Wildlife Photography Hides in Iraq

Iraq is one of the Middle East's most surprising and rapidly emerging wildlife photography destinations — a country whose extraordinary ecological heritage, long suppressed by conflict and political instability, is now accessible to adventurous photographers. The Mesopotamian Marshes — inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 — are one of the world's great wetland restoration stories: largely drained by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, they have recovered to over 1.5 million hectares of reed beds and open water hosting the globally endangered Basra Reed Warbler (endemic to this system), Dalmatian Pelican, African Darter, Smooth-coated Otter, and huge concentrations of migratory waterbirds. Traditional mashoof boat trips from the town of Chibayish provide authentic access to the inner marshes, while Nature Iraq — Iraq's leading conservation NGO and a BirdLife affiliate — operates scientific survey programmes with occasional ecotourism access. The Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq offers a completely different wildlife experience: Halgurd-Sakran National Park in the Zagros Mountains holds Persian Leopard, Brown Bear, Bezoar Ibex, and Wolf in dramatic mountain scenery, accessible through specialist operators Untamed Borders and Zagros Mountain Trail.