In 2011, a group of Iraqi ornithologists counted a single flock of the rare marbled teal on the lakes of the Iraqi marshes, numbering at least 40,000 birds.
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In the east it survives in the Mesopotamian marshland in southern Iraq and in Iran (Shadegan Marshes - the world's most important site), as well as isolated pockets in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq and further to the east in western India and western China.
Pontine Marshes | Mesopotamian campaign | Tantramar Marshes | North Kent Marshes | Mesopotamian Marshes | Walthamstow Marshes | Pinsk Marshes | Dead Marshes | ''Sunlight and Shadow: The Newbury Marshes'', c. 1871-1875, by Martin Johnson Heade | Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve | Oare Marshes | Mesopotamian Campaign | Maeotian marshes | Brading Marshes RSPB reserve |
Due to the draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes during the presidency of Saddam Hussein it was feared that the Iraqi population of otters may have perished but a biodiversity site review in 2009 found tracks of an otter, suggesting that the population may have survived.