Wetland restoration boosts Spain’s marbled ducks to 172 breeding females in 2025

Representative Image of marbled ducks and their chicks thriving in a lush wetland with restored natural habitat (AI-generated image) Spain recorded 172 breeding females and 1,427 chicks in 2025, a marked improvement from the 20 breeding pairs recorded in the country in 2009. The figures follow years of conservation work focused on wetland restoration, captive breeding and cooperation with local stakeholders. LIFE Cerceta Pardilla, co-financed by the European Union’s LIFE programme and Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge through its Directorate-General for Water, restored more than 3,600 hectares of wetlands and released 3,769 captive-bred ducks in Spain, Italy and Portugal. The project’s final results, published in March 2026, document the scale of the work. However, reintroductions complicate efforts to determine how much of the increase reflects natural population growth. The species remains at risk from habitat degradation, water shortages and other pressures on wetlands.How Spain’s marbled duck breeding numbers changed between 2009 and 2025The marbled duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris), also known as the marbled teal, is a wetland bird f...