Lunes 09:00 - 17:00 Martes 09:00 - 17:00 Miércoles 09:00 - 17:00 Jueves 09:00 - 17:00 Viernes 09:00 - 17:00

Tapiche Reserve

Name: Tapiche Reserve
Address: Ricardo Palma 516, Iquitos, 16001, PE
Telephone: +5165600805
Price range: $$$
Rating: 4.7

Casa
Peru
Iquitos
Tapiche Reserve

The Tapiche Reserve is a private Amazon rainforest conservation project based out of Iquitos, Peru. Our package rates start at USD 145/day.
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We preserve primary forest, rehabilitate disturbed areas, and support local communities with eco-friendly employment opportunities. The Tapiche Jungle Reserve: where wildlife is wild, as it should be! Please check out our website www.tapichejungle.com for answers to questions you may have and for a contact form to begin your booking. Our internet is restricted and FB can be slow to load, so your b

est chances of communicating with us is through the website and not via FB messenger. The Tapiche Reserves is focused on habitat preservation with the aim of providing animals with the natural environment and resources they need in order to thrive. The income from our eco-lodge funds all of our conservation work, pays local salaries, and makes the existence and continuation of the reserve possible. We are different from other lodges near Iquitos because of our strict no catching/no caging policy. Every photo a tourist takes with a sloth, snake or other jungle animal encourages locals to go out and catch more, killing the mothers in order to capture the babies. Many people show their "love" for animals by domesticating or dominating them. We believe the best way to love jungle animals is to protect their habitat and allow them to be free in their natural environment. The remote location of the lodge allows for observation of rare and endangered animals (e.g. red uakari monkey, giant otter, Amazonian manatee, among many others) flourishing undisturbed in the wild. Pink and grey dolphins frolic in the river right in front of the lodge, caciques, oropendulas and tanagers nest in trees next to the cabins, and red howler monkeys greet you with their infamous call every morning. For birdwatchers, there are active nests of both Harpy and Crested Eagles and a massive heronry seasonally populated by several species of herons and egrets, including the Agami and Boat-Billed Herons. Our private property encompasses several lowland Amazonian forest systems, including igapó, varzea, and terra firme. No other tour company or operator is allowed on the property. Proceeds from visits go directly to fund local salaries and maintenance and protection of the Reserve. By employing locals, the Reserve has helped several former hunters and loggers climb out of debt and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. Please visit our website www.tapichejungle.com to find answers to your questions and for a contact form where you can start your booking.

03/01/2022

The Tapiche Jungle Reserve wishes all of you a happy new year and a great start into 2022! We are so happy that we were able to receive guests again last year and want to share with you what Jamie () wrote about his trip to the reserve in the Northern Amazon of Peru:

"This year I was blessed with opportunities to get into wild pockets of the planet, the further I went the deeper I desired to go.

One of the highlights of this years cornucopia of adventure was visiting the reserve in Northern Peru. The trip involved planes and many hours on river boats, but Golly, I’d return ten times over.

Chalk full of animals, plants, and … the FUNGI was astounding!!! I counted over 40 unique fruiting species. There was a blitz of monkeys, including a rare and elusive red huacari monkey (pictured).

By dawns light we head to the trails to hike and enjoy the wildlife for the better part of the day. Each day was unique, and of course nothing guaranteed, but our group had a good energy and the animals came out for us. In the evenings we trolled the Tapiche River by boat for a relaxing bird, caimen, and turtle watching excursion by sunset. We even saw a myriad of river dolphins!!! Dreams come true people. Literally.

This reserve is a prime example of how conservation and stewardship is vital to wild places. Everyday forces like logging, hunting and extraction put a strain on our diverse forests, and if it weren’t for people selflessly dedicating time and energy to protecting swathes of habitat and also working with local communities… I’m afraid our world wouldn’t be as magical.

I am so thankful for this visit to Tapiche Reserve and dream to return ASAP during the flood season to witness the forest completely inundated by water!! Anyone want to join?

Also, hats off to and for helping steward my love for tropical ecosystems and getting me back down to Peru to remind me what matters in this life. I appreciate the leadership, for to me, protecting millions of years of biodiversity is one of the most important things we can do with our time and energy in this life."

Jamie, we are so humbled by your words and want to thank you for your lovely presence and exuberant passion for nature! Thank you for taking the time to put your experience at the reserve into words, it truly means a lot to us!

If you feel inspired to visit the Tapiche Jungle Reserve after reading about Jamie's stay with us, please contact us through the contact form on our website: https://www.tapichejungle.com/contact

14/12/2021

Announcing the first release of rescued baby turtles this 2021 season at the Tapiche Reserve! Check out the video link below. These baby turtles were amongst the first that hatched from the eggs we rescued this year, and they are strong enough now to begin their lives in the wild at the Tapiche Reserve, Peru. Good luck, babies!

Our work at the Tapiche Reserve is far from over--we still have more than 7,000 turtle hatchlings in our nursery requiring daily feeding and maintenance. Donations from now through January will go specifically towards fostering these baby turtles until they are ready to strike out on their own in the wild. Donations of USD 15 or more will receive a digital 2021 Tapiche Turtle Hero certificate, and donations of USD 50 or more will get the certificate as well as a personal video greeting filmed right at the Tapiche Reserve. USD 15 is enough to foster 5 baby turtles. Makes a great last-minute holiday gift for a nature lover!

To become a 2021 Tapiche Turtle Hero, make your donation on our GoFundMe page (https://gofund.me/de48de64) or by sending funds to our Paypal [email protected], just be sure to mark the "sending money to family and friends" option so that Paypal doesn't take a big bite out of your donation before it gets to us. Make a note on your payment of whose name we should put on the certificate, or send us a note via email [email protected]

First release of rescued babies 2021:
https://youtu.be/q9vCqXnD-cY

Learn more about our turtle rescue here: https://www.tapichejungle.com/turtle-rescue-project

Profound thanks to all of our Tapiche family and friends who have helped us survive these past couple of years. We couldn't do this work without you!

01/11/2021

Meet Eduardo, our beloved caretaker for this year's rescued baby turtles. He's currently caring for over 5000 baby turtles that have hatched so far this turtle rescue season at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the Northern Amazon of Peru!

We have once again broken our own record from 2020 and have collected a total of 11042 turtle eggs inside the Tapiche Reserve. At this point, more than 5000 of these eggs have hatched, and all these beautiful and strong baby turtles have begun their lives in our custom-built turtle nursery at the reserve. By starting their lives in the hatchling nursery, the babies have the chance to grow big and strong in a protected environment before we release them into the wild.

All these hatchlings consume a huge amount of food, requiring our team to bring aquatic plants to feed the hatchlings several times per week. Luckily, our devoted local staff member Eduardo has made it his special duty to watch over the little turtle hatchlings at all times. He lovingly cares for the baby turtles and delights in seeing them grow bigger and stronger by the day.

The aquatic plants grow in lagoons around the reserve, and at the moment the water level is still too low to access the lagoons by boat. This means that Eduardo walks through the forest to the lagoons in order to collect the floating vegetation, bringing empty buckets with him. Sometimes this process involves a bit of searching and scrambling, as the aquatic plants are not always easy to access from land and sometimes float away from the shore. Eduardo remains undaunted by the challenge and climbs along fallen logs and branches with lightness and ease in order to collect the freshest and greenest aquatic plants he can find. He then carries the buckets full of aquatic plants back to the lodge for the hatchlings.

If you would like to see Eduardo and the Turtle Rescue Project in action or are interested in helping us care for the hatchlings, please do consider visiting the Tapiche Reserve - the jungle is waiting for you! Contact us through our website to get your trip started: https://www.tapichejungle.com/contact

You can also support Eduardo and the rest of the Tapiche staff in our conservation work with a donation to the Tapiche Jungle Wildlife Conservation Fund, the GoFundMe campaign that our dear friend Louisa set up for us:
https://gofund.me/de48de64

Thank you and lots of jungle love to all!

02/10/2021

We're so happy and proud to announce that thousands of baby turtles have hatched at the Tapiche Reserve, and we've been able to share some of these special moments with visitors!

So far this season, a total of 2500 Yellow-spotted River Turtles (Podocnemis unifilis) have started their life in the Tapiche Reserve. The last batch of baby turtles that hatched were welcomed by our dear guests Ruth, Nils and Laura, who witnessed more than 1500 baby turtles make their way out of their nests. As there were so many new turtles, we were pleased to share this wonder of nature with them and were also thankful for their helping hands.

Once the turtles crawled out of their nests, Ruth, Nils and Laura helped us transfer the babies from the incubation boxes to our custom-built turtle nursery. To complete the first steps of caring for these hatchlings, Ruth, Nils & Laura also helped collect food for the baby turtles. While they were exploring our beautiful Garza lagoon by boat, they took a pause from focusing on the amazing landscape and jungle sounds to collect floating aquatic plants from the lagoon. The fresh plants were carried back to the lodge to serve the hatchlings their very first meal at the Tapiche Reserve.

Ruth, Laura and Nils - thank you so much for sharing these incredible moments with us, for your enthusiasm, and for your great appreciation and love for nature. We are very thankful for your support of the Tapiche Reserve!

Do you feel inspired to visit the Tapiche Reserve and support our dream of conservation? Please contact us through our website tapichejungle.com

If you're not ready to travel yet, you can still make a big difference by supporting our conservation work with a donation: https://gofund.me/472e0a00

All photos in this post were taken by Nils, Laura & Murilo

21/09/2021

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.]

Update: May 12, 2021

Remember how excited we were earlier this year that once again we found the poorly known and rare Zigzag Heron (Zebrilus undulatus) nesting at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru? You can find photos of the Zigzag Heron on the nest with its two chicks and a video link to our YouTube channel in our update from April 19, 2021and on our blog: https://www.tapichejungle.com/blog/found-new-nest-of-rare-zigzag-heron-zebrilus-undulatus-with-two-chicks-found

A few weeks later, in a very different area of the reserve, we stumbled upon a juvenile Zigzag Heron foraging in the low branches of a creek. We were able to observe it from the canoe for about half an hour while the Zigzag Heron almost seemed to be enjoying the photo session, presenting its distinguished body and plumage from every possible side. The juvenile has different patterning and warmer colored plumage than the adult Zigzag Herons. We are happy that we found this juvenile Zigzag, as perhaps there was a Zigzag Heron nesting in that area of the reserve.

As if all its posing for the camera was not enough, the Zigzag Heron even began to sing. Check out the video: https://youtu.be/Rqh_MFarwnY

It makes us proud that in 2021 again, we were able to observe ZigZags in different phases of life in a totally separate area of the reserve. It appears that we have several Zigzag Herons nesting around the Tapiche Reserve and on both sides of the Tapiche river.

Come visit the Tapiche Reserve to witness this rare bird in person! If travel isn’t in your future, you can still make a big difference by supporting our conservation work with a donation to our GoFundMe Tapiche Jungle Wildlife Protection Fund:
https://gofund.me/4ab0c49c

Thanks and sending jungle love and greetings to all!

14/09/2021

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.]

Update: July 1, 2021

Sound up! We invite you to enjoy one minute of sunrise sounds at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru. Imagine: the sun is just beginning to peak over the rich, green crowns of giant, ancient trees. As the sun's rays paint the jungle with warm, golden light, the animals begin to stir.

Like clockwork, the lanky Red Howler Monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) start their boisterous dawn chorus just as the night sky slips into day. Their roaring howl can be heard up to a distance of several kilometers - the vocalization of Red Howler Monkeys is said to be among the loudest in the world. Some researchers say that their morning call serves as an announcement to other groups of howler monkeys about their location and group composition, issuing a warning not to get too close. Though the howler is the biggest primates we have at Tapiche, their diet largely consists of leaves, supplemented occasionally with fruits and flowers.

Past visitors to the Tapiche Reserve probably remember the distinct, inimitable experience of waking up to the howlers' infamous sunrise chorus—leave a comment if you're one of those visitors! We'd love to hear from you. If you are interested in immersing yourself in nature and witnessing this kind of sunrise in person at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in Peru, please visit our website to get started: https://tapichejungle.com

If travel isn’t in your future, you can still make a big difference by supporting our conservation work with a donation to our GoFundMe Tapiche Jungle Wildlife Protection Fund:
https://gofund.me/4ab0c49c

We present jungle information based on the understanding of natural phenomena available through research combined with our own firsthand observations of the jungle. We humans are constantly learning new things about the natural world, and the combined body of knowledge is always evolving and expanding. If you would like details about reference materials or have new information you’d like to share, please get in touch! Comment, message, or email [email protected]

09/09/2021

Join us in a happy dance as we celebrate the very first hatchlings from our rescued turtle nests in 2021! All thirty-six strong, healthy, beautiful baby turtles came out of the nest with not a single egg lost. These tiny yet mighty little turtles are symbols of hope, renewal and vitality, and we are so happy to welcome them into the world.

Only 10,970 eggs left to hatch, so stay tuned for more updates!

If you're thinking of shaking off the COVID blues and having a little adventure somewhere, we invite you to consider visiting us at the Tapiche Reserve. Come soon to see all the baby turtles in our nursery!

If travel isn't in your plans but you'd still like to support us, our GoFundMe gf.me/u/x92tzd will remain open, and funds will be used to help sustain operations since we still don't have a stable tourism income.

You can read more about this past Turtle Rescue season in the Turtle Rescue collection on our blog: www.tapichejungle.com/blog/category/Turtle+Rescue

Thanks and much jungle love to all!

10/08/2021

Newsflash: as of 9 Aug 2021, we have rescued a record high of 9276 turtle eggs during our yearly turtle rescue project at the Tapiche Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru!

Despite significantly increased poaching pressures on the reserve, which began during the pandemic and persist now, we have managed to surpass last year's 9,158 eggs from turtle rescue season 2020...and the 2021 season isn't over yet! Murilo Reis, our founder and director, and Jana Reintjes, our superstar lodge manager, have been working steadfastly all season, making personal and physical sacrifices for the sake of this work.

Due to an unusual cold front in late June this year, the turtles began nesting late, but they seem to have made up for lost time by nesting intensively in a short period of time. There have been subsequent odd cold fronts during July, further forcing the turtles to take advantage of warmer temperatures at any time of day, rather than laying eggs only under the cover of night or low light at dusk or dawn. Because of the unusual weather patterns, it is often necessary to be out collecting eggs all day and night every day in order to stay ahead of the poachers, with breaks at the lodge only for food and an hour or two of rest each time.

Check out our milestones so far:
27 July - 6275 turtle eggs rescued
08 Aug - 8401 turtle eggs rescued
09 Aug - 9276 turtle eggs rescued
Looks like we're going to have to build a bigger nursery!

We thank everyone around the world who has been supporting us on this conservation journey. During much of this 2021 turtle rescue season, our team has been reduced to just one or two people doing this demanding physical work due to financial constraints. Your support has helped us sustain basic operations and has bolstered our spirits, encouraging us to keep working even as challenges and obstacles increase. Thank you, gracias, obrigado, merci, viel danke...we appreciate you!

Our GoFundMe https://gofund.me/a681bbb6 will remain open and funds will be used to support operations, as we still do not have a stable tourism income yet. Thank you!

03/08/2021

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.]

Update: July 11, 2021

An exciting and busy first week of the Turtle Rescue Season 2021 has come to an end at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru. In only the first week of this year's rescue season we have collected 45 nests with over 1500 turtle eggs, all from the Yellow-spotted River Turtle (Podocnemis unifilis).

We went out to monitor the beaches at least three times per day - in the early morning, shortly after midday, and in the night - and we came back to the lodge with buckets full of turtle eggs every single day. It seems that even though the turtle rescue season was delayed in starting, the turtles have just been waiting to make their nests and somehow made up for lost time. This year's season started about two weeks later than in 2020, but we still collected more eggs than last year at the same time (1414 turtle eggs by July 11, 2020).

The rescue season is an especially challenging time for the staff of the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, as monitoring the beaches and collecting the eggs sometimes means going out before sunset and not coming back to the lodge until after midnight. And the work isn't finished when we come back to the lodge - the collected turtle eggs still have to be carefully re-buried in our incubation boxes. This means we have to manually dig artificial nests, carefully transfer each and every delicate little turtle egg into the new nests, and then close everything up carefully using techniques we've observed from mother turtles in the wild.

The hard work is very rewarding and this week we were honoured to witness a Yellow-spotted River Turtle making her nest. When we arrived at the beach to look for turtle tracks and other surface signs of nests, we realized that one turtle was still in the process of making her nest. She was laying the eggs in the nest, and though we remained on the boat in total silence at a safe distance so she wouldn't feel disturbed, we could still hear the eggs being deposited into the nest. Around 20 minutes after we arrived to the beach, she finished laying the eggs and proceeded to close the nest. She pushed sand on the hole with her strong, paddle-like feet and alternated between tamping down the sand with her legs and flattening it with her belly. At the very end, she threw loose sand over the closed nest to camouflage it and then moved 1.5m to the side, where she repeated the actions of 'closing the nest' and camouflaging it. We've observed that the turtles often manipulate the sand around where the actual nest is, which we think may be a tactic to better hide their nests from predators.

We are humbled by the presence of these amazing creatures and are once again left speechless by the wonders of mother nature. Seeing this vulnerable species at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve thriving in their natural habitat and creating a new generation of baby turtles is a wonderful reward for all of our conservation work, which has only been possible because of all the support we have gotten in the past and which we gratefully continue to receive today. Thank you so much to everyone who has visited in the past and to those who are supporting us from everywhere in the world.

If you feel inspired to support the Turtle Rescue Project, our GoFundMe https://gofund.me/472e0a00 will remain open, and funds will be used to sustain operations and pay local staff since we still don't have a stable tourism income. Thank you so much!

19/07/2021

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.]

Update: July 4, 2021
Announcing the first turtle nest of 2021

The first turtle nest of 2021 has been found, which means that the Turtle Rescue Season 2021 at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve has officially begun!

A surprising cold front had moved through the jungle for a few days at the end of June, and we started monitoring the beaches just after the chill subsided. On the night of July 4 we found the first turtle nest, about 2 weeks later than in past years. The turtles seem to make their nests during and just after sunset, before the first light of the rising moon starts illuminating the beaches.

When monitoring the beaches, we first look for signs of the turtles walking on the beaches, like footprints emerging out of the water and walking around the beach. Sometimes the turtles come out of the water but don't make their nests yet. They sometimes even walk around the whole beach only to get back into the water and leave. We suspect that they are checking out the nesting conditions of the sand and the beach in general.

Other times the footprints will lead you to a nest. In the first photo you can see what this year's first nest looked like; you can see that the area has been disturbed, because the surface of the ground where the nest is placed looks different from the surrounding sand. There also is a little mound of sand just below or downhill of the nest, which is the sand the turtle dug out to lay her eggs. Some turtles will even out this little mound after they finish making their nest, though this one just left the mound as it was. This nest was from a Yellow-spotted River Turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) and contained 32 beautiful eggs.

After carefully retrieving these eggs from the nest, we transferred them into a bucket with sand to bring them back to the lodge and bury them in our incubation boxes. We then close up the empty nest at the beach and even out the nest again so that the beach is ready for more turtles to come and nest.

With this first nest found and the weather conditions finally turning more favorable for the turtles, we are expecting to find more nests in the coming days. We are staying alert and will continue monitoring the beaches several times a day. We are focused on saving as many turtle nests as possible again this year to help the protection and conservation of these vulnerable species.

If you would like to support the Turtle Rescue Project, our GoFundMe https://gofund.me/472e0a00 remains open, and funds will be used to sustain operations and pay local staff since we still don't have a stable tourism income. Thank you so much!

14/07/2021

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.]

Update: June 31, 2021

We've finished preparing the hatchery for this year's Turtle Rescue Season at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve and are ready for the turtles to start making their nests. The hatchery has been reconstructed, incorporating improvements we learned from last year, and they're now waiting to be filled with thousands of turtle eggs!

Since the Tapiche Reserve is located in seasonally flooded forest, the beach in front of the lodge gets flooded completely and stays underwater for a few months during the high water season. This means that the turtle hatchery has to be rebuilt every year at the start of the nesting season, as unfortunately there is no way of preserving it through the flood. We've done a lot of careful observation of natural turtle nests over the years, and we try to recreate those natural nesting conditions as closely as possible. We chose to build the hatchery on the beach in front of the lodge in a spot that replicates the angle of sunlight and general weather conditions as the beaches where the turtles naturally make their nests.

Each year, the flood washes up compacted organic matter to our beach, covering the structures of last year's hatchery in a layer of hard, dry soil. Soon after the water receded from the beach, weeds and grass started growing. This means that the first step in preparing and re-building the hatchery was to dig out all the grass and the hard soil. We had to loosen and remove the soil in order to make space for the soft sand that makes the best nesting material for the turtles. We then renewed the wooden structure that frames the incubation boxes and added boards underground to protect the hatchery from underground attacks, an improvement learned from last year's rescue season.

To get the soft sand that fills the incubation boxes, we went to the beaches where the turtles naturally make their nests. There we filled large cargo sacks with the soft sand and brought them back to the lodge. The hardest part was carrying the large, heavy bags of sand up the rivershore to get them to the incubation boxes; each bag of sand weighed about 50kg/110lbs. At the time when the water level is low enough to reveal sandy beaches, the riverbank is about five meters higher than the actual level of the river water. All the bags were carried up this steep shore solely with pure human power and without any additional mechanical leverage or assistance. We're still short on staff this year due to ongoing effects of the pandemic, but we're continuing our work with assistance from our GoFundMe supporters, thanks so much! The photo of the boat carrying the bags only shows one of the three times we went out to bring the sand - and this amount of sand only filled the two bigger of our four incubation boxes. It takes approx 40 cargo sacks of sand to fill one incubation box!

We focused on preparing the two bigger hatching boxes for the start of the season; last year these two boxes afforded space for 6000 turtle eggs. With these two boxes prepped, we are absolutely ready for the turtles to start coming up to the beaches and make their nests. Unfortunately we have had some unusually cold days during the last week, and the temperature dropped down as low as 15°C/59°F. We have never experienced this kind of cold before and it seems to have influenced the turtles too. In all the past years since we started the Turtle Rescue Project at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, we have found nests in the last two weeks of June. We hope that the weather will warm up in the next few days and we will get some warm and sunny days which the turtles seem to love for making their nests. The Tapiche Jungle Reserve team is ready and waiting for the turtles to officially start the Turtle Rescue Season 2021!

If you would like to support the Turtle Rescue Project, our GoFundMe https://gofund.me/472e0a00 will remain open, and funds will be used to sustain operations and pay local staff since we still lack stable tourism income. Thank you so much!

02/07/2021

To kick off Turtle Rescue Season 2021, we proudly present to you a summary of last year's successful rescue season at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru.

First and most importantly, we the team of the Tapiche Jungle Reserve with all our local staff and all the jungle inhabitants want to thank all of you for your support throughout the past year. The pandemic hit us, as so many small operations, very hard, and we were left without any active income from the time we closed the reserve to visitors in March 2020. Despite all the unfortunate circumstances, we were able to save a record number of turtle eggs in 2020 and released the healthiest and strongest river turtles yet into their new jungle lives at the reserve. This demanding, labor-intense work would not have been possible without all your support! We are so grateful for all of our Tapiche family and friends all over the world who have helped us through last year and who have given us the motivation and strength we needed to carry on our conservation work. Thank you!

In the Turtle Nesting Season 2020, we found a record high of 9,158 turtle eggs in 241 nests. The majority of the nests were from the Yellow-spotted River Turtles (podocnemis unifilis): we found 231 nests with a total of 8,532 eggs of this species. We found 5 nests of the Six-tubercled River Turtles (podocnemis sextuberculata) for a total of 91 eggs of this species. We've observed from previous years that the Six-tubercled River Turtles generally only make their nests on the beaches that come out towards the end of the turtle season, when the water level is at its very lowest. Last year, the water level did not go down enough to reveal those preferred beaches, which we think might have kept some Six-tubercled River Turtles from nesting in 2020. The biggest and locally most elusive of our turtle species, the Arrau Turtle (podocnemis expansa), lays nests of over 100 eggs. In "just" four nests we found 535 Arrau Turtle eggs. The very first time we found nests of the Arrau Turtle at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve was only the previous year in 2019 with a total of two nests, so finding four nests in 2020 made us really proud; we saw it as validation and a result of our passionate conservation efforts in this area.

During the past years we have been able to improve and perfect our nest-building technique when rebuilding the nests in a safe environment in front of the lodge. Because of that, we were able to maximize the turtle hatching rate and nurture very strong hatchlings. We were able to release a total of 8000 healthy and strong turtle hatchlings, of which 7750 were Yellow-spotted, 50 were Six-tubercled and 200 were Arrau Turtles. Unfortunately, two of the nests of the Arrau Turtle nests were in an incubation box that was affected by the underground ant attack. You can read back more information about the ant attack and Tapiche's first published scientific paper in our post from April 12, 2021 and on our blog (https://www.tapichejungle.com/blog/tapiches-first-scientific-paper-published).

We hope to avoid ant attacks this year by placing a deeper underground wood structure around the hatchery. The ants move around in tunnels through the ground and the wooden structure will hopefully prevent them from invading the incubation boxes like they did last year. We will also fill all of the incubation boxes with soft sand from the beaches, which may impair the ants' tunneling attempts. In 2020, we had built one incubation box with more solid soil to recreate the natural muddy and dense nesting environment of the river shores where some of the Yellow-spotted River Turtles make their nests--while we find many nests on sandy beaches, we also find nests constructed in the mud. However, the boxes filled with the soft sand had better hatching rates and were not as affected by the ant attack as the hatching box with the more solid ground. So we have learned that even though we replicated a natural nesting environment with the muddy nesting material, the soft sand produces the best results in our hatchery. We observe and learn new things about the turtles each year, and we are constantly improving our rescue methods and operations in order to give as many of them as possible a chance at a wild, natural life at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve.

If you would like to support the Turtle Rescue Project as well as all the incredible inhabitants of the Tapiche Reserve, our GoFundMe https://gofund.me/472e0a00 will remain open, and funds will be used to sustain operations and pay local staff since we still don't have a stable tourism income. Thanks and sending jungle love to all!

Dirección

Ricardo Palma 516
Iquitos
16001

Horario de Apertura

Lunes	09:00 - 17:00
Martes	09:00 - 17:00
Miércoles	09:00 - 17:00
Jueves	09:00 - 17:00
Viernes	09:00 - 17:00

Teléfono

+5165600805

Página web

http://www.tapichejungle.com/

Notificaciones

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Videos

Sunrise chorus at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, Peru

[Our internet access has been limited since we've minimized expenses, so our updates may post asynchronously.] Update: July 1, 2021 Sound up! We invite you to enjoy one minute of sunrise sounds at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the northern Amazon of Peru. Imagine: the sun is just beginning to peak over the rich, green crowns of giant, ancient trees. As the sun's rays paint the jungle with warm, golden light, the animals begin to stir. Like clockwork, the lanky Red Howler Monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) start their boisterous dawn chorus just as the night sky slips into day. Their roaring howl can be heard up to a distance of several kilometers - the vocalization of Red Howler Monkeys is said to be among the loudest in the world. Some researchers say that their morning call serves as an announcement to other groups of howler monkeys about their location and group composition, issuing a warning not to get too close. Though the howler is the biggest primates we have at Tapiche, their diet largely consists of leaves, supplemented occasionally with fruits and flowers. Past visitors to the Tapiche Reserve probably remember the distinct, inimitable experience of waking up to the howlers' infamous sunrise chorus—leave a comment if you're one of those visitors! We'd love to hear from you. If you are interested in immersing yourself in nature and witnessing this kind of sunrise in person at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in Peru, please visit our website to get started: https://tapichejungle.com If travel isn’t in your future, you can still make a big difference by supporting our conservation work with a donation to our GoFundMe Tapiche Jungle Wildlife Protection Fund: https://gofund.me/4ab0c49c We present jungle information based on the understanding of natural phenomena available through research combined with our own firsthand observations of the jungle. We humans are constantly learning new things about the natural world, and the combined body of knowledge is always

Join us in a happy dance as we celebrate the very first hatchlings from our rescued turtle nests in 2021! All thirty-six strong, healthy, beautiful baby turtles came out of the nest with not a single egg lost. These tiny yet mighty little turtles are symbols of hope, renewal and vitality, and we are so happy to welcome them into the world. Only 10,970 eggs left to hatch, so stay tuned for more updates! If you're thinking of shaking off the COVID blues and having a little adventure somewhere, we invite you to consider visiting us at the Tapiche Reserve. Come soon to see all the baby turtles in our nursery! If travel isn't in your plans but you'd still like to support us, our GoFundMe gf.me/u/x92tzd will remain open, and funds will be used to help sustain operations since we still don't have a stable tourism income. You can read more about this past Turtle Rescue season in the Turtle Rescue collection on our blog: www.tapichejungle.com/blog/category/Turtle+Rescue Thanks and much jungle love to all!

Red Uakari Monkeys at the Tapiche Reserve, Peru

The Red Uakari Monkeys (Cacajao calvus ucayalii) are a rare and fascinating species that unites incredible agility, strength and beauty. Visitors from all over the world have come to visit the Tapiche Jungle Reserve in the Northern Amazon of Peru to observe this distinct species in the wild. Encounters with these stunning new world monkeys never fail to amaze us. Not a lot has been reported on their natural behaviour in the wild and it is truly amazing to be able to make these first-hand observations of such a special mammal. The Red Uakaris are easily distinguished from any other monkey by their distinctive and unique colour: their long fur is a bright orange and their faces are bright red. This bright red and orange colouring perfectly contrasts to all the different shades of green of the jungle which makes the Red Uakari pop out visually, yet when they want to hide, they simply duck into the inner branches of the trees and blend into the shadows. Their faces and the top of their heads are bald which makes their red faces appear very human-like. Unlike other species of monkeys at the Tapiche Reserve that might use their long tails to hang down from branches or swing from tree to tree (known as prehensile tails), the Red Uakaris only have little, stumpy tails (non-prehensile tails). Because of this, they have developed amazing agility and strength in their arms, legs, hands and feet. They move through the trees elegantly and with amazing agility, leaping fearlessly and grasping branches with impressive strength. When foraging for food, we often observe them hanging down from their feet and toes to better reach the food, as you can see different individuals do in the video. The Red Uakaris feed on seeds and fruits, leaves, nectar and insects. One of their main food sources are the yellow Aguaje fruits (Mauritia flexuosa). The Red Uakari Monkeys are classified a vulnerable species by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), their main threats be

Timelapse of Yellow-Spotted River Turtles (Podocnemis unifilis) in the turtle nursery at the Tapiche Jungle Reserve, Peru

Musmuki (Nancy Ma's night monkey "Aotus nancymaae") at the Tapiche Reserve, Peru

"Happy Jungle" audio recording at the Tapiche Reserve, Peru 2020.03.24

2018 First baby turtle hatchlings!

Test flight of our new drone over Tapiche lodge!

Tapiche reserve make over

Atajos

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Agencia de tours ecológicos

Our Story

The Tapiche Jungle Reserve: where wildlife is wild, as it should be! (Our website has lots of info www.tapichejungle.com as well as a contact form if you’re interested in starting a booking. Our internet is restricted and FB can be slow to load, so your best chances of communicating with us is through the website and not via FB messenger.) The Tapiche Reserves is focused on habitat preservation with the aim of providing animals with the natural environment and resources they need in order to thrive. The income from our eco-lodge funds all of our conservation work, pays local salaries, and makes the existence and continuation of the reserve possible.

We are different from other lodges near Iquitos because of our strict no catching/no caging policy. Every photo a tourist takes with a sloth, snake or other jungle animal encourages locals to go out and catch more, killing the mothers in order to capture the babies. Many people show their "love" for animals by domesticating or dominating them. We believe the best way to love jungle animals is to protect their habitat and allow them to be free in their natural environment. The remote location of the lodge allows for observation of rare and endangered animals (e.g. red uakari monkey, giant otter, Amazonian manatee, among many others) flourishing undisturbed in the wild. Pink and grey dolphins frolic in the river right in front of the lodge, caciques, oropendulas and tanagers nest in trees next to the cabins, and red howler monkeys greet you with their infamous call every morning. For birdwatchers, there are active nests of both Harpy and Crested Eagles and a massive heronry seasonally populated by several species of herons and egrets, including the Agami and Boat-Billed Herons. Our private property encompasses several lowland Amazonian forest systems, including igapó, varzea, and terra firme. No other tour company or operator is allowed on the property. Proceeds from visits go directly to fund local salaries and maintenance and protection of the Reserve. By employing locals, the Reserve has helped several former hunters and loggers climb out of debt and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families.

Our package rates start at USD 125/day. Please visit our website www.tapichejungle.com to find answers to your questions and for a contact form where you can start your booking.