January 2000) inhabit rocky hills 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, with windows looking into the wolves’ enclosure, or sleep in Le Refuge, a dome-shaped cabin with a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the bears' habitat. Both cost €450 per night for a double.
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 around 30 bears roaming wild across the mountains. Unfortunately 2020 was as bad a year for bears as it was for humans. A number of Pyrenean bears were found dead by suspicious means, and President Macron announced that his government would no longer support the reintroduction program.
The park is closed in the mornings for the first half of October.
