#amazonian tapir

[labete-du-gevaudan]

This drawing of the pamá-yawá (or tapir tiger) was drawn by Philippe Coudray for his 2009 book Guide des Animaux Cachés. Stories of the pamá-yawá hail from Ecuador where they are described as "a uniformly dark grey colored animal the size of an Amazonian tapir". It is said that this animal is the only predator capable of killing a tapir due to its enormous paws. A hunter by the name of Pedro Anan Churuwia said that a single paw of the pamá-yawá was the size of both of his hands.

In 1969, a settler named Juan Bautista Rivadeneira claimed to have seen this beast from around 50 meters away. He said that the animal had strolled onto the sandy beach by the river before vanishing from view. While Rivadeneira had no idea what the animal was, the Shuar guide he was with had exclaimed "pamá-yawá!"

[diaryofasugarfiend]

Part of the Capelobo Clan, these three help protect the waterways of the Amazon.

Iauara- Based on a lowland tapir and named after the cryptid tapire-iauara which translates to "tapir water nymph". Uses magic and is particularly powerful at spells relating to dreams and sleep. Performs rituals with the tsantsa.

Boto- Based on a river dolphin. He is fascinated by humans and can take human form. In folklore, boto encantado transform at night, but I might make it so that he can transform during the day or at will; I'm not sure yet, he'll definitely be a cute twink tho. His attitude towards humans sometimes puts him at odds with the clan leader, Juma, who is not fond of them.

Bebe- based on an Amazonian manatee. A big sweetheart baby that doesn't prefer to fight, but will use their massive body to defend friends, this tendency has resulted in some scars on the back. Everybody loves them, but Boto especially takes care of them (in folklore it's said that river dolphins are the guardians of manatees).

These are the other, and eponymous, members of the Capelobo Clan:

[whatdoeschronicevenmean]

Open Veins of Latin America Ch 2

Ch 2: King Sugar and Other Agricultural Monarchs

The demand for sugar produced the plantation, an enterprise motivated by its proprietor's desire for profit and placed at the service of the international market Europe was organizing. Internally, however since it was to a considerable extent self-sufficient-the plantation was feudal in many important aspects, and its labor force consisted mainly of slaves. Thus three distinct historical periods-mercantilism, feudalism, slavery-were combined in a single socioeconomic unit. But in the constellation of power developed by the plantation system, the international market soon took the center of the stage. (60)

The plantation was so structured as to make it, in effect, a sieve for the draining-off of natural wealth, and today the latifundio functions in the same way. Each region, once integrated into the world market, experiences a dynamic cycle; then decay sets in with the competition of substitute products, the exhaustion of the soil, or the development of other areas where conditions are better. The initial productive drive fades with the passing years into a culture of poverty, subsistence economy, and lethargy. The Northeast was Brazil's richest area and is now its poorest; in Barbados and Haiti human antheaps live condemned to penury; in Cuba sugar became the master key for U. S. domination, at the price of monoculture and the relentless impoverishment of the soil. And this has not been the role of sugar alone: the story has been the same with cacao, which made the fortunes of the Caracas Oligarchy; with the spectacular rise and fail of cotton in Maranho; with the Amazonian rubber plantations, which became the cemeteries of Northeastern workers recruited for a few pennies; with the devastated quebracho forests in northern Argentina and Paraguay; with Yucatan's henequen plantations, where Yaqui Indians were sent for extermination. It is also the story of coffee, which advances leaving deserts behind it, and of the fruit plantations in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and the unhappy lands of Central America. Each product has come to embody the fate of countries, regions, and peoples; and mineral-producing communities have, of course, traveled the same melancholy road. (61)

Sugar had destroyed the Northeast. The humid coastal fringe, well watered by rains, had a soil of great fertility, rich in humus and mineral salts and covered by forests from Bahia to Ceara. This region of tropical forests was turned into a region of savannas. Naturally fitted to produce food, it became a place of hunger. Where everything had bloomed exuberantly, the destructive and all-dominating latifundio left sterile rock, washed-out soil, eroded lands. At first there had been orange and mango plantations, but these were left to their fate, or reduced to small orchards surrounding the sugar mill-owner's house, reserved exclusively for the family of the white planter. Fire was used to clear land for canefields, devastating the fauna along with the flora: deer, wild boar, tapir, rabbit, pacas, and armadillo disappeared. All was sacrificed on the altar of sugarcane monoculture. (62)

The sugar latifundio, a structure built on waste, must still import food from other areas, particularly from the center and south, at escalating prices. The cost of living in Recife is the highest in Brazil, well above Rio de Janeiro. Beans cost more in the Northeast than in Ipanema, the capital city's most luxurious beach resort. (64)

The United States lowered import duties on Cuban sugar in exchange for similar privileges for U.S. exports to Cuba, but such "favors" only consolidated Cuba's dependence. By 1948 Cuba had recovered its quota to the point of supplying one-third of the U.S. sugar market, at prices lower than U.S. producers received but higher and more stable than those in the international market. Sugar production was arbitrarily limited by Washington's needs. The 1925 level of some 5 million tons remained the average through the 1950s; dictator Fulgencio Batista took power in 1952 on the heels of the biggest harvest in Cuban history--over 7 million tons--with the mission of tightening the screws, and in the following year production, obedient to the demand in the north, fell to 4 million tons.( The director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's sugar program declared soon after the Revolution: “Since Cuba has left the scene, we cannot count on that country, the world's biggest exporter, which always had enough reserves to supply our market when need arose.”7) When Batista fell in 1959, Cuba was selling almost all its sugar to the United States. As Marti said and Che Guevara quoted at the OAS Punta del Este conference in 1961, "The nation that buys commands, the nation that sells serves; it is necessary to balance trade in order to ensure freedom; the country that wants to die sells only to one country, and the country that wants to survive sells to more than one.” (70-1)

[rabbitcruiser]

World Tapir Day

There’s an odd little creature that’s a native of Central and South America, and can even be found in SE Asia. What kind of odd critter? Well, it looks a bit like a pig, with it’s general build and toes with hooves, but it also looks a bit, just a little, like an elephant with its long snout! What are we talking about? The Tapir! This wonderful animal is currently on the watch-list as it has been over-hunted for its meat and hides. World Tapir Day raises awareness about these endangered animals and helps to protect them for future generations.

History of World Tapir Day

World Tapir Day was established with the intent of protecting all the members of this endangered species from extinction, that they might still be here for our children. The areas they inhabit are either forest or jungle, which makes them particularly vulnerable to deforestation, especially as large herbivores. But the dangers of their extinction goes even further than just the loss of another unique species, the loss of the Tapir could in fact endanger the entire remaining forests. As part of their natural habits, they also serve to disperse seeds throughout the jungle, and are one of the oldest species found in these areas.

Many people are unaware of the Tapir as a species, meaning they are losing a special part of the world without ever knowing they exist. So unknown are these animals that those who visit Zoos that frequently mistake them for members of another species. This is even a problem in those areas where they live natively, so World Tapir Day was established to help raise world awareness of this species.

How to celebrate World Tapir Day

Celebrating World Tapir Day can be as simple as picking up a book or searching the internet for information on the species and familiarizing yourself with the role it plays in its home environment. If you feel like taking another step in celebrating World Tapir Day, then you can go out and help to raise awareness by organizing events at your local school or in your community.

You can also look into your local community zoo and determine whether or not they have a Tapir exhibit, and if they do you can help to raise awareness of their presence their and encourage people to visit the zoo and learn more about them! You can also send money to organizations that work to protect the jungles that the Tapirs call home.

Source

[figdays]

“ Amazonian Tapir” Pin // Kittynaut

[lux-vega]

Day 4!

First and prompt list

[sciencespies]

Thousands of stunning, ancient cave art drawings have been found deep in the Amazon

https://sciencespies.com/humans/thousands-of-stunning-ancient-cave-art-drawings-have-been-found-deep-in-the-amazon/

Thousands of stunning, ancient cave art drawings have been found deep in the Amazon

More than 12,000 years ago, near the end of an ice age, humans hunted mastodons: ancient mammals that resembled a cross between mammoths and elephants. But by about 11,600 BC, humans had likely killed many of the mastodons off.

At least, that’s the leading theory among many paleontologists. A recent discovery bolsters it: Researchers recently uncovered thousands of drawings from an ice-age tribe hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest.

The drawings are spread across three rocky shelters in Colombia’s Serranía La Lindosa region. They were first painted between 12,600 and 11,800 years ago. The largest shelter alone, Cerro Azul, has drawings covering more than 2.5 miles of its surface.

The images show some of South America’s earliest inhabitants and their interactions with ice-age animals, including giant sloths, ancient llamas, and ice-age horses.

Some drawings, like the one below, even depict what experts think are mastodon hunts.

A possible mastodon-hunting scene. (Jeison Lenis Chaparro-Cárdenas)

Thousands of ancient, remarkably detailed images

Many of the images show unusual levels of detail for such ancient art, according to José Iriarte, a professor of archaeology at the University of Exeter and a leader of the team that made the discovery.

“The ice age horse had a wild, heavy face,” Iriarte told The Guardian. “It’s so detailed, we can even see the horse hair. It’s fascinating.”

The researchers published a study about the three sites in April in the journal Quaternary International. But on Monday, the University of Exeter released a statement with information about the discovery to coincide with the sites’ coverage in an episode of Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon, a documentary series set to air in the UK starting Saturday.

Mark Robinson, an environmental archaeologist at the University of Exeter and co-author of the April study, said in a statement that the people who produced these paintings likely moved into South America at a time of “extreme climate change.” The ice age was ending.

Drawings of possible ancient llamas and paleo horses. (Jeison Lenis Chaparro-Cárdenas)

“The Amazon was still transforming into the tropical forest we recognise today,” he said. “The paintings give a vivid and exciting glimpse in to the lives of these communities. It is unbelievable to us today to think they lived among, and hunted, giant herbivores, some which were the size of a small car.”

The paintings are so vast and numerous that they will likely take many years to study fully. Plus, Jeison Lenis Chaparro-Cárdenas, an anthropologist at the National University of Colombia and a member of the research team, told Business Insider that “the vast majority” of cliffs in the region had not yet been fully explored.

A deeper look into the lives of prehistoric Amazonians

In addition to ancient megafauna, the cliff and cave drawings depict alligators, tapirs, monkeys, turtles, serpents, and porcupines. They also include geometric shapes, as well as everyday scenes showing people hunting and interacting with plants and trees.

“There are many things and moments of excitement and amazement,” Chaparro-Cárdenas said. He added that most images revolved around a common theme: “the majesty of the nature that surrounded them and with which they interacted in their daily lives.”

A tool used to paint with ochre. (Jose Iriarte)

The team conducted soil excavations around the rock-art sites to find clues about how the inhabitants scraped clay to extract ochre, a pigment they used to make the drawings.

Those investigations revealed the remains of animals likely eaten by the ancient people, including piranhas, turtles, armadillos, and capybaras, according to Chaparro-Cárdenas. Modern-day inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest still eat many of the animals found at the sites.

“This shows a great variety of resources that were used by the inhabitants of the Amazon for more than 12,000 years,” Chaparro-Cárdenas said.

A perilous journey ‘100% worth it’

The team first began studying the region in 2014, two years before the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) struck a peace treaty with Colombia’s government. The Serranía La Lindosa region falls under FARC territory, and entering safely still requires careful negotiations with the guerilla group, according to The Guardian.

The region also has many natural hazards. Poisonous snakes and caimans inhabit the area, which is an hourslong journey from the nearest town.

At one point, a large venomous bushmaster snake blocked the research team’s path. They had to walk around it, knowing they were far from any hospital, The Guardian reported.

“You’re in the middle of nowhere,” Ella Al-Shamahi, an archaeologist who worked with the team on the forthcoming documentary, told The Guardian. But she added that braving the dangers was “100%” worth it.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

More from Business Insider:

#Humans

[shiripunolodge]

Tracking Amazonian Wildlife in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve in Ecuador. (follow @yasuniwildlifec ) Understanding the forest dynamics is a big thing personally, very important for sharing experiences. Checking files from the Trap Camera, I was running at @shiripunolodge I found a myself with an orchid specimen found on a light gap. Very unique feelings to wander around the same path is used by large mammals such as peccaries, brocket deers, tapirs, anteaters, bush dogs and many others. Stay good 🤘🤘🤘 more tales will come from the spot where life diversified into millions of shapes, colors and life styles. . . . . #awesome #wildlife #trapcamera #Ecuador #Conservation #Nature #Yasuni #YasuniWildlife #YasuniNationalPark #YasuniWilderness #ShiripunoLodge #Waorani #photography #instawild #wild #freetoursec #freetours #jarolvaca (at Shiripuno Lodge) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQl4IbnLO8J/?utm_medium=tumblr

[susannaprouse]

Forty Eight - Iquitos

I woke up to an extremely loud noise. I had my ear plugs in and still jolted awake. It must have been an earthquake and so I shook Mike awake confused and panicked. As Mike blinked slowly at me I realised I could hear rushing water and it dawned on me the crash was thunder, the loudest and most terrifying thunder I'd ever heard. With the brightest lightening I'd ever seen. It was like a bright torch was being shone into our room. Our first Amazon storm had hit. It was amazing but after getting back into bed I could swear I could feel a tiny splatter of water on my foot, it was so tiny it could have been my imagination. I got up feeling around the bed until I found a large wet patch at the end of the bed: we had a leaking ceiling. Mike woke up and we quickly moved all our things from the wet floor to the other side of the room, trying to dry things with a towel as we went. Exhausted we went back to sleep realising there was nothing more we could do at 3 in the morning.

On waking we spoke with the hostel lady and moved our stuff to the much bigger and nicer room next door. Free upgrade! The rain was still heavy so we donned our boots, coats and umbrellas and went out into the cooler city.

We had yet another mission. I had my heart set on going to Isla de Los Monos, a rescue and rehabilitation centre for primates but getting there seemed difficult and confusing. To try and work this out we had decided to head to their office in Iquitos.

As soon as we got there we saw the door was firmly closed but pinned to it were hand written instructions telling us to head through a market, down to the docks and then board a boat. We would then need to call a guy called Hugo for another boat to pick us up. Despite trying to call we didn't get a reply and getting hangry we went for breakfast to get some WiFi and email.

Breakfast was a 'breakfast for big boys' according to Mike, a huge plate of eggs, bread, potatoes, tomators and onion as well as coffee and juice - delicious! Unfortunately we still couldn't get through to Hugo so walked down to the docks with the hopes it would make more sense.

The market and docks were insane, planks of rickety wood balanced on the watery passageways. Hairless dogs competed for scraps and kids carrying huge crates of bananas weaved through like it was nothing. It was dirty and noisy and everyone was looking at us. It was overwhelming but I loved seeing a little more of what life was like in Iquitos.

After navigating our way through the maze and asking an old woman with silver teeth we eventually found a few boats. The men there clearly knew where we wanted to go shouting Monkey Island. We dithered, desperately wanting to get on the boat but also knowing we still hadn't got through to Hugo so may end up being stranded on the other side.

Feeling a little annoyed we left the docks making the decision to go to the Butterfly Farm instead and wait for a reply from Hugo via email. We could then go there once we were back from our trip to the Amazon. We got a mototaxi to another section of dock and quickly found a boat that would take us to Padre Cocha, a village just around the river bend (I have had Pocahontas stuck in my head for the last week). We got in and had our first taste of the Amazon river. This section, near the city, was dirty and full of huge boats used to import things to the city without roads in and out.

It was strange to feel we were immediately surrounded by the rainforest and it made us excited for the trip we would be starting the following day. After disembarking we walked the fifteen minutes through the small village to the Butterfly Farm. By the time we got there we were soaked with sweat, the cool air the storm had created had definitely gone by this point. We met a French volunteer that would guide us round the site and were quickly joined by a German couple.

The tour took us around the huge butterfly enclosure with 17 types of colourful butterflies fluttering around (mum, you would have been screaming!). The coolest was the Owl Butterfly whose defence mechanism means it can close its upper wings together to show what looks to be an owls face. Our guide managed to catch one to show this before letting it go unharmed.

After the butterflies we walked around the rescue and rehabilitation section. The Austrian woman that ran the Butterfly Farm was quickly made aware of lots of animals seized by the authorities from stupid people housing them in their restaurants, homes or trying to sell them on the pet trade. As they knew she had space they convinced her to house them as most couldn't be released to the wild due to their interactions with humans.

Walking this section was bitter sweet. The animals were clearly well looked after but their stories were heart breaking and it was sad they had to remain in captivity. As soon as we started walking we saw, for me, the most amazing thing. A red bald headed Uakari and a Wooly Monkey sat together grooming each other! Obviously with my work on Primates I knew the Uakari is one of the rarest primates, it's red face making it an easy target. To see two different breeds together and so close was amazing. Apparently they'd both been rescued from the pet trade and were now best mates.

We continued walking and saw pygmy marmosets, the smallest primate, that had been found in the airport being smuggled out. Then came the capuchin monkeys, the most intelligent monkey, one if which had been taught by street gangs to pick pockets. Upon arrival to the rescue centre, it quickly taught the other monkey its tricks.

Onwards to the three-fingered sloth that was so close to us and was awake, watching us with curiosity. Next, the ocelots. I hadn't seen one since Costa Rica and I'd forgotten how beautiful they are. There was a male and a female, both had been rescued from the pet trade. The centre tried to put them together but the male kept attacking the female. It seemed he'd been so habituated from birth he didn't even recognise his own species.

On we walked to the adolescent tapir who ate a banana. He was being bred by a restaurant to eat before he was rescued. Behind his enclosure we saw a huge lake they were making safe so he could swim in something bigger than the pool he currently had.

Finally we saw the first animal the authorities had needed somewhere for: the jaguar. Our guide grabbed a hunk of meat and hung it on the edge of a cage. From the shadows the jaguar emerged, hissing a warning before grabbing the meat. It was sad to see it in an enclosure but it couldn't be released as it had become dependant on humans. Even though it was smaller than the average jaguar it was still huge and scary.

The tour came to an end and we made the walk back to the dock in the hot sun. When we arrived there was a boat full of people ready to leave so we quickly got in and started chatting with an older Western woman. It turned out she was Australian, born in Austria, now living in Peru. I asked her why she made the move to Peru and got the response that 'it was more of a calling, the South American spirits were calling me'. I could physically feel Mike next to me tense up and mentally remove himself from the conversation.

I, on the other hand, was fascinated. It turned out she'd heard the calling and so had left her husband and children to move to the Amazon. She now ran an airbnb specialising in tarot card readings and Ayahuasca experiences (the hallucinogenic drug traditionally used in ceremonies but now sought after by tourists). She was clearly a weirdo but the conversation was good.

After a quick ice cream (chocolate for me, coffee for Mike) we got a mototaxi back to the hostel where we relaxed for a while before heading out for dinner. Dinner that night was burritos filled with Amazonian flavours, such as dried chicken and spicy local peppers. Mike went for grande which was absolutely massive while I went for Junior. Safe to say Mike felt as stuffed as the burrito when he left.

[carlosexpeditions]

Eco Jungle Tour and Macaw Clay Licks

An intense ecological tour through the jungle is a new and exciting way to do ecotourism in the Amazons, allowing you to learn about the Amazons in just two days in an unbelievable and fun experience, filled with beautiful naturalistic environments, with the possibility of seeing monkeys, exotic birds such as toucans and macaws in the Peruvian jungle.

The Tambopata National Reserve is known for its beautiful clay licks on the upper Tambopata River. Hundreds of parrot and macaw species congregate in this area. Blue and gold macaws, blue-headed parrots, and parakeets are common species seen in these areas. Monkeys, tapirs, deer, and capybaras are familiar sights.

Eco Jungle Tours

Eco Jungle Tours 2day/1 Night journey takes you through the splendor of the Amazon. This trip includes lodging and lets you see the Amazon rainforest's beautiful flora and native fauna. You'll see sea turtles, birds, capybaras, and monkeys, as well as learn about the jungle's unique plants and trees.

The Amazon Rainforest is a wildlife enthusiast's heaven, with animals and vegetation at every turn. The forest itself spans nine countries and occupies 40% of the continent of South America.

Set out from the lodge with your experienced guide to explore the extensive path system searching for rainforest wildlife and vegetation in Eco Jungle Tours 2day/1 Night. Observe a variety of monkeys, several intriguing birds, vibrant flowers, and massive Amazonian trees.

You'll go on guided walks and canoe rides through the forest, looking for rainforest life, quiet lakes, and stunning scenery.

Aside from wildlife, you'll get the opportunity to participate in various community activities, such as exploring an ethnobotanical walk to discover traditional medicines and a working jungle farm to experience life in the rainforest.

Macaw clay lick 2 days/1 night

It is a valley in the clay formation river. Every morning before dawn, macaws, parrots, and other birds perform a fluttering ceremony before beginning the colpeo, which entails eating clay from a clay lick and then leaving after 25 to 30 minutes to return the next day.

Macaws have been seen in groups at other times, although it is not as safe, and the groupings are usually smaller. The exact cause of this unusual behavior, one of nature's most intriguing displays, is still a matter of controversy and inquiry. According to many beliefs, this clay contains essential salts and minerals for the birds' diet. The microscopic clay particles are considered to detoxify the birds' fruit diet.

The number of parrots who use the clay lick is strongly influenced by the time of day: On wet days, at least, and on clear sunny days, even more.

The number of birds at the clay lick is not proportional to the number of humans watching it. This means that regardless of the number of humans watching the birds, nearly the same percentage of birds arrive at the clay lick. Tourists stay away at a distance of 150 metres or more from the clay lick, allowing them to be mostly unaffected. These findings imply that Rainforest Expeditions' methodology does not produce significant reductions in the number of clay lick birds. Still, more research is needed to see other, less obvious effects on birds.

[my-name-is-dahlia]

Dictionary (pt.ccclxvii)

Words taken from The Naturalist (2016) by Alissa York:

pirarucu (n.) a fish belonging to a primitive group of carnivorous bony-tongued fishes, the Osteoglossidae, that crush their prey with a large tongue studded with teeth. Amazonian people, in fact, use dried pirarucu tongues as seed-graters.

tapir (n.) any nocturnal hoofed mammal of the genus Tapirus, native to Central and South America and Malaysia, having a short flexible protruding snout used for feeding on vegetation.

miriti (n.) a lofty pinnate-leaved South American palm, Mauritia flexuosa, having edible fruits and buds and yielding wine from the sap, a sago from the stem, and a cordage fiber from the leaf sheaths.

assai (adv.) music. very.

cecropia (n.) a neotropical genus consisting of sixty-one recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees.

edify (v.) (of a circumstance, experience, etc.) instruct and improve morally or intellectually.

rede (v.) advise.

capsicum (n.) any plant of the genus Capsicum, having edible capsular fruits containing many seeds, especially C. annuum, varieties of which yield paprikas, green or red peppers, chilies, and cayenne pepper.

garibaldi (n.) a kind of loose blouse formerly worn by women or children, originally of bright red material imitating the shirts worn by Garibaldi and his followers.

Praia (n.) the capital of the Cape Verde Islands, a port on the island of São Tiago.

[taraenglish]

South America 2021 - Amazon

We left Rio Negro and headed to Puyo the start of the Amazon rainforest. These communities border Rio Napo which is a tributary of the Amazon River. On the way, we stopped at MiraMera for one last chance for tacky photos, these ones have a backdrop of the start of the rainforest and Amazon. Once in Puyo, we headed to a animal sanctuary for a chance to see some monkeys and other animals from the area that are injured or abandoned. It was a walk through the jungle, and there were some cages with animals that couldn’t be touched, but there was a caged run above that the monkeys could follow you, and some of the monkeys and coatis came right up to you. I had monkeys in my hair, down my shirt, pulling down my pants and around neck. We then headed to the downtown of Puyo to walk along the river for some photos.

We stopped at the port town of Misahualli for the night. We checked into our hostel and walked around the town and river for some photos as the sun was going down. We stopped at a Mexican Pizza restaurant for supper - chicken & mushroom pizza. It was delicious.

The next morning, we had breakfast - mashed green banana, chicken and scrambled eggs. Weird combination, but it is a traditional food here. We then boarded a boat and went to two indigenous tribes along the Amazon. The first took me on a tour of medicinal plants - some for arthritis, stomach aches, hallucinogens and even drink that they said prevents Covid. They had a baby monkey named Issac that climbed up on me and stayed with me for the rest of the tour. They then took us to their museum to show their traditional tools to eat, hunt, and fish. They then showed up how they made chocolate - tea and sugar brought to a boil and then they add the dried cacao nibs and stirred until creamy. We ate it poured over bananas. It was raining, but we tried to see some of their native animals - Amazonian pigs (sajundi and guangana), Guatusa (Amazonian coati), and we tried to see the giant fish (paiche) eat bread but it was very mucky in the water.

We then headed down river to another Indigenous tribe. Here we saw the giant rock that was rumored to exist for hundreds of years but only discovered 20 years ago. The rock has various animals on it (puma, monkey, anaconda, tapir). It is said that if you climb and hug the rock, you receive energy. Then they gave us wayusa tea (energy drink) and showed us how they mash the yuca to make the chicha, which ferments and turns into alcohol the longer it sits In the banana leaf. A group of young girls then showed a traditional dance, and they invited us to join them. Some members of the community then brought their pets for you to hold (for a fee) - I held a parrot, tarantula and boa. On the way back to the boat I got my face painted using the pod of a flower.

We then headed back to Misahualli, and on the beach we stopped for a delicacy - grilled worms (chontacuro). It was alive when it went on the grill, then seasoned with oil and salt while it cooks. In my opinion it taste like undercooked sausage. I can at least say I tried it, and will never have to do it again.

We then headed to the town of Tena to walk along the river. I tried the espumilla (strawberry mousse served in a cone). It was very sweet. We then found a place for lunch, their traditional lunch menu was duck, with fried plantains and salad. I found the duck tough and chewy. Our next stop was the Jumandy caves, however there was a long wait for the guide to return so we opted to just continuing driving to Quito.

It has been an nine day adventure - hot springs, markets, volcanos, mountains, rainforests, cloud forests, indigenous communities, rafting, swings, zip lines, butterflies, monkeys, and traditional foods. The temperatures have ranged from 1 degree to 25 degrees - with rain, snow, fog, hail, and the occasional sun. I hired a local guide for the past week to take me around to all the places and translate things into English - thank you to Cristian for showing me your country and making me feel safe.

Tomorrow I must do laundry and do some last minute shopping. In the evening I meet my group tour to the Galápagos Islands 🐢🦎🤿

[semusepsu]

Many Amazonian Indians and other peoples around the world talk about the future, the world, and other beings by a metaphor of 'motives' and 'will'. They attribute will to the sky ('The sky says it is going to rain' is a common way of describing a cloudy sky, for example), to animals ('The tapir says it will run from me' is a frequent description of game fleeing from hunters), and to each other ('John said he was tired of talking with us' -- even when John said no such thing, if that explains his behavior, then go ahead and attribute motives or will to him).

Daniel Everett, Language the Cultural Tool, 2012 (p. 196)

[frankkjonestx]

Tapirs may be key to reviving the Amazon. All they need to do is poop

Beneath the viridescent understory of the Brazilian Amazon, ecologist Lucas Paolucci has been honing his skills for hunting tapir dung. In this region’s degraded rain forests, he sees the piglike mammal’s enormous piles of poop as a treasure.

Chock full of seeds, the dung from trunk-nosed lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) may be key in regenerating forests that have been hit by intensive logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, says Paolucci, of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute in Brazil.

Ecologist Lucas Paolucci, shown here with a pile of tapir dung in Mato Grosso, Brazil, is studying how tapirs and dung beetles may help aid forest recovery.Michelle Wong

“Tapirs in Brazil are known as the gardeners of the forests,” he says. Feasting on the fruit of more than 300 plant species, the animals travel through the forest underbrush with their bellies full of seeds. That includes seeds from large, carbon-storing trees like mess apple trees (Bellucia grossularioides) that can’t pass through smaller animals. So the lowland tapir, South America’s largest mammal, is one of the key agents dispersing seeds throughout the Amazon.

Rooting through poop piles in Mato Grosso, a state in west-central Brazil, wasn’t how Paolucci began his career; he studied ants in Brazil’s coastal Atlantic Forest. Later, he began to wonder how forest fires in the Amazon might affect the rain forest’s insect communities. And then, he became intrigued by the monstrous dung piles — each pile “bigger than my head,” he says. 

In 2016, Paolucci joined other researchers studying the role of these magnanimous defecators in restoring disturbed forests. The team conducted an experiment in eastern Mato Grosso, where two forest plots had been control burned to varying degrees from 2004 to 2010. One plot was burned every year, and the other every three years. A third plot was left untouched as a control group.

Paolucci’s colleagues walked through the plots, recording the location of 163 dung piles and comparing them with camera-trap recordings of tapirs roaming through the area. Then the team sieved the fecal findings to separate out seeds, counting a total of 129,204 seeds from 24 plant species. The camera traps showed tapirs spending far more time in burned areas than in the pristine forest, perhaps enjoying the sunshine away from the forest canopy, Paolucci says. The animals also deposited more than three times as many seeds per hectare in burned areas as in the untouched forest. 

The dung of piglike mammals called tapirs (one shown) is chock full of seeds, and may be an overlooked part of regenerating Amazonian forests that have been hit by intensive logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, an ecologist argues.

Just months after the team published those findings in March of 2019 in Biotropica, the Amazon saw one of its most destructive fire seasons in years (SN: 8/23/19). That made Paolucci even more determined to understand tapirs’ role in forests’ recovery. But he knows the tapirs can’t be doing the job alone.

So Paolucci went back to the insects he began his career with, studying how they might be partners in planting new growth. Tapirs may be leaving fecal fortunes on the forest floor, but dung beetles are actually responsible for pushing the poop around. The insects will break off and bury small pieces of dung, including any seeds within, to snack on later. That helps seed germination get going.

In early 2019, Paolucci returned to the Amazon to collect 20 kilograms of tapir dung, which he broke apart and molded into 700-gram clumps. In each clump, he inserted plastic beads as dummy seeds and then returned the poop pellets to the field. After 24 hours, Paolucci collected the dung clumps again and counted how many beads remained. Those missing had presumably been rolled away by the beetles, and, by proxy, indicated how many seeds would potentially grow into plants one day. Paolucci hopes to publish these results in 2021.

Dung beetles skitter over tapir dung in the Amazon rainforest in this sped-up video. The insects will break off and bury small pieces of dung, including any seeds within, to snack on later. That helps seed germination get going and could play a key role in regenerating degraded forests.

Amazon ranchers are typically required by law to maintain 80 percent of native forest cover on their properties, but many trees have been illegally cleared and need to be replanted. Tapirs could provide cost-effective help with that effort, Paolucci speculates.

But the population of lowland tapirs, the only tapir species that is widespread throughout the Amazon, is decreasing and is now considered vulnerable, due to habitat loss and hunting for meat. Roughly 20 percent of the Amazon has been destroyed, with another 7 percent expected to be gone by 2030 if current deforestation rates continue. If tapirs fail to thrive, future “seed dispersal is expected to rely even more on organisms such as dung beetles,” Paolucci says.

from Tips By Frank https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tapirs-poop-may-be-key-reviving-amazon-rainforest

[perkwunos]

The diversity of the classificatory indicators used by Amerindians to account for the relations between organisms shows just how flexible boundaries are in the taxonomy of living beings. For the characteristics attributed to the entities that people the cosmos depend not so much on a prior definition of their essence but rather on the positions that they occupy in relation to one another by reason of the needs of their metabolism and, in particular, their diet. The identities of human beings, both living and dead, and of plants, animals, and spirits are altogether relational and are therefore subject to mutations and metamorphoses depending on the point of view adopted. In many cases it is said that an individual of one species apprehends the members of other species in accordance with his own criteria, so that, in normal conditions, a hunter will not realize that his animal-prey sees itself as a human being, or that it sees the hunter as a jaguar. Similarly, a jaguar regards the blood that it drinks as manioc beer, while the monkey-spider that the cacique bird thinks it is hunting is, to a man, nothing but a grasshopper, and the tapirs that a snake considers as its preferred prey are really human beings. It is thanks to the ongoing swapping of appearances engendered by these shifting perspectives that animals in all good faith consider themselves endowed with the same cultural attributes as human beings. To them, their crests are feathered crowns, their pelts are clothing, their beaks are spears, and their claws are knives. The roundabout of perceptions in Amazonian cosmologies engenders an ontology that is sometimes labeled “perspectivism,” which denies a privileged point of view from on high to human beings and holds that multiple experiences of the world can cohabit without contradiction . In contrast to modern dualism, which deploys a multiplicity of cultural differences against a background of an unchanging nature, Amerindian thought envisages the entire cosmos as being animated by a single cultural regime that becomes diversified, if not by heterogenous natures, at least by all the different ways in which living beings apprehend one another. The common referent for all the entities that live in the world is thus not Man as a species but humanity as a condition.

Philippe Descola, Beyond Nature and Culture

[onlinespirulinastuff-blog]

A Look At The Amazon Rainforest

Pretty much everybody has actually become aware of the Amazon River. What a lot of individuals do not understand way too much regarding is the Amazon rainforest. It lies in South American and also makes up 1.7 billion acres. 1.4 billion of those acres is tropical rain forest location. Below is an extensive look at this fantastic part of the earth.

The Amazon rainforest or Amazonia is likewise described as the Amazon Jungle. It includes land coming from nine various nations. 60% of it is discovered in Brazil as well as 13% in Peru. Smaller sized percents exist within the nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana. Amazonia is the largest tropical rain forest location on the planet, making up over half of the remaining rain forest in the world.

In addition to being the largest, the Amazon rainforest is additionally residence to one of the most different types of plants and pets. There are mind-blowing varieties of varieties living right here. The last count identified at the very least 40,000 plant species, 3000 fish species, 428 types of amphibians and 378 of reptiles. Additionally, there are 427 species of animals and 1294 of birds. Actually, one out of every 5 birds in the world resides in Amazonia. Maybe the most staggering number is that of insect species: 2.5 million various types. The tapir, as well as leafcutter ant, are two species that reside here.

Amazonia is typically taken having large-scale pets and also being an unsafe place. There are more than a few huge creatures here but a lot of the goings-on are common. Among the largest killers in the Amazon rainforest are the anaconda, jaguar, cougar, as well as the black caiman. Other hazardous pests individuals ought to prevent are poison dart frogs, electrical eels, piranha and even vampire bats that can spread out rabies. Yellow fever and jungle fever are additionally related to the area.

As for the river of the same name, it is the second-largest river on the planet with an average discharge that exceeds that of the next six rivers incorporated. The river width varies from. 99 miles and its narrowest and also 6.2 miles at the best. The resource is the Andes Mountains and the mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. Its size is about 4200 miles as well as runs through three nations: Brazil, Peru, and also Colombia. Like the Amazon rainforest, the River is residence to lots of plant and pet varieties. 2100 fish species swim here, such as the bull shark, and also new species are discovered every year. In addition to fish are aquatic animals such as the River Dolphin, Amazonian Manatee, as well as the large otter. Additionally supported are algae, crabs, turtles, and also other reptiles.

The Amazon rainforest is an essential item of the problem that keeps the whole earth operating. The forest is approximated to cool the temperature level of the planet by 1 to 2 levels Celsius and also to aid keep rainfall as well as humidity well balanced in several regions of the world. The woodland holds about 10% of the carbon shops of the world. When the carbon gets launched in the kind of carbon dioxide, environment change happens.

Logging is usually brought on by a fire which is one of the most likely means this carbon will be released. Deforestation is a frightening idea in itself. While mostly safeguarded and left intact until the 1960s, the Amazon rainforest has actually been gotten rid of dramatically recently. The main factor is farmers who are seeking fertile soil. Farmers have actually cleared areas of land because of weed problem and soil infertility. The brand-new section is extremely effective however just for short durations. So, after not also long, they carry on as well as a clear extra area. In the year 2000, the woodland had actually lost 227,000 square miles to deforestation. The spots of gotten rid of forest are extensive as well as destructive. They can actually be seen from outer space with the nude eye.