Tambopata National Reserve was created in September 2000 to protect a huge swathe of lowland rainforest along the south bank of the Tambopata River.
The reserve overlaps the Departments of Madre De Dios and Puno, covering an area of 274,690 hectares (1,061 square miles) from Puerto Maldonado to the Bolivian border to the east, and Bahuaja-Sonene National Park to the south.
The elevation ranges from 260 m (853 ft) to forested hills reaching 600 m (1,968 ft) in height. But undoubtedly, the region is dominated by the flood plains of its numerous meandering rivers, such as the Tambopata, Malinowski, Heath, which all eventually flow into the Madre de Dios River. The most striking feature of this landscape are the isolated former river channels, the ox-bow lakes, which are replete with wildlife.
