The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve is the second largest one, and the only area with substantial lakes and marshes, being the Cuyabeno Lakes and Lagarto Cocha lakes systems. The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve is a protected area in the Province of Sucumbios, northeastern Ecuador. The reserve of 655,781 ha is located on the equator. During this period access to the lake is very unreliable and only special expeditions may be organized into the lakes, as access often may only be on foot. During this period, the lake area is extremely beautiful and wildlife often is concentrated in great numbers around the last remaining puddles and pool in the drained lakes.
Many birds have their breeding season during that period.
The famous Macrolobium Tree Birds are the jewels of the tropical jungle and with a bird list of over 580 species, Cuyabeno is rising to one of the world's hot spots for birding. There are also a great number of mammals native to the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, which include dolphins, manatee, at least 9 species of primates, including the night monkey, which was first recorded for the reserve by our staff, different species of both insectivorous and fruit-eating bats, many rodents, varying from the worlds largest one, the Capybara to many mall ground and tree bound creatures. And of course there are the Sloths, Ant Eaters and a good number of the South American cats, including jaguar and Puma. While we we say that we go birdwatching, of course we keep an eye out for all animals. Ungulates are represented by tapirs, two species of peccary and several species of deer.