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Animals

Environment

Natural History

Biodiversity

The reason for such diversity is that the climate in Amaz⌠nia has remained the same for many millions of years – it has not suffered from Ice Ages and other catastrophes which have affected life elsewhere. Nature has been left undisturbed to develop a staggering range of lifeforms living together in delicate balance. Imagine a place where it is always spring – where the plants are always flowering and where baby animals are always being born. There is no winter to slow nature down, so life (and evolution) is free to continue at an accelerated pace.

Biodiversity (having a wide range of different plants and animals) is one way that nature tries to ensure that life can continue if anything goes wrong. For example, if a forest consisted only of one species of tree, and there was a disease that killed that species of tree, then the entire forest (and all the other plants and animals that depended on it) would be wiped out. But in a forest with thousands of different species of trees, a disease that affects only one type of tree would have much less effect on the overall environment.

The most famous tree in Amaz⌠nia is the rubber tree (Hevea Brasiliensis). Rubber collectors, called seringueiros, make small cuts in the trunk of the tree and a milky-white sap called latex drips out. Latex is the raw rubber which can then processed into a wide variety of products. Other plants which grow in Amaz⌠nia include cacao (used to make cocoa and chocolate), brazil nuts, a huge range of exotic fruit, and the tree which was originally used to make chewing gum. Scientists are busily researching Amazon plants because some contain substances which can be processed in medicines to treat diseases and illnesses such as cancer.

Animals in Amaz⌠nia include the jaguars, monkeys, giant boa constrictor and anaconda snakes, tarantula spiders, and thousands of different species of insects. In the river, there are dolphins, manatee (also called "sea cows"), turtles, electric eels, and about 2,000 species of fish. The Amazon's most famous fish is the Piranha – small fish with razor-sharp teeth which have been known to devour animals (and even people) in seconds.