The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
The Amazon Rainforest in particular is known as 'the Lungs of the World' because it sucks up global emissions of carbon dioxide, and about 20% of earth's oxygen is produced. Tropical rainforests are often called the "lungs of the planet" because they generally draw in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.
The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.
The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. One in five of all bird species are found in the Amazon rainforest, and one in five of the fish species live in Amazonian rivers and streams. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.
This year 2019, the Amazon rainforest recorded 72,843 fires in less than eight months, compared to the same period in 2018, which saw 40,000 fires - News report.
Dangerous species in the amazon rainforest
● Green Anaconda
Green Anaconda is a non-venomous boa species found in South America. It is the heaviest and one of the longest known extant snake species.
The primarily nocturnal anaconda species tend to spend most of its life in or around water. They have the potential to reach high speeds when swimming. They tend to float beneath the surface of the water with their snouts above the surface. When prey passes the anaconda strikes and coils around it with its body. The snake then constricts until it has suffocated the prey.
● Jaguar
Jaguar in tupian called beast of preys the third largest cat in the new world. This spotted cat closely resembles the leopard. These animals love swimming at any conditions. According to the studies jaguar plays a vital role to reduce pray's over population.
Jaguar is a predator at the top of a food chain, with no natural predators. Female territories, which range from 25 to 40 km square in size, may overlap, but the animals generally avoid one another. Male ranges cover roughly twice as much area, varying in size with the availability of game and space, and do not overlap. The territory of a male can contain those of several females.
● Electric Eel
The electric eel is a South American electric fish. The electric eel has three pairs of abdominal organs that produce electricity: the main organ, the Hunter's organ, and the Sach's organ. These organs make up four fifths of its body, and give the electric eel the ability to generate two types of electric organ discharges: low voltage and high voltage.
● Black Caiman
Black Caiman is a carnivorous reptile that lives along slow-moving rivers, lakes, seasonally flooded savannas of the Amazon basin, and in other freshwater habitats of South America. The black caiman is the largest predator in the Amazon ecosystem, preying on a variety of fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. It is a generalist and apex predator, potentially capable of taking any animal within its range, including other predators.
● Poison Dart Frog
Poison Dart Frogs are diurnal and often have brightly colored bodies. This bright coloration is correlated with the toxicity of the species, making them aposematic. Natural habitats include subtropical and tropical, moist, lowland forests, subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, subtropical or tropical, moist, montanes and rivers, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, lakes and swamps.
● Bullet Ant
Paraponera clavata is a species of ant, commonly known as the bullet ant. These ants are also renowned for their powerful sting and tribes of Brazil use bullet ant stings as part of their rites.
● Red-Bellied Piranha
Red-Bellied Piranha is locally abundant in its freshwater habitat. They are omnivorous foragers and feed on insects, worms, crustaceans and fish. They are a popular aquarium fish. The red-bellied piranha has a popular reputation as a ferocious predator, despite being primarily a scavenger. As their name suggests, red-bellied piranhas have a reddish tinge to the belly when fully grown, although juveniles are a silver color with darker spots.
● Bull Shark
Bull
sharks can thrive in both salt and fresh water and can travel far up rivers. The bull shark is a solitary hunter, though may briefly pair with another bull shark to make hunting and tricking prey easier. The bull shark prefers coastal water, which is less than 100 feet in depth. This is mostly due to their feeding patterns, since they prefer murky waters. This is also a problem, since this gives them the most interaction with humans.
● Pit Vipers
Pit address commonly known as pit vipers, group of snakes includes some of the most beautiful and most venomous and dangerous snake species in the world.
They are distinguished by the presence of a heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on both sides of the head. A deep pit, or fossa, in the loreal area between the eye and the nostril on either side of the head. These loreal pits are the external openings to a pair of extremely sensitive infrared-detecting organs, which in effect give the snakes a sixth sense to help them find and perhaps even judge the size of the small, warm-blooded prey on which they feed.
When prey comes into range, infrared radiation falling onto the membrane allows the snake to determine its direction. The paired pit organs provide the snake with thermal rangefinder capabilities. These organs are of great value to a predator that hunts at night, as well as for avoiding the snake’s own predators.
● Amazonian Giant Centipede
is a carnivore that feeds on any other animal it can overpower and kill. It is capable of overpowering not only other invertebrates such as large insects, spiders, millipedes, scorpions, and even tarantulas, but also small vertebrates including small lizards, frogs (up to 95 mm long), snakes (up to 25 cm long), sparrow-sized birds, mice, and bats.
● Mosquito
The mosquito life cycle consists of egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages. Eggs are laid on the water surface; they hatch into motile larvae that feed on aquatic algae and organic material. The mosquito's saliva is transferred to the host during the bite, and can cause an itchy rash.
● Harpy Eagle
Harpy Eagle is the largest and most powerful raptor found in the rainforest, and among the largest extant species of eagles in the world. On occasion, they may also hunt by flying within or above the canopy.
● Brazilian Wandering Spiders
Wandering spiders are so-called because they wander the jungle floor at night, rather than residing in a lair or maintaining a web. During the day they hide inside termite mounds, under fallen logs and rocks, and in banana plants and bromeliads. P. nigriventer is known to hide in dark and moist places in or near human dwellings.
● Assassin Bug
Assassin Bug use the long rostrum to inject a lethal saliva that liquefies the insides of the prey, which are then sucked out. The saliva contains enzymes that digest the tissues they swallow. This process is generally referred to as extraoral digestion. The saliva is commonly effective at killing prey substantially larger than the bug itself.
● Tree Boa
Tree Boa is a non-venomous boa species found in the rainforests of South America. The color pattern typically consists of an emerald green ground color with a white irregular interrupted zigzag stripe or so-called 'lightning bolts' down the back and a yellow belly.
● Common Vampire Bat
Common Vampire Bat are leaf-nosed bats found in the Americas. Their food source is blood. Vampire bats, like snakes, have developed highly sensitive thermosensation, with specialized systems for detecting infrared radiation.
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest can be attributed to many different factors at local, national, and international levels. The rainforest is seen as a resource for cattle pasture, valuable hardwoods, housing space, farming space, road works, medicines and human gain. Trees are usually cut down illegally.
