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1001 Animals in the Amazon Rainforest

Facts and World Records

The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest on the planet. It’s a megadiverse geographic area delimited by the Amazon River basin , which is shared by at least 6 countries: Bolivia , Brazil , Colombia , Ecuador , Peru and Venezuela . Although some authors include 3 others: Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Index

Amazon Rainforest biodiversity facts – World Records

The Amazon Rainforest Animals biodiversity (or number of species) is greatest for small animals, such as insects , amphibians , reptiles , birds , and fish .

On the other hand, this diversity is lower for large animals with longer gestation periods, such as many terrestrial and aquatic mammals , which tend to be the most vulnerable and are threatened by human activities. Among them we find cats or felines such as the jaguar , aquatic mammals such as the pink dolphin, and equids such as the Amazonian tapir just to name a few.

Insects

Towards the second half of the 20th century, specialists worldwide estimated the total number of animal species at 1.5 million.

However, after visiting and studying the beetles of the humid forests of Central America and later of the Amazon, the curator of the department of entomology of the Smithsonian Institution Terry L. Erwin calculated in 1982 that in the world there must have been more than 30 million species counting only insects .

Big-Ass ants (Atta laevigata)

Giant beetle

Bullet ant (Paraponera clavata)

Fish

With its more than 2,000 registered fish species, the Amazon basin exceeds the number of fish species in the entire European continent by more than 10 times.

Ornamental fish

Lisa (Schizodon fasciatus)

Sardine

Paiche or pirarucu (Arapaima gigas)

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Amphibians

The Santa Cecilia region, in the Ecuadorian Amazon , boasts the highest number of amphibian species per square kilometer in the world. Amphibians include anurans such as toads or frogs, caecilians and newts. In the Amazon rainforest, the dart frogs stand out because of its deadly poison, but there are also introduced species such as the bullfrog, and other species of poisonous frogs such as the famous Kambo frog, which is considered the ayahuasca of the animal kingdom.

Smoky jungle frog

Glass-frog

Cane Toad / Giant Toad (Rhinella marina)

Kambo (Phyllomedusa bicolor)

Mammals

Peru, Colombia and Brazil are among the top 10 countries with the greatest biodiversity of mammal species on the entire planet.

In this group of animals we find emblematic species of the Amazon jungle such as the jaguar and the pink dolphin. But also other felines such as the ocelot, and other aquatic mammals such as the river manatee.

The existence of giant animals such as the giant armadillo, the capybara, chiguiro or capybara, which is the largest rodent in the world, the giant otter , never ceases to amaze us.

Another large subgroup within the mammals are the monkeys or primates , among which we find the famous marmoset monkey, the capuchin monkeys, the spider monkey, the howler monkeys among others.

Giant Otter

Capybara or chigüiro

Spider monkey

Howler Monkey

Birds

In the Tambopata reserve in Peru they hold the world record for the greatest diversity of bird species in the same place. Some of the bird species found there are:

Orinoco Goose

Horned screamer

Fulvous Whistling duck

Yellow-rumped cacique

Emerald hummingbird / Emerald chiribiquete

Castelnau’s antshrike

Amazonian Royal flycatcher

Reptiles

The city if Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, holds the world record for the greatest diversity of reptile species ever documented. This group includes the turtles, the snakes and the famous alligators of the Amazon Rainforest, the yacaré, the white and the black.

Jesus Christ (Basilisk) Lizard

Crocodile or White Caiman

Spiders

Arachnids are not insects as we might think. Spiders form a separate group of animals including the dreaded scorpions.

Scorpion Tityus Trivittatus

Rainforest Animals Drawing PDF for Kids

Bibliography

  • de Santana, CD, Crampton, WG, Dillman, CB, Frederico, RG, Sabaj, MH, Covain, R., … & Bastos, DA (2019). Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nature communications , 10 (1), 1-10.
  • Costa, TND, Jacó, TRF, Casas, ALDS, & Bernarde, PS (2020). Injuries caused by fish to fishermen in the Vale do Alto Juruá, Western Brazilian Amazon. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine , 53 .
  • Cerrón, LAS, Ramos-Rodríguez, MC, Ruiz, LCJ, Chávez, JD Á., & Torres, RJV (2019). Contribution to the knowledge of the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus Linneo, 1776) in the Itaya River, Loreto, Peru. Amazon Science (Iquitos) , 7 (1), 127-136.
  • Archer, R. (2016). Stunning supers with an electric attack. Journal of Experimental Biology , 219 (5), 612-612.
  • Catania, KC (2015). Electric eels concentrate their electric field to induce involuntary fatigue in struggling prey. Current Biology , 25 (22), 2889-2898.
  • Lourenco, W.R. (2005). Scorpion diversity and endemism in the Rio Negro region of Brazilian Amazonia, with the description of two new species of Tityus CL Koch (Scorpiones, Buthidae). Amazoniana , 18 (3-4), 203-13.
  • Gómez, JP, Quintana, JC, Arbeláez, P., Fernández, J., Silva, JF, Barona, J., … & Otero, R. (2010). Scorpion stings Tityus asthenes in Mutatá, Colombia: epidemiological, clinical and toxinological aspects. Biomedical , 30 (1), 126-139.
  • Javier, CA, & Bermudez, RV (1980). Snake bites-toxicity and laboratory studies. Rev Med Hond , 48 (2), 39-42.
  • Castro, O., Gutiérrez, JM, Barrios, M., Castro, I., Romero, M., & Umaña, E. (1999). Neutralization of the venom-induced hemorrhagic effect of Bothrops asper (Serpentes: Viperidae) by tropical plant extracts. Journal of Tropical Biology , 47 (3), 605-616.
  • López Sáez, JA, & Pérez Soto, J. (2009). Alexiteric plants: plant antidotes against poisonous snake bites.

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