Transcript Amazon Rainforest

Ashley Ingram
• We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are
beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered
14% of the earth's surface. Due to deforestation they now cover only
6% and getting smaller
• Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land
is perceived as only the value of its timber.
• Nearly half of the world's species of plants, and animals are being
threatened because of deforestation to make better industries and
economies.
• As we know the rainforest holds valuable plants that may be a
possible cure for diseases such as cancer. Most of the prescription
drugs come from the plants that were originally home based in the
Amazon.
The Amazon
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The Amazon Basin is the largest forest in the world and is about 3.4 million
square miles. Sixty percent is in Brazil and the other forty percent are in
Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana,
and Guiana.
This forest is the home to the most diverse amount of animals. Not to
mention the amount of trees and plants that are not even found yet. This
extreme biology has a very set design that balances perfectly for the
ecosystem.
The sixth thousand five hundred mile Amazon river is the worlds largest
river in terms of the amount of water it holds, but second behind the Nile in
being the longest.
This region is also being threatened by logging, mining, and oil extraction.
This is a danger to what we could have like a cure for cancer or other plants
or herbs we have not discovered yet because we are too busy destroying
what we don’t know.
There were an estimated ten million Indians
living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries
ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
• In Brazil alone, European colonists have
destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since
the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of
accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value
of rainforest species. As their homelands
continue to be destroyed by deforestation they
too are losing their homes and villages.
The Amazon River
• The Amazon river is
the 2nd longest river
next to the Nile but
holds the most water
of any river. It runs
through Brazil and
Peru and empties out
in Atlantic Ocean off
the northern coast of
Brazil.
Ocelot
Mammals of the forest
Giant River Otters
Howler Monkey
Kinkajou
Pygmy Marmoset
Tapir
Jaguar
Capybara
Coatimundi
Animals Info
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Capybara are the largest type of
rodents in the world. They are
herbivores and their enemies are
alligators, large snakes, and
jaguars
Howler Monkeys are primates
and vegetarians and consume
flowers, fruits and leaves. Howler
monkeys are about two feet long,
with a thirty inch tail. When an
enemy approaches they will make
a loud call to warn and use its tail
to escape.
Giant River Otters can grow to
over six feet long and weigh more
than 70 pounds
Marmosets are the world’s
smallest true monkeys. Adults are
about five inches tall.
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The Ocelot is a good swimmer.
They prefer to stay on the ground,
but will climb trees, too. They
climb down backwards, feet first!
Kinkajous are mammals, related
to raccoons. They mostly eat fruits
and honey
Jaguars are the third largest cat,
only lions and tigers are bigger.
They have the strongest jaw of
any cat.
Active both day and night, the
Coati is a forest dweller and an
agile tree climber. It eats lizards,
birds, and fruit and uses its long
mobile snout to grub for insects
and roots.
Tapirs look something like pigs
but in all reality that are in the
rhinoceros and horse family.
Reptiles/Snakes
• The Amazon rainforest
caiman is a very large
reptile, often reaching
four meters long
• Amazon Tree Boa
reaches to about 4-6 feet,
a very thinly built Boa,
this animal rarely
exceeds 5 feet. This boa
spends the vast majority
of its time living in the mid
level canopy of the rain
forest.
Anaconda
• The Anaconda The
heaviest of all living
snakes, the female
Anaconda can reach
lengths of 20 feet and
weights of over 300
pounds. Male Anacondas
are considerably smaller
than females, a large
male may only be 8-10
feet in length and is a
considerably thinner
bodied animal
Tree Boa
Frogs
Blue poison dart frog
Yellow-Banded Poison Frog
Green and black poison dart frog
Yellow and blue poison arrow frog
• The blue poison dart frog
is a colorful frog found in
the rainforests of
Suriname, a country
located in the
northeastern part of
South America. The blue
poison dart frog uses its
colors to warn predators
of its toxic skin
• The green and black
poison dart frog is a frog
found in Central and
South America, although
in 1932 the frog was
introduced to Hawaii in an
effort to control mosquitos
• Yellow-Banded Poison
Frog In captivity these
frogs can live as long as
15 years.
• The cocoa tree studies and
research have shown that
through the leaves, seeds,
fruit, and bark it has produced
more then 150 chemicals.
Throughout South American
history the Aztecs, Mayans,
and Olmecs have used this to
reduce anxiety, fever, fatigue
and coughs. About five
hundred years ago this plant
was brought to Europe to treat
Kidney stones, cuts, and
burns.
Natural healing herbs
• Clavillia is a herb
most commonly
known to cure or kill
bacteria, fungi, and
viruses. This plant
also has many active
compounds like
proteins, alkaloids
and steroids.
Natives
• The Amazon rainforest contrary to the popular belief has held a long
history of indigenous tribes and settlements. These people had a
surprisingly big population and society. They for a living made
artfully designed pottery that can still be seen in the Brazilian
markets today. Many tribes lived along the Amazon rivers because
they had good means of transportation, plenty of fish for food, and
fertile floodplain soil for agriculture. Today although the Amerindians
have shed their traditional garb and wear more westernized clothing.
Very few tribes continue to live their traditional lifestyle because of
their threatened lifestyle and land. More and more are the lands of
the Rainforest disappearing and the land of these indigenous tribes
are disappearing. One of these groups by the name of Tageri claim
to still live their traditional ways in Ecuador but they have a natural
resource the world wants and needs; oil. So there is a fight for the
right to own what little land they have left.