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Bears on the Salvador?

Donna Sch

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Time of past OR future Camino
VdLP-Sanabres-Fisterra '15; Levante-Invierno '19
I'm checking out iNaturalist and the Salvador passes between 2 bear areas. There are observations within cooee of La Pola de Gordón and up towards the Reserva de la Biosfera el Alto Bernesga.
Anybody seen any bear prints or scat or actual bears on the Camino itself?
We are a couple of wildlife nerds and will be carrying cameras with large lenses so I'm curious if anyone has ever spotted one.
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
If you see a bear anywhere in Spain outside of a zoo, buy a lottery ticket immediately. Personally, fond as I am of both wildlife and photography, I wouldn´t be toting long-focus lenses on the off chance of getting within photographing distance of a wild bear. Spanish bears are both extraordinarily shy and very rare. Sorry to put a dampener on your hopes, but realistically your chances of seeing a bear while on the camino are very, very slight.
 
What @dick bird said, European bears try to avoid humans at all costs and they know where the paths that humans take are. As for lurking heavy camera equipment around, I did it ones, and never took so few photos. The light was never right and often I was far too tired to take a decent photo.
BC SY
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Donna Sch said:
Anybody seen any bear prints or scat or actual bears on the Camino itself?
Click to expand...
I don't recall that any forum member has ever reported having seen a bear on a Camino.

What a few of us have seen is a news report from October 2022 where a bear was roaming, and then fleeing, the streets of Ponferrada on the Camino Francés. It was a "never seen before" event, and it made it even into the Guardian newspaper.

The majority of the forum posts about bears are about bears elsewhere in the world ...

Scroll down in the text of the article to see the video of the bear in the streets of Ponferrada; the video was taken by a taxi-driver and then published by the municipal police of Ponferrada:

Spanish police guide bear back from city centre to mountains

Residents of Ponferrada advised to take care after animal spotted by taxi driver in early hours
www.theguardian.com
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I once saw bear tracks on the Senda le Camille, but they were painted on the rocks to memorialize Camille. One of the last indigenous bears in the Pyrenees.

Home - English - La Senda de Camille

LA SENDA DE CAMILLE CIRCULAR MOUNTAIN TREK NATURAL PARK OF THE WESTERN VALLEYS, ARAGON, SPAIN · NATIONAL PARK OF THE PYRENEES, ASPE, FRANCE NATURAL PARK OF THE OCCIDENTAL VALLEYS, ARAGON, SPAIN NATIONAL PARK OF THE PYRENEES, ASPE, FRANCE DISCOVER THE TREKKING LA SENDA GUIDE FREE You choose the...
www.lasendadecamille.com
 
The owner of the Señor Oso albergue in Molinaseca on the Camino Frances told me that bears had very occasionally been seen by the river near there. As a young one was famously filmed wandering the streets of Ponferrada at night before being shooed out of town by police that sounded very plausible. An extremely remote chance of seeing one though.
 
The Salvador is right in the middle of I guess what you could term "bear country", but probably not a hot-spot. Of course there is always a chance that you could get lucky early or late in the day and that would also extend to wolves. You mention large lenses, but realistically the distance often involved is going to be 500 meters plus and often involves a considerable amount of time scanning the surroundings with binoculars. You should see lots of birds of prey easily enough though.

Contrary to what many might think it is not impossible to see wild bears in Spain in a number of the well-known areas where the viewing areas are not far from the road, and in some cases you can actually see them from the road. Somiedo is a very good place for bear spotting as well as having some of the most spectacular scenery in Spain. Well worth a visit for wildlife nerds like us!

This photo I took from the road in the Somiedo area:



I would always suggest going with a guide though (for wolves or bears) as you have more chance of seeing them and you will learn more.

Below is a wolf (part of a pack of 11) I photographed in October a few hundred meters from the Camino Vadiniense ( I wasn't walking it at the time). NW Spain is an often overlooked haven for beautiful wildlife which is probably a good thing for the wildlife.

 
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As many have stated, European brown bears do all to prevent being spotted by humans.
I live in one of Europe's bear hot spots in Northern Scandinavia and have spotted bear tracks as close as 150 meters from the house - but I never managed to actually spot a bear (I did more than once in Canada, so I am not bear-blind ). There is the saying that for one bear you actually happen to spot there have been hundreds if not thousands that have spottet you in the months and years before and you never had a clue. To catch a bear on camera normally requires knowledge of the area, their habits, their favorite spots and lengthy preparation. Impossible by simply passing through an area.
I would not carry my long and heavy lenses on any Camino just for the chance to spot a bear. Of course, if you win the spotting lottery and actually see a bear from a distance you WILL regret not having a long lens with you, but chances are so small that I would not bother.
On my Caminos the only wildlife I encountered was wild horses and wild boars, the latter only as I was sleeping off track in the woods and walking unusual times of the day.
 
There are occasional sightings of bears in Cangas del Narcea. But most of these are in the hills south of town, including the 2021 attack on a woman in Sonande that sent her to the hospital (https://www.lavozdeasturias.es/amp/.../00031622483246328808998.htm?utm_campaign=amp). The staff at the Parador de Corias, where a group I am leading on the Camino Primitivo in May will take a rest day, warn that bears may be encountered in the trails around the hotel. However only in early spring, when there is less food at higher elevations.
 
I walked the Salvador last Spring, lots of flowers and animals, no bears! Not sure if I regret it!
 
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Yes, Cangas municipality includes most of " bosque de Muniellos" and part of "Parque Natural Fuentes del Narcea" where is sure that bears live.
 
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Arctic_Alex said:
On my Caminos the only wildlife I encountered was wild horses and wild boars, the latter only as I was sleeping off track in the woods and walking unusual times of the day.
Click to expand...
Off topic a little but had encountered a wolf watching me standing in the shade under a tree 100m or so from the track on the Via Kunig this Sept, roughly adjacent to Cruze de Ferro and climbing the hill this Oct to Monserrat after sunset with the wind in my face and only the sound of an occasional owl, startled a herd of mountain goats who bounced all around me and eliminated any fatigue. For an antipodean, I still get a buzz out of seeing a fox.
 

Back eight years or so ago, I spotted a pair of wolves around 100 metres ahead of me, crossing the dirt forest road right before the chapel of Ermita de la Virgen del Carmen (near Vilabade) on the Primitivo. Slightly different colouring to your photo (black/brown), but distinctive wide cheeks and long snout with patches of white. Smaller than our wolves here in Canada, but of good size nonetheless. I was surprised (not enough time to get my camera) since the sighting was within a couple of km of urban areas around Castroverde with farms to the west, but the forested and recreation lands probably had enough of a deer and boar population to keep them fed.
 
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I did see a bear and it's cub in 2018 doing the Camino Vadiniense after leaving Fuente De crossing the Picos de Europa, but you quite right sighting them is quite rare
 
We have 70 days to do a Camino Madrid/Salvador/Primitivo combo. So we have the luxury of having the time to walk shorter stages. So the cameras will be less onerous. My partner is the professional photographer; I'm the keen amateur and iNaturalist addict. I could take my bridge camera, a Nikon P950, but the quality of the photos is nowhere near that of my Canon R6ii. 2.4 kg of camera and Camino gear is still lighter than my full camera backpack which is much less ergonomic.
Barrie has a lot of hunting experience behind him so on the Invierno he was forever pointing out deer slides, pig tracks and wolf prints. And he is a horse lover - we always had sugar cubes on us! He is also a zoo tragic so the Madrid zoo will be added to our week in Madrid.
 
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I don't expect to see a bear although I would be absolutely chuffed to come across any evidence of their existence even if it is just a pile of bear poop. Most of the actual bear photos on iNat show a bear up the side of a steep rocky slope.
 
Barrie will love the herds of Asturcon horses on the Primitivo, especially the Hospitales route. Cousins to Shetland ponies, with an equally long (or longer?) history.
 
Well, as long as you do not carry all the stuff exclusively for bears, you will be fine I was just trying lower your expectations
As for myself, I have been lugging heavy photography gear on weeks-long expeditions through nearly remote mountain ranges and even carried my 4x5 large format all the way up on mountain tops just to document the total whiteout
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Compared to lugging hunting gear it will be a doddle. Will be ending my spring Camino with the same combo so will keep an eye out for pilgrims staring at poop with telephoto lenses!
 
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It’s BARES you need to watch out for. Bears will run away if you make noise, lots of noise.
 
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