The Amazonas region is the area of the jungle that is confined within the territory of Peru, from the east of the Andes to borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises more than half of the country and is an area with great biodiversity and endemism. The Peruvian Amazon is the second largest jungle after the Brazilian Amazon.
Contrary to what is commonly believed, most Peruvian territory is covered by dense Amazon forests, although a minority of its population lives in this area. The Amazon rain forest covers more than 60 percent of Peruvian territory, more than in any other country save Brazil.
According to the Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, IIAP), the spatial delineation of the Peruvian Amazon is as follows:
Ecological criteria: 782,880.55 km² (60.91% of Peruvian territory and approximately 11.05% of the whole Amazon jungle).
Hydrographic criteria or basin criteria: 967,922.47 km² (75.31% of Peruvian territory and approximately 16.13% of the whole Amazon basin).
The Peruvian Amazon is traditionally divided into two distinct ecoregions:
The lowland jungle (in Spanish Selva Baja) is also known as Omagua region, walla, anti, Amazonian rain forest, or Amazon basin. This ecoregion is the largest of Peru, standing between 80 and 400 meters above sea level (masl). It has very warm weather with an average temperature of 28 °C, high relative humidity (over 75 percent) and large amounts of rainfall. Its soils are very heterogeneous, but almost all have river origins, and due to high temperatures and high rainfall they are poor soils with few nutrients. It contains long and strong rivers such as the Amazon, Ucayali, Marañón, Putumayo, Yavarí, Napo and Pastaza Tigre.
The highland jungle (in Spanish Selva Alta) is also called Rupa-Rupa region, andean jungle, ceja de selva or ceja de montaña. This ecoregion extends into the eastern foothills of the Andes, between 400 to 1000 masl. Temperatures are warm in the lowlands and cold in higher altitudes. There are many endemic fauna because of the isolation caused by the rugged terrain of this area.
The Peruvian Amazon jungle is one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth. There is such a variety of species that most of them are probably still not discovered, or at least adequately studied. Peru is the country with largest number of bird species in the world and the third of mammals, with 44 percent and 63 percent respectively inhabiting the Peruvian Amazon. Peru also has a very large number of species of butterflies, orchids, and other organisms.
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