Wild Animals of Spain: Iberian Lynx, Wolves, Vultures and More

Spain’s wildlife at a glance

The Iberian lynx comeback

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) lives only in Spain and Portugal. It is about half the weight of its northern cousin, with males weighing 7–16 kg (15–35 lb), and has a spotted tawny coat, a ruff of whiskers and black ear tufts. It is a rabbit specialist: rabbits make up about three-quarters of its diet, and an adult male needs about one a day. When the rabbit diseases myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease swept Spain, the lynx collapsed with its prey. Read about its prey in our European rabbit profile.

By 2002 only 94 Iberian lynxes survived, in two isolated pockets of Andalusia: Doñana and the eastern Sierra Morena around Andújar. It was then the most endangered cat in the world. Captive breeding, habitat work, rabbit restocking and road underpasses followed, and lynxes were released in new areas of Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura and Portugal’s Guadiana Valley, with a further project under way in Murcia. The 2024 census counted 2,401 lynxes, 2,047 in Spain and 354 in Portugal, and the IUCN downgraded the species from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2024. Road traffic is now one of the biggest causes of death. Compare it with its larger northern relative in our Eurasian lynx profile.

The Iberian wolf

The Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) is a slimmer wolf with white marks on its upper lips and dark marks on its front legs, which give it the name signatus, “marked.” With roughly 2,200–2,700 wolves in more than 350 packs across northwest Spain and northern Portugal, it is the largest wolf population in western Europe. Wild boar and roe deer are its main prey in many areas.

Most packs live north of the Douro River in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Castile and León, and wolves are slowly spreading toward Madrid, the Basque Country and Extremadura. The Sierra de la Culebra in Zamora is the classic place for guided wolf watching at dawn and dusk. How strictly the wolf should be protected remains a heated political debate in Spain. See our overview of wolves in Europe.

Cantabrian brown bears

Brown bears once lived across much of the Iberian Peninsula but by the 20th century survived only in two isolated groups in the Cantabrian Mountains. Bear hunting was banned in 1973. In 2007 the western group held about 100–110 bears and the eastern group only 20–30, but a genetic estimate made by the regional governments around 2020 counted about 370 bears, and the two groups have started to mix again.

Cantabrian bears are smaller than many other brown bears: females average about 85 kg (190 lb) and males about 115 kg (250 lb), though big males reach 200 kg (440 lb). They eat mostly plants, fruit, nuts and insects. Somiedo Natural Park in Asturias is the best-known place to watch them from viewpoints with telescopes, especially in early summer, when bears climb wild cherry trees, and in autumn, when they fatten up on acorns, hazelnuts and chestnuts. Spain also shares the reintroduced Pyrenean bear population with France and Andorra. Read more about brown bears in Europe.

Iberian ibex and chamois

The Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica), or Spanish wild goat, lives in rocky mountains across much of Spain, with large herds in the Sierra de Gredos, about 10,000 animals, and in Sierra Nevada. Males grow thick, outward-curving horns up to three times as long as the females’ horns. Around 50,000 Iberian ibex survive today, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Not all subspecies made it. The Portuguese ibex died out in the 1890s, and the Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo, became extinct in January 2000 when the last female died in Ordesa National Park. A clone born in 2003 lived only a few minutes, making the bucardo the first animal to be “un-extinct,” however briefly. The Pyrenean chamois, called rebeco or sarrio, is common in the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains, including the Picos de Europa.

Imperial eagles and Europe’s vulture stronghold

The Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) lives only in the Iberian Peninsula. Adults are dark brown with a pale head and white shoulder patches, and their wingspan is 1.8–2.2 m (5.8–7.2 ft). By the 1960s only about 30 pairs were left. Insulating dangerous power lines, tackling illegal poisoning, protecting nests and extra feeding brought it back to 841 breeding pairs in 2021–2022, 820 of them in Spain. The IUCN lists it as Vulnerable.

Spain is the European stronghold of vultures. The latest SEO/BirdLife census estimated 31,000–37,000 breeding pairs of griffon vultures, the large majority of all griffons in Europe. Monfragüe National Park in Extremadura holds the world’s largest colony of cinereous vultures, with more than 300 pairs, and Egyptian vultures arrive from Africa each spring. Bearded vultures survive in the Pyrenees and have been reintroduced to the Sierra de Cazorla and the Picos de Europa.

Doñana, flamingos and the steppes

Doñana National Park, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, was created in 1969 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. Its marshes, dunes and cork-oak woods shelter Iberian lynxes, imperial eagles, red and fallow deer, Egyptian mongooses and more than 300 bird species, along with huge numbers of wintering ducks and geese. Overuse of groundwater for farming and recent droughts have left many of its lagoons dry, a major worry for conservationists.

Greater flamingos breed at Fuente de Piedra, a salt lagoon near Málaga that holds the largest colony in Iberia in wet years, though the lake dried out completely in the 2023 drought. Our greater flamingo profile explains how they feed. On the open grain plains of Castile and León and Extremadura, Iberia holds more than half the world’s great bustards, among the heaviest flying birds, and white storks nest on church towers in towns across the country.

Whales and dolphins

Spain’s seas hold dolphins, pilot whales and sperm whales, especially in the Strait of Gibraltar and around the Canary Islands. A small group of orcas follows Atlantic bluefin tuna through the Strait and along the Atlantic coast. Since 2020, some of these orcas have pushed and damaged the rudders of sailing boats, a behavior explained in why orcas are ramming boats.

Where to see wildlife in Spain

• Sierra de Andújar, Jaén: the best place to see wild Iberian lynx, especially in the winter mating season, plus imperial eagles and red deer.
• Doñana, Huelva and Seville: lynx, imperial eagles, flamingos, spoonbills and wintering geese and ducks.
• Monfragüe National Park, Cáceres: cinereous and griffon vultures, imperial eagles and black storks from the Salto del Gitano viewpoint.
• Somiedo Natural Park, Asturias: Cantabrian brown bears, best from May to October.
• Sierra de la Culebra, Zamora: Iberian wolves with a local guide.
• Picos de Europa National Park: chamois, griffon vultures and alpine choughs; created in 1918 as Covadonga, Spain’s first national park.
• Sierra de Gredos, Ávila: Iberian ibex that often allow a close approach.
• Fuente de Piedra, Málaga: flamingos in spring and summer in wet years.

Visit early or late in the day, keep to tracks, use local guides for lynx, wolf and bear watching, and never approach nests or dens.