The Tiputini River is a tributary of the
Napo River
The Napo River () is a tributary to the Amazon River that rises in Ecuador on the flanks of the east Andean volcanoes of Antisana, Sincholagua and Cotopaxi.
The total length is . The river drains an area of ca 103,000 km2. The mean annual dis ...
in eastern
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
. It is the first major, navagable river south of the Napo and forms the northern border of
Yasuni National Park
Yasuni can mean:
* Yasuní National Park
Yasuní National Park () is a protected area comprising roughly between the Napo River, Napo and Curaray Rivers in Pastaza Province, Pastaza and Orellana Province, Orellana Provinces within Amazon basi ...
. Unlike the Napo, the Tiputini has a relatively deep, narrow channel carved deep into the clay of the
Amazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...
, and it often fluctuates in depth by several meters from day to day.
Though there are no major settlements along the Tiputini, there are several small
Huaorani
The Waorani, Waodani, or Huaorani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador (Napo Province, Napo, Orellana Province, Ecuador, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other e ...
communities along its western half, and the
Tiputini Biodiversity Station
Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS) is a scientific field research center in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was established in 1995 by Universidad San Francisco de Quito in collaboration with Boston University, and is jointly managed by them as a cent ...
is situated on its north bank. An oil road also crosses the Tiputini River several times on the western edge of Yasuni National Park.
Rivers of Ecuador
Upper Amazon
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