#orinoco basin

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Have you done the hoatzin yet? My all time favorite bird 💕

Not yet! Good choice! For those who don't know, these unique birds mostly eat leaves (rare in birds!) and their young have primitive claws. They have been the subject of a lot of scientific attention!

[mutant-distraction]

The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), also known as the boto, bufeo or pink river dolphin, is a species of toothed whaleclassified in the family Iniidae. Three subspecies are currently recognized: I. g. geoffrensis (Amazon river dolphin), I. g. boliviensis(Bolivian river dolphin) and I. g. humboldtiana (Orinoco river dolphin). The three subspecies are distributed in the Amazon basin, the upper Madeira River in Bolivia, and the Orinoco basin, respectively.

[manessha545]

Caño Cristales River, Colombia: Caño Cristales is a Colombian river located in the Serranía de la Macarena, an isolated mountain range in the Meta Department. It is a tributary of the Guayabero River, itself a part of the Orinoco basin. Caño Cristales was found in 1969 by a group of cattle farmers. Wikipedia

[respect-the-locals]

Daily Ray Fact:

The Ocellate River Ray, also known as the peacock-eye stingray or black river stingray, is a species of freshwater stingray. It is the most widespread, ranging throughout much of the Río de la Plata, Amazon, Mearim and Orinoco basins in tropical and subtropical South America.

[dougdimmadodo]

Wimple Piranha (Catoprion mento)

Family: Serrasalmid Family (Serrasalmidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

A tiny (15cm/5.9 inches in length) relative of the more famous Red-Bellied Piranha, the Wimple Piranha is found in the Amazon, Orinoco, Paraguay and Essequibo river basins, and is notable for its unusual diet; adults of this species feed almost exclusively on fish scales, feeding by ramming into larger fish at high speeds with their mouths wide open, biting and generating suction to dislodge their target’s scales and pull them into their mouths. The practice of eating scales, known as lepidophagy, is rare in animals as scales are difficult to digest and require considerable amounts of energy to obtain, and it is likely that it developed in response to the intense competition between fish species in the biodiverse rivers to which Wimple Piranhas are native - although their nutrients-poor diet limits their size, feeding exclusively on scales (occasionally supplemented by small insects or small amounts of the meat of their otherwise unharmed targets where possible) allows Wimple Piranhas to find food while largely avoiding competing with larger and less specialised carnivores. Besides their unusual feeding habits little is known about the biology of wild Wimple Piranhas, although through the observation of captive individuals it has been found that unlike many piranha species they are solitary (possibly avoiding living in groups to avoid competing with other members of their species,) and that like other members of their family females of this species lay eggs.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/342485-Catoprion-mento

[uncharismatic-fauna]

A Mata-Fine Mata Mata turtle

A resident of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, the mata mata (Chelus fimbriatus) is a species of freshwater turtle found in streams, pools, and wetlands throughout northern South America, from Venezuela to Brazil, as well as the island of Trinidad. This species is almost entirely aquatic, and excursions on land are extremely rare. However, they are not well adapted for swimming in open water, and are thus most commonly seen in shallow bodies of water with soft, muddy bottoms.

C. fimbriatus has a unique appearance among turtle species. The carapace-- the part of the shell that covers the back--it has three ridges running down its length and is often covered in algae, and so resembles tree bark. The head is similarly shaped to resemble leaf litter; it’s triangular, and the fringes around the cheeks and mouth break up the outline. The mata mata’s nose is long and snorkel-like, allowing it to remain just under the surface. Despite its unobtrusive looks, this species is actually quite large; mata mata can grow up to 45 cm (1.5 ft) long and weigh up to 17.2 kg (38 lbs).

Because of its unique body shape and camouflage, the mata mata is well suited to a sedentary life, and has few natural predators. It has extremely poor eyesight, though it does share an adaptation with other nocturnal reptiles that allows the eyes to reflect low levels of light. To compensate, the mata mata relies on its hearing, amplified by a large tympanium on either side of the head, and on the barbels lining its jaw. In addition to being an excellent costume, these barbels allow C. fimbriatus to sense vibrations in the water. The mata mata spends most of its time submurged or buried under the mud, waiting for potential prey like fish, worms, crustaceans, and insects to swim by. When they’re close enough, the mata mata opens its jaws and sucks its target in whole. Individuals have also been recorded herding schools of fish into confined areas before feeding.

The only time the mata mata emerges from the water is to reproduce. Individuals are solitary until September or October, when they begin to seek out mates. When a male encounters a female, he approaches while opening and closing his mouth, extending his limbs, and moving the flaps on the side of his head. If the female is impressed, she allows him to mount. Afterwards, she hauls herself out onto the nearby bank and builds a rudimentary nest from the forest litter. There, she lays 12-28 eggs, which will take about 200 days to hatch. There is no information on how long hatchlings take to fully mature, but individuals can live anywhere from 15-30 years.

Conservation status: The mata mata has not been evaluated by the IUCN, but is threatened by habitat destruction and overharvesting for the pet trade.

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Photos

Rune Midtgaard

Christopher Wellner

Joachim S. Muller

[sandybuny]

a brand new type of buny has mysteriously popped into existence atop a high and remote tepui in the orinoco basin. it is 3 inches long and its already critically endangered :(

[shaunashipmn]

OUTER BANKS ⇢ 3x01 | POGUELANDIA 

        You see, the story goes that 450 years ago, a Spanish soldier came out of the Orinoco Basin with a few gold beads. And when they asked the Spanish soldier where the beads came from, the Spanish soldier replied he got them from a peaceful Indigenous tribe who lived in a city of gold. El Dorado. And for the next 450 years, people tried to find that gold, you know. They tried. Conquistadors, knights, captains of ships, tribes, entire nations. All fighting each other in a race for the end of the rainbow. Thousands of lives laid on the pyre of gold fever.

[forestenjoyer]

(WIP) Rivers of Ehrð

So this has been in the works for several months, and will be likely for several more, but i have been working on a global map showing the river networks of my fictional version of Earth. They are broadly the same as the real world but due to differences in rainfall and climate there are differences. (open for zoomed in images)

There are no endorheic basins, meaning all water eventually reaches the ocean, and global mean sea level is about 20 metres lower.

Anyway, I have just finished mapping and tracing out the basins for every river which is over 1000km long in the real world, as well as some others in areas that are too arid in real life to be true rivers.

Regional Maps

For convenience of reading and because I haven't got names for everything yet, I will use the real life region names. If a river has it's own name in my world I will also use that.

I will list the rivers in a clockwise direction along coastlines, usually starting from the edge of the map. rivers on islands will go after the rest. Green names mean that i have my own name for the river in the fictional world.

Northern North America

Fraser

Kuskokwim

Yukon

Mackenzie

Rest of North America

Misinipi (Churchill)

Nelson

St Lawrence

Mississippi

Brazos

Colorado (Texas)

Grande

Santiago

Colorado (The one with the Grand Canyon)

Columbia

South America

Magdalena

Orinoco

Essequibo

Amaru (Amazon)

São Francisco

Plait/Plate (la Plata)

Europe

Kızıl

Dona (Don)

Dnieper

Dniester

Danube

Tagus

Loire

Rhine

Elbe

Blac/Black (river draining what would be the Baltic Sea)

Northern Dvina

Pexohra (Pechora)

I'm not listing the ones on the island next to Britain, which is named Fairixant

North Africa

Niger

Volta

Gambia

Senegal

Tamanrasset

Hamra (Saguia el-Hamra)

Draa

Chott el Djerid

Sahabi

Nile

Southern and Central Africa

Jubba

Zambezi

Limpopo

Orange

Congo

Ogooué

India and Middle East

Patma (Ganges-Brahmaputra)

Godavari

Krishna

Narmada

Indus

Helmand

Minab

Shatt al-Arab (Arab)

Matti

East and Southeast Asia

Songhua

Huwan (Huang He/Yellow)

Yangtze

Pehrl (Pearl)

Red/Hong

Mekong

Lapaina (Irriwaddy/Salween)

Western Siberia

Corta (Ob)

Onesi (Yenisei)

Eastern Siberia

Khatanga

Lena

Suluma (Kolyma)

Anian (Anadyr)

Amur

Oceania and Borneo

Mamberamo

Sepik

Fly

Murray

Kati Thanda

Flinders

Kapuas

Barito

[kays-catch-of-the-day]

Hello once again! New day, new fish! And what a fish we have today!

Today’s Catch of the Day is the Tambaqui (*colossoma macropomum*), otherwise known as the Black Pacu, Black Finned Pacu, Giant Pacu, Cachama, Gamitama, and sometimes simply Pacu, which is the common name referring to a variety of omnivorous freshwater fish of the *serralsalmid* family, local to South America, which are related to piranha.

The Tambaqui is the second heaviest scaled freshwater fish in South America, after the arapaima, and can reach up to 3.6 ft in length and 97lbs, although you’re more likely to see them at about 2.3 ft long and at about 60 lbs. Their similar shape to piranha has led to many misidentifications of juvenile Tambaqui as their carnivorous cousins; the Tambaqui is tall and narrow, with a large arched back. Their most distinct divergence from piranha can be noted at their teeth, which are flat and molar-like, adapted for crushing seeds and nuts. The lower half of the fish is mostly black, with the front half ranging between a gray, yellowish, or olive hue. Tambaqui sit alone as the only member of the genus *colossoma*, though the members of the *piractus* genus were included in the past.

The Tambaqui is native to the Amazon and the Orinoco River basins, ranging from nutrient rich whitewater rivers such as the Putumayo, to blackwater rivers such as the Rio Negro, to clearwater rivers such as the tributaries of the Madeira. They are commonly kept in aquaculture worldwide.

They are largely solitary animals that spend the 5-7 month duration of the local flooding season in flooded forests, moving out to main river channels and floodplains lakes as the water levels drop. The aforementioned months spent in flooded forests comprise their non-breeding season, while their breeding season begins with the start of the next flood season, between November and February During this time they gather in large numbers and spawn in whitewater rivers along grassy rivers and shores with wood strewn about. Tambaqui are long-living fish, known to live between 40 and 65 years old! Not exactly what you picture when you think of a sexagenarian!

These tremendous fish are listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List, meaning that while they are not in major danger of extinction, we must be mindful and diligent in our stewardship of them and their habitats, especially as the Amazon is continuously harvested and damaged for resources. Please, if possible, do what you can to ensure the longevity and conservation of the Tambaqui and their homes, at the link below and in many other places!

Lastly, of course, the Tambaqui places as a Platinum-tier fish on our fishy rating system!

[jumpywhumpywriter]

Another really dumb thought, but my first reaction to learning that Tanner sacrificed the Falkry part of him to blend in with humans (which I’m assuming also has to do with the wings getting cut off. Either way, I feel really bad for him and hope he does well/better) was that he’d probably make a really good boxer or something along those lines, assuming dude kept all the other traits (unnaturally strong and magic and all that).

Not sure if that’s somehow offensive or disheartening that that’s my first thought (I really don’t know and, again, overthinky), but I just think it would be kinda funny to just have your seemingly average looking human beat a mountain of a man in arm wrestling without breaking a sweat or something like that. In either case, assuming dude is fine for recreational violence (since I just remembered that most are pacifists or something), he’d be goated (again, if all other traits remain)

Idk, brain thoughts be like that

Hope you have a great day/night and take care of yourself and all that jazz :)

-idk

(Also very cool that you know a lot about nature stuff! Do you have a favorite fact you know?)

Don't worry, it's not offensive at all :)

And he does do better later on in the story. He acts as the "peacekeeper" of the whole ream, the only one holding them together sometimes.

And yes, he does still possess Falkry-level strength (though he does not have magic anymore -- the experiments that took his wings also disrupted his ability to access magic, so he can no longer use it like Shadow can)

Here's one of my favorite nature facts about an exotic bird species I love:

The Joatzin, also known as the reptile bird, skunk bird, or stinkbird, is a species of tropical bird found in swamps and mangroves of the Amazon and the Orinoco basins in South America. It is unique for having chicks that have claws on two of their wing digits which fall off later in life. Like literal feathered dinosaurs. It got the nickname “stinkbird” because of its ability to produce a foul odor when threatened.

You can see the wing-claws on the baby Hoatzin below, as well as what it looks like in adult form (I also included a short video snippet of what the baby looks like climbing with its wing claws)

They TOTALLY look like prehistoric creatures!

[proton-wobbler]

Round 2, Poll 17

Emerald Starling vs Zigzag Heron

sources under cut

Emerald Starling

eBird Sightings - 27

IUCN Status - Least Concern

Location: Africa - South Guinea, North Sierra Leone and Central Ivory Coast

Zigzag Heron

eBird Sightings - 1,416

IUCN Status - Least Concern

Location: South America - Basins of the Orinoco, Negro, and Amazon rivers

"just look at them; they say "ooo""

Images: Starling (Michael Whitlock); Heron (Tim Liguori)

Stats pulled from Birds of the World

[sguysmw]

Tumblr's Favourite Animal - CONTENDERS (#8)

Continuing with the introductions...

That's a snazzy looking turtle! It's called mata mata (Chelus fimbriata) and it comes from the Amazon river basin and the eastern Guianas. Mata matas were thought to have also lived in the Orinoco basin, but as it turns out, those populations belong to another species. Its shell is reminiscent of a floating piece of bark, and its head resembles a fallen leaf. It lies on the riverbed, breathing through its long snout and using its skin flaps to blend in with its surroundings. When an unsuspecting fish arrives, it ambushes its prey by sucking it in through its wide mouth.

Nominated by @lyzanewe

[pamwmsn]

Hoatzin and chick.

The Hoatzin is a species of tropical bird found in swamps, riparian forests, and mangroves of the Amazon and the Orinoco basins in South America.

[tropic-havens]

The Dartrier or Golden Ears (Senna elata) is a beautiful tree native to the Orinoco basin (Colombia and Venezuela) which has been introduced for ornamental and medicinal purposes in many countries. It has many vernacular names. Its species name, alata, which means "winged" relates to the shape of its fruits which have four wings.

The Epis d'or is a shrub 4 to 8 m high with long candelabra-like stems bearing long yellow-orange spikes. The 2 to 3 m long stems are cylindrical and twisted. On these stems are born leaves 50-80 cm long, consisting of eight to ten pairs of leaflets. These leaflets are oval with a small tip. The flower spikes consist of many small cup-shaped flowers, open at the bottom and closed with a waxy coating at the top. These erect ears measure between 15 and 40 cm in height. The leaves and flowers have a foul smell. The fruit is a straight or slightly curved, very dark brown pod, about 15 cm long, with a kind of wing on each side. The pods contain between 50 to 60 flattened triangular seeds.

[miiilowo]

Pterophyllum scalare, most commonly referred to as angelfish or freshwater angelfish, is the most common species of Pterophyllum kept in captivity. It is native to the Amazon Basin in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. Particularly to the Ucayali river in Peru, the Oyapock River in French Guiana, the Essequibo River in Guyana, the Solimões, the Amapá, and the Amazon rivers in Brazil. It is found in swamps or flooded grounds where vegetation is dense and the water is either clear or silty. Its native waters range from a neutral pH of 7.0 down to near 6.0, with a general water hardness (gH) range of 3 to 10 °dH, and water temperature ranging from 26 to 30 °C (75 to 86 °F). This is the species of angelfish most frequently found in the aquarium trade. A similar (cross-breeding possible) P. scalare exists in the Rio Orinoco. They are of the same size and shape, the only difference being the stripes; the Orinoco P. scalare has thinner, but dual, stripes.

The diet of Pterophyllum scalare consists of a wide spectrum of prey; they feed on tiny fish fry and younger, juvenile fishes, young and mature shrimps, crabs, prawns, various worms, mosquito larvae, and water bugs. Additionally, they will opportunistically catch any smaller-sized floating insects that have fallen onto the surface of the water.

i love fishies. look at that thing. thats an animal thats alive and exists