Ecology in Peru

Peru is the geographically most diverse country in the world, that is reflected in its complex bio-diversity. Peru has one of the largest concentrations of birds in the planet; it has more species of birds than any other country on earth (the known species all over the world are not more than 9000, and from these, in Peru there about 1800). Bird-watching in Peru can be practiced in their different natural environments such as deserts, wave-washed shores, coastal lagoons, the slopes of the Andes, the high Puna, lakes of the Altiplano, the exuberant and wet rain forest of the eastern slopes, and the vast forested lowlands of the Amazon basin.

 

The different environments also house diverse species of wild mammals. For example the jungle has jaguars, ocelots, pumas, bears, deer, peccaries, tapirs; dozens of species of primates, etc. The highlands have deer, pumas, foxes, guanacos, vicuñas, etc.

 

The flora in those different ecological levels is complex too. The high and almost barren snow capped mountains have mainly ichu (the local bunch grass serving as pasture for cameloids) and small bushes, but as you go down in altitude the vegetation will become more and more exuberant. The rain forest is characterized by its orchids, bromeliads, begonias, ferns, mosses and lichens. The lowland Amazonian jungle is really unbeatable regarding to flora complexity.

The richness of flora and fauna of the different regions in Peru has made its government declare many large sections as reserves or protected parks that are spread all over the country.

 

The most symbolic natural reserve in the southern area is the Manu Biosphere Reserve, that has about 1000 species of birds, 200 different mammal species, 100 bat species, about 13 species of primates; and endangered species as the Black Caiman and the Giant Otter. Thanks to its remote location and the existence of hostile native tribes the Manu area escaped from human predators willing to conquer it. Today this Park and many others in the Peruvian jungle are open for tourist explorations, offering to mankind what undisturbed nature created in millennia of evolution.