#Amazon rain forest

[hometoursandotherstuff]

In 2022, legendary stunt performer Luigi Cani skydived into the Amazon and released 1 million seeds to fight deforestation. We salute him.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Wildcat - Official Trailer | Prime Video ::  Wildcat follows the inspiring story of a young veteran on his journey into the Amazon. Once there, he meets a young woman running a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, and his life finds new meaning as he is entrusted with the life of an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life, turns out to be an unexpected journey of love, discovery, and healing.

* * * *

Worth your time to watch. In its’ way: brilliant. The star of the movie is the ocelot, of course.  I wouldn’t last a day in the deep and wild amazon so I am grateful that someone else went there and filmed this deeply moving film.  There is no simple message or lesson or takeaway from this. Like a film is supposed to, this film takes you somewhere and shows you some things.  It has stayed with me and resonated deep within my heart. We all have a yearning for the wild both in the natural world and within our own wild hearts.

[foundsoundsart]

Listening to the Amazon — The Dial

A conversation with Paloma De Dinechin, whose reporting on the scientists recording the sounds of the Amazon rainforest was published in our Lessons issue. — Read on www.thedial.world/articles/the-reporters-notebook/paloma-de-dinechin-amazon-rainforest-soundscapes

[maviyenot]

[techacademy]

The Black Mamba, named for its dark coloration inside its mouth rather than its skin, is a highly feared predator in Africa. Found primarily in savannas, rocky hills, and open woodlands, this snake's speed and aggression make it a formidable hunter. Capable of striking repeatedly and delivering a potent neurotoxic venom, a bite from a Black Mamba can quickly lead to respiratory failure and death if left untreated. Despite its fearsome reputation, the Black Mamba is not inherently aggressive towards humans and will usually only attack when threatened or cornered. Its speed, however, can catch even experienced locals off guard. Local communities often have deep respect and fear for this snake, knowing that without prompt medical intervention, encounters can quickly turn fatal.

[stone-cold-groove]

Life Magazine - September 1954.

[typhlonectes]

GOOD NEWS:

Ecuadorians reject oil drilling in the Amazon, ending operations in a protected area

Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, an important decision that will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that’s home to isolated tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity. With over 90% of the ballots counted by early Monday, around six in 10 Ecuadorians rejected the oil exploration in Block 43, situated within Yasuni National Park. The referendum took place along with the presidential election, which will be decided in a runoff between leftist candidate Luisa González and right-wing contender Daniel Noboa. The country is experiencing political turmoil following the assassination of one of the candidates, Fernando Villavicencio. Yasuni National Park is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in voluntary isolation, and other Indigenous groups. In 1989, it was designated, along with neighboring areas, a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO. Encompassing a surface area of around 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres), the area boasts 610 species of birds, 139 species of amphibians and 121 species of reptiles. At least three species are endemic.

[pangeen]

" Rainy days in the Amazon " // © Jaime Del Pizzo

Music: Turpak - Synergy

[alirisy]

Life as an Amazonian isn’t so bad! Photos of inside the Amazon Biospheres, Seattle, WA. 🌿

[tatiyatesuli]

I heard that Brazil will be inhabitable by the time we reach the 2050s because of the weather and at first I was like "Hell no! There are nomadic people living in the Sahara desert for thousands of years without air conditioning, we just have to adapt!"

Then it hit me...

There aren't thousands of cars polluting the Sahara desert's air with carbon monoxide. There are no forests burning for days and no smoke covering an entire country. I don't know shit about the air quality over there, but I bet it's not as fucked up as here.

Maybe Brazil will really become inhabitable by 2050 but I think the heat will be the least of our problems...

[meatsound]

i love giving my plants showers its enriching

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

Four Visions Market We bridge your front door to the Amazonian spiritual tools your path requires. https://fourvisionsmarket.com/?fbclid=IwAR3iKTLBMUpyjRoFHqCmECX25sKFCaokMXD4eQPbQ_NNggsB4KS5b-bazOY

[gnfmoon]

qt said she's planning a streamer gala event for charity and part of it will be auctioning off some of the men and idk if they'll even be invited but ive already written the dnf fanfic in my mind

[pascalkirchmair]

"Indian boy", pencil on paper, 18 x 24 cm

[xtruss]

In The Heart Of The Amazon, This Pristine Wilderness Shows Nature’s Resilience

Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, Along the Banks of the Napo River, Shows How Biodiversity Can Thrive When Humans Don’t Interfere.

A Butterfly sits perched on the shell of an endangered Yellow-Spotted River Turtle (Podocnemis Unifilis). The butterfly is drinking the turtle’s tears—a symbiotic behavior where the insect obtains minerals, especially sodium, to compensate for its scarcity in this environment.

— Photographs byThomas Peschak | ByJúlia Dias Carneiro | April 22, 2024

Amid the din of tragic tales of Environmental Degradation in the Amazon, there are other, quieter but no less compelling stories testifying to the sheer power of nature to thrive when left untouched. Such is the case of the Napo River, which flows along the north of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park.

“It’s a place where all your senses explode. You’re not just seeing life all over, you’re hearing calls of birds, frogs, the wind; smelling the pollen of plants, the soil, the rain. It’s overwhelming,” says biologist, conservationist and environmental Photographer Lucas Bustamante. “For anyone in love with nature, it’s like being a kid in a toy store.”

A trio of Hoatzins (Opisthocomus Hoazin) hang over a stream by the Napo River. Hoatzins build their nests above streams as a protection mechanism. If predators try to raid their nests, the young chicks leap to the water to escape, and use their claws to climb back into their nests once the danger has passed.

Established in 1979 in northwestern Amazonia, Yasuní National Park is the largest conservation area in Ecuador. It protects some 1,1 million hectares of Amazon rainforest, an area roughly the size of Croatia. It’s one of the most biodiverse forests on the planet—and the Napo River is the artery pumping life into its heart.

The river begins in the high slopes of the Andes to the east and marks the park’s northern frontier. It eventually joins the Amazon River to the west, after crossing into Peru.

Bustamante is from Ecuador, and he organizes expeditions for photographers into Añangu, a village by the Napo River managed by local Kichwa indigenous families. Twenty years ago, the group decided to Pursue Ecotourism instead of logging and hunting as their main source of income. The project has thrived, and so has nature.

“It took a few years for the animals to start coming back, and for the forest to start recovering,” Bustamante says. “Right now, it’s like a small paradise, an island of biodiversity.”

Soren Walljasper, NG Staff

‘Aquatic Spiderweb’

This pristine space was the perfect place for photographer Thomas Peschak, who wanted to capture the deep connections between the Amazon’s animals and its waterways. A National Geographic Explorer, Peschak is working on a long-term project to document the rainforest from the water—its “aquatic spiderweb” of giant rivers with hundreds of tributaries and thousands of streams.

He and Bustamante spent weeks on a canoe paddling on the creeks around the Napo River, looking for endemic species like the giant river otter. These endangered mammals are among the Amazon’s top five predators, wolfing down seven pounds of fish in one day. Their presence is a strong indicator of a healthy Aquatic Ecosystem.

“Across the Amazon we are seeing things deteriorate, but Napo really bucks the trend. Because there’s no poaching, illegal logging or mining a lot of the wildlife around the river is incredibly relaxed around people,” says Peschak.

That ease, in turn, gives Peschak a unique opportunity to capture and showcase many animals’ behavior in the wild, like a butterfly drinking the tears from a river turtle’s eyes, a giant otter snatching up a fish, and red howler monkeys feeding on leaves above a stream.

Not everything is so simple, however. In the days before Peschak’s expedition, heavy rain swelled the Andean headwaters. Water levels in the Napo River rose dramatically, making its streams overflow and bleed into the forest.

The flood, while not unusual for the river and its ecosystem, made the explorers’ search for otters much harder. The flooded streams meant that the animals could swim far inside the flooded forest, away from the main riverways. So Peschak and Bustamante spent seven days paddling with no otters in sight—until, on the final day, they saw a group of them feasting on fish.

“In this job, you have to be patient beyond stupidity,” says Peschak. “When every bone and brain cell in your body tells you to give up, that's when you have to keep going. Patience and persistence are rewarded by nature.”

Highway of Seeds

The remarkable biodiversity around the Napo River reflects its descent from the foothills of the Andes to the Amazon Basin. These ecosystems blend along its banks in a unique way, and this means that the Yasuní National Park has a vast array of species within its bounds.

A Red Howler Monkey (Alouatta Seniculus) spotted from a canoe on the water. These monkeys like to pick the best trees, leaves and fruits in the forest, and this connects them to healthy rivers and streams, where trees are always producing new, crunchy leaves. It’s impossible to ignore their presence in the Amazon: their vocalizations to mark territories can be heard miles away.

The Napo is also loaded with nutrients from the Andes, including rich ash from volcanic eruptions. It’s a whitewater river, which designates waterways carrying large amounts of sediments, giving them a muddy color. It’s also an efficient disperser of seeds. “The Napo River is like a highway in which millions of seeds travel from the Andes and across the region, helping species to propagate,” says biologist Gonzalo Rivas-Torres.

This flow of seeds is also a crucial food source for the great variety of fish found in the Napo’s waters. And this has ripple effects on the rest of the forest, far beyond the river’s bends.

“Fish depend on the amount of nutrients, fruits and seeds in the water. If the forests by the riversides aren’t in good shape, fish populations will be low, and otters won’t have enough food,” he explains. “Everything is connected.”

Rivas-Torres is the director of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, a biological field station kept by Universidad San Francisco de Quito in collaboration with Boston University for research, education and conservation.

Their base is on the banks of the Tiputini River, a tributary of the Napo. From this perch, Rivas-Torres says he’s always spellbound to see wildlife so close and all around. His students have wept after seeing a jaguar in the wild for the first time, for example, or when releasing a yellow-spotted turtle back into the river.

“They say they didn’t expect to see this, or they didn’t know Ecuador was also this.” Rivas-Torres says. “It’s a life changing experience.”