Marine & Wildlife Filming

Marine and wildlife filming in Peru covers three very different worlds — the cold Humboldt Current along the Pacific coast, the Andean cordilleras and the Amazon basin. The country ranks among the ten most biodiverse on Earth. Marine work starts with Humboldt penguin and sea lion colonies in the Paracas National Reserve and the Ballestas Islands. It runs through bottlenose dolphins and pelagic species off Lima's coastline. Farther north, humpback whales pass off Máncora and the northern coast between July and October.

Underwater work also reaches Lake Titicaca and the Uros floating islands. It even covers the giant Titicaca water frog, found only in the lake.

Wildlife subjects include jaguars, ocelots, capybaras, macaws, caimans, pink river dolphins and giant otters across the Madre de Dios biome. They live in the Manu UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Tambopata National Reserve and the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. The highlands add Andean condors over Colca Canyon and vicuñas across Pampa Galeras. They also hold spectacled bears — the species behind Paddington — in the Cordillera Blanca and Huayhuash. Last come the four camelids: llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña, across the highland towns of Cusco, Puno and Ayacucho.

Our crew works with skilled Peruvian wildlife cinematographers. They hold credits across the BBC, National Geographic, Disney+, Netflix and ARTE natural-history slates. Lima-based service firms such as APU Productions, Chita Films and GoPeruFilms back them up. Their kit includes long-lens 600mm and 800mm primes plus RED Komodo, ARRI Alexa Mini and Sony Venice 2 bodies. For underwater work they carry Gates and Subspace housings, remote camera traps, hide systems and macro rigs.

Our team sets up permits through PromPerú, the Ministerio de Cultura and SERNANP. These cover filming inside Manu, Tambopata, Pacaya-Samiria, Huascarán, Paracas and the reserves nearby. We add DICAPI Port Captaincy permits for all maritime work. We also plan indigenous-community access across Madre de Dios and Loreto. Our crew handles DGAC drone permits for any aerial work over covered zones or reserves.

Productions get a full brief on timing. Humpback whales pass July to October off Máncora. Amazon wildlife films best from May to October, when river levels drop and animals gather. Condors show up year-round in Colca, while spectacled bear behaviour in the Cordillera Blanca shifts by season. We then line up the shoot with DAFO and Ministerio de Cultura sign-ups, IGV 18% billing and the low-cost non-union 12-to-14-hour day Peru is known for.