Cuyabeno Fauna Production Reserve

General Information

• Area: 1’490.932 acres (603.380 ha)
• Date of Creation: July 26, 1979
• Altitude: 656 — 919 ft (200 — 280 m)

Together with Yasuní National Park, the Cuyabeno Reserve is one of the seven Pleistocene refuges in the world that survived the ice age unperturbed. This accounts for its amazingly high diversity and the interrelations between its species, making it a unique sample of an Amazonian ecosystem. There are more than seven rivers and 15 lakes in Cuyabeno, Aguarico the largest river and Zancundococha the biggest lake.

Flora and Fauna

The whole area of the reserve corresponds to a humid tropical forest life zone. In one hectare of this forest more than 228 plant species can be found according to some studies. Among the tall Amazonian trees are other species, like vines, helicons, weeping palm trees, the ficus trees known as matapalos (tree killers in Spanish) and above all epiphytes, many used as medicinal plants. More than 500 bird species have been identified, 53 of them insectivores, among them macaws, toucans, herons and harpy eagles. There are 450 fish species, 96 amphibian species, spectacular reptiles like the anaconda and rare mammals like capibaras, manatees, pink dolphins, giant armadillos and giant anteaters. The beautiful Morpho butterfly is commonly present.

Tourism

The reserve may be visited only by boat, going to a lodge down Aguarico River from Nueva Loja. Communities of indigenous Sionas, Cofanes, Shuares and Quichuas inhabit the area, and continuously protest against the ecological disasters caused by oil companies, because Cuyabeno River has suffered contamination since 1984.