Complejo Endorreico de Puerto Real

The Complejo Endorreico de Puerto Real Nature Area has three lakes, known as the Comisario, Taraje and San Antonio. The two last ones get water from a water purification plant nearby, so the level of the water is the same all year round. The Comisario Lake, however, is seasonal and dry in summer.

The vegetation that grows in the environment is mainly marsh vegetation - giant reeds, rushes, tamarisks, reed mace and clubrushes. Further away from the lakes there is Mediterranean scrubland, with wild olives, mastic trees and Mediterranean palms.

These lakes are representative examples of the Andalusian endorheism covering the countryside of Cadiz and Seville. Their strategic location, near the marshes of the Guadalquivir and other important wetlands, make this area an essential point for alternative wetlands for the breeding and migration of many waterfowl species, especially in dry years. This area has at least 13 highly threatened species of vertebrates associated with humid atmospheres. There are large number of the fartet fish species, endemic in western Andalusia and recently differentiated from the iberus Aphanius species.

This reserve is important because of the birds that live here, and that is why it has been declared a Special Bird Protection Area, where birds nest and hibernate. Some of the birds that can be found in this nature reserve are the marbled teal, stiff-tailed duck, heron, egret, osprey, marsh harrier and stork, amongst others.

There are also species of amphibians and reptiles like the viperine snake, the ocelado lizard, the southern frog, the painted frog, the natterjack toad, the gallipato and the common frog; many of them declared as special interest in the Catalogue of Threatened species.