How many species are there in the Amazon?

Parrots are just some of the over a million different species of Amazon animals - ranging from jaguars to monkeys or spiders, or amphibians (Amazon is a perfect environment for amphibians). The abundance of insect food and water provide conditions for that huge number of species, most of them rarely seen at daylight. It’s easier to hear them at night (the chant of frogs and toads echoes on the river and in the forest, providing a special ambience to the Amazon night).

Scientists speak of…

• 600-800 Amazon species of mammals - cats as the jaguar, the puma, the jaguarundi, the ocelot, and other mammals as the sloths, the armadillos, the anteaters, the tapirs, the capybaras, many species of monkeys, and the dolphins;

• 1,500 species of birds - the various kinds of Amazon parrot, the toucans, egrets, crakes, eagles, owls, oropendulas, etc. etc.

• around 3,000 kinds of fish: the famous piranha or the pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish of the world, but also species as the silver dollar fish, the catfish, the dogfish, or the cichlid.

See, for Amazon micro-fauna and their importance in the ecosystems:
Insects and micro-organisms

Amazon mammals

Amazon has few large mammals. There are felines like the jaguar, there are large rodents like the capybara, there are several large monkey species, and so on, but most Amazon animals are small (such as the bats, the larger group: there are more species of bats in Brazil than elsewhere in the world).

Among the most spectacular examples species are the Amazon otter (the world biggest otter is Brazilian), the freshwater manatee or the tree-dwelling anteaters. But do not expect to see these particular Amazon rain forest animal if you are planning a short travel to the Amazon. These are shy species, difficult to see in the wild.

Also spectacular, but easier to see, is the pink dolphin. Other bigger mammals include cats (as jaguars, also very elusive and difficult to see), many kinds of monkeys, sloths, tapirs, peccaries, anteaters and capybaras (the biggest rodent of the world).

Image: Front page of a book about the river Amazon pink dolphin

See, for books:
Books about the Amazon and the rain forest life

The Amazon parrot and other birds

Image: Brazilian birds, Unesco

Much of Amazon fauna - including some sub-species of the Amazon parrot - is in danger due to forest losses and the advancing of human agriculture and city areas.

A well known and much commented example involves the hyacinth or blue macaw, a highly intelligent Amazon parrot that can even be trained to answer the phone, whose value in black market can reach the $70,000. Its numbers may round the 4,000 in the Pantanal, and perhaps a little more in Amazon, but these numbers are just a small fraction of ancient numbers. This Amazon parrot produces just two eggs every two years, and just only one of the two chicks is likely to survive. Without preservation efforts the blue macaw is condemned.

We may easily observe this Amazon parrot in some regions of the Pantanal – the best place of Brazil to watch birds -, sitting in the branches of manduvi trees, whose trunks he excavates to construct the nests.

Only by stopping deforestation – and consequent loss of habitats – we may preserve Amazon fauna.

Other birds

But there are, of course, many other kinds of birds besides the Amazon parrot. The Amazon (and the Pantanal, further south) is a paradise for birds and birdwatching.

Toucans, owls, spix’s guan, the great egrets, the great blue eron, the oropendula, the paint-billed crake, the trogons, the hummingbirds, and the various species of Amazon parrot, are just some examples of the most known of the estimated 1,500 Amazon birds. Their calls, hooting and peeping grants a strange and spectacular ambiance to forest.

Insects and micro-organisms

Most of rainforest species are insects and other small or invisible creatures: weeds, bugs, fungi, butterflies and other little life of the rainforest. What may cause a question: Why worry about these species and their eventual disappearance?

The answer is simple: small organisms play crucial roles in the functioning of earth ecosystems, especially in the rainforests where they live. They recycle nutrients, they fix the nitrogen keeping the fertility of soil and allowing the food chain for larger organisms. Without fungi Amazon would be mortally doomed. Edward O. Wilson develops these ideas in an exemplar form:

«Recent studies on whole ecosystems support what ecologists have long suspected: the more species living in an ecosystem, the higher its productivity and the greater its ability to withstand drought and other kinds of environmental stress. Since we depend on functioning ecosystems to cleanse our water, enrich our soil and create the very air we breathe, biodiversity is clearly not something to discard carelessly.
E.O. Wilson, Only Humans Can Halt the Worst Wave of Extinction Since the Dinosaurs Died

See, for books and information about the Amazon fauna :
Books about the Amazon

Amazon fish and sport fishing

Amazon has some of the most famous fish of the world:

• the Pirarucu, the largest river fish of our planet, with specimens measuring over 2 metres/6 feet long and weighing around 120 kilograms/265 pounds;
• the Tambaqui, famous between fishermen for the strength of its teeth, capable of cracking seeds as hard as those of the palm or the rubber tree;
• the Peacock Bass (Tucunaré), whose power and size attracts to Amazon fishermen from all over the world
• the Tetras, a miniature of fish, highly admired by aquarists all over the world
• the Piranha, whose ferocity is legendary, though largely exaggerated. Only some species of piranhas, in particular conditions, reveal an aggressive behaviour. In river channels or lakes with sufficient water and food they do not appear aggressive.

But these are just some of the 2,500 to 3,000 species of the Amazon fishes. The Amazon offers great possibilities to fishers (and to fish cuisine fans). The mentioned Tucurané, or Peacock Bass, is a must for sport. Its fierce water strikes and power, its size (three feet/0,9 meters long is a common one) and its weight (25 pounds/11 Kg) make it a top sport fish attraction. But it is not the only one. Equally important are the various species of catfish (the giant Piraibas, the red tailed catfish), the Jaús, or the tiger surabims…

Also important, as sport fishing, are the Piranhas, the Aruanas, the Trairas, or the fanged Payaras. Sport fishermen often catch more then 15 different species a day, in many Amazon places. And Manaus is a magnificent center for sport fishing…

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