Fresh Amazon wonders
Left-Right: Ranitomeya amazonica, a newly discovered poison dart frog. Mico acariensi, the Rio Acari marmoset
Despite rapid deterioration of the rainforests across the globe, it is a relief to learn that the Amazon Rainforest, defying all the odds, is still thriving. According to a recent study finding by the global conservation organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF), at least 1,200 new species have been discovered in the Amazon ecosystem at an average rate of 1 in every 3 days during a decade-long study between the year 1999 and 2009. This is in fact a greater number of species than the combined total of new species found over a decade in other biologically diverse areas such as the Congo Basin, Borneo and the Eastern Himalayas.
Presented to the delegates from 193 countries in the last month's UN Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan, the WWF's 58-page report titled "Amazon Alive: A decade of Discoveries 1999-2009 illustrated the details of the 1,200 species that were discovered within the study's time-frame. Experts believe that the number could have been higher had insects been included in the research. This significant study catalogued the discoveries of entirely new species of 39 mammals, 55 reptiles (28 snakes and 27 lizards), 500 spiders, 216 amphibians, 16 birds, 257 fishes and 637 plants. And amongst the new mammals, the finding includes that of 7 monkeys, a pink river dolphin, 2 porcupines, 8 mice, 9 bats, 6 opossums, 5 rats, a guinea pig, 13-foot-long anaconda, a bald-headed, rainbow-hued parrot and a tiny, blind, crimson catfish.
Conservationists are hoping that the number will grow in the years to come. It must be mentioned here that the Amazon forest, lovingly called the Amazonia is a vast region measuring more than 2.5 million square miles (6.7 million sq km) of 600 different types of land and freshwater habitats extending into Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
Amongst all the new species that have been discovered in this study by the WWF, quite a few of them stands out. And among those stellar cast includes, the Amazon River dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) or pink river dolphin, the Rio Acari marmoset or Mico accariensi (one of the seven new monkeys that was discovered in 2000), the Ranitomeya amazonia or the poison dart frog of Alpahuayo Mishana National Reserve, Peru, with a red and yellow pattern that looks like flames on its head, and legs patterned like water drops, the 13-feet long Eunectes beniensiswas snake or the first new species of anaconda identified in more than 70 years. Others include, a member of the true parrot family, the Pyrilia aurantiocephala, found only in the Lower Madeira and Upper Tapajos rivers in Brazil, the "goliath" catfish, measuring nearly 1.5 meters long and weighing 32 kg which normally exist on a diet of other fishes even though some of them have been caught with parts of monkeys in their stomachs! Amongst the 55 reptile species discovered, there includes 2 members of Elapidae, the most venomous snake family of the world. Amazon is also home to at least 40,000 plant species and this recent WWF study have discovered 637 new plant species which includes sunflowers, ivy, lilies, variety of pineapples and a custard apple.
Even though Amazon mothers countless species of wildlife however it's very existence is also under great threat as well. During the last 50 years, 17% of Amazonia, which is the world's largest rainforest, has been destroyed due to intense logging and clearing of forest for agricultural purposes. An area twice the size of Spain! Aside from sheltering outstanding varieties of life on Earth, the great Amazonia also absorbs 90-140 billion tons of carbon. WWF explains that even if a portion of this carbon is released into the atmosphere through further forest loss and land use changes, then it would accelerate global warming and end up devastating consequences on life on Earth. According to Francisco Ruiz, the leader of WWF's Living Amazon Initiative, "Urgent and immediate action is needed if we are to avoid this frightening scenario. The fate of the Amazon - and of its species whether known or yet to be discovered - depends on a significant shift in the current way development is embraced by all Amazon countries."
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