Allpahuayo Mishana National Reserve

About Allpahuayo - Mishana National Reserve

The entrance is 26.5 Km / 16 miles from Iquitos on the Iquitos - Nauta highway (30 minutes by car). Leaving from the Bellavista Nanay port, by boat takes 2 to 3 hours depending on the size of the engine.

This reserve of barely 58,000 hectares protects the largest concentration of white sand forests or "varillales" known in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Here live numerous one-of-a-kind species of plants and animals. Protected here is also a specimen of forests flooded by the black waters of the Nanay River, unique to the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest.

This reserve contains an enormous and peculiar biological wealth and numerous endemic plant and animal and restricted distribution species stand out, many of them still without scientific classification. Up to now, there have been more than 1,780 plant species, 522 butterfly species, 155 species of fish, 83 species of amphibians, 120 reptile species, 476 bird species, and 145 species of mammals registered; the most important ones among them are the equatorial sakis (Pithecia aequatorialis) and the black titi monkey (Callicebus lucifer). New plant and animal species are continually being discovered.

Among the birds, there are two dozens noteworthy species living in the white sand forests, unknown in Peru until just recently. In the last five years, four new bird species have been described by scientists associated with white sand forests. Three are ant eating species (Herpsilochmus gentryi, Percnostola arenarum, and Myrmeciza castanea) and the other eats flies and other insects (Zimmerius villarejoi). There is a fifth one that now has a scientific description (Polioptila clementsi). To these, we have to add another dozen bird species that were unknown to Peru until recently like the beautiful pompadour cotinga (Xipholena punicea) and the saffron-crested tyrant-manakin (Neopelma chrysocephalum).

Source: PromPeru

The AIlpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve, created on January 16, 2008 - was a reserved area from 1999- by the Peruvian government, encompasses 57,600 hectares of land approximately 26 Km south of Iquitos.

The rainforest near Iquitos is famous for their habitat heterogeneity. A combination of historical and geological events has given the area a mosaic of diverse soil types- ranging from pure white quartz sands to red clays.

Each of these distinct formations supports a unique community of plants and animals, the result being that Allpahuayo Mishana contains one of the highest biodiversities known in the Amazon basin.

Many of these species are white-sand specialists and are therefore exceedingly rare, due to the scarcity of white-sand forests in Peru. For example, 21 bird species have been found to be associated with white-sand forests in this area, and for several of them, these forests near Iquitos are their only known distribution in Peru.

At least six new species of birds have been discovered within the last five years in AIlpahuayo-Mishana, four of them have been already described. AIlpahuayo-Mishana is also the only place where the habitat of two species of primates has been officially protected in Peru (Callicebus torquatus and Pithecia aequatorialis).

However, biologists have only studied a small part of the flora and fauna of Allpahuayo - Mishana. This reserve harbors the only white-sand forests that enjoy legal protection in Peru and protects the largest concentration known of this type of forest in the country.

* Biologist José Álvarez Alonso IIAP

Species of new birds for the science discovered and described in the reserved area

• Herpsilochmus gentryi (Ancient antwren)
• Zimmerius villarejoi (Mishana tyrannulet)
• Percnostola arenarum (Allpahuayo antbird)
• Myrmeciza castanea centuculorum (Northern chesnut-tailed cntbird)

Species of new birds for Peru or very rares discover in the reserved area

• Crypturellus duidae (Gray-Iegged tnamou)
• Nyctibius leucopterus (White-winged potoo)
• Nyctibius bracteatus (Rufous potoo)
• Nyctiprogne leucopyga (Band-tailed nighthawk)
• Notharcus ordii (Brown-banded puffbird)
• Hemitriccus minimus (Zimmer's tody-tyrant)
• Platyrinchus saturatus (Cinnamon-crested spadebill)
• Conopias parva (Yellow-throated flycatcher)
• Neopelma chrysocephalum (Saffron-crested tyrant-manakin)
• Xipholena punicea (Pompadour cotinga)
• Neopipo cinnamomea (Cinnamon tyrant-manakin)

Suggested program to visit Allpahuayo Mishana National Reserve, 3 days / 2 nights. 2 nights in Iquitos City and 2 full days in the reserved zone. Ask for tailor made programs