Amazônia | Biomas do Brasil | Ep.12

The pink river dolphin is the symbol of the Amazon, a very docile animal whose population has drastically dwindled over the past years, unfortunately, as long as it has been utilized as bait to catch a fish known as <i>piracatinga</i>, also known as "water vulture". This fish, which feeds off animal decays, is quite appreciated in Colombia, so some people here in the Amazon used to kill pink river dolphins to use them as bait to catch <i>piracatinga</i> fish and smuggle them into Colombia. Fortunately this practice has been banned and less people still doing it around here, besides, the pink dolphin is an endemic animal of the Amazon biome, which we will continue to study in this moment, so put some blood in that eye because now there's more Amazon for you!

♪ Of course this diversity of habitat and food supply formed a very high biodiversity here in the Amazon. It's the largest biodiversity of plants and animals of the planet. There's a very interesting detail that contributed for the emergence of new species here in this biome, which are the rivers.

Because there's a mechanism to form new species, which is called speciation and in order for one speciation to occur, I need geographic barriers. And the Amazon river, the Amazon rivers, are this geographic barrier. Think about it: Long time ago - and I'm talking about thousands and thousands of years, these two river banks, this one here and that one over there, were united, this used to be a single forest.

From the moment this river emerged, it divided this forest as a geographic barrier, so suppose we have a population of sloths - they were all living here - when this river came through this population was split and now all the mutations that occur with the sloths of this side of the river, are not the same mutations that occur with sloths of that side of the river. Thousands of years in the future, the sloths from there won't be the same as the sloths from here - I'll have the emergence of two new species. So this is how the Amazon rivers contribute for the high biodiversity that happens here - plus, new species are discovered all the time in this biome, in other words, the Amazon is so big, so big, that there's a bunch of living creatures we don't even know exist.

Another detail that also favors the high biodiversity in here, it's the hot climate, high temperatures favor ectothermic animals, which are those animals that aren't able to keep a constant body temperature. When these animals, such as reptiles and invertebrates, are in a hot climate, they are much more active, they reproduce more, they produce more offsprings, hence increase the amount of species here in the Amazon. ♫ There's a ton of invertebrate animals here in the Amazon, stingers, venomous centipedes, insects of all kinds, mainly mosquitoes - guys, there's a lot of mosquitoes in here!

Right now there are 10, 15 mosquitoes buzzing around and biting me, while I explain this videoclass for you. We also have beetles - just so you know, 1/4 of all animal species of the planet are beetles. There's a ton of them in the Amazon, I didn't manage to film any, but there's a lot, and of course we have spiders of all kinds as well, in other words, this is a wonderful place for a walk.

I just found a crab-spider's lair, people sometimes call them tarantulas, this is one of the biggest spiders of the world - it's inside this lair, I'm gonna try to bring it out with this stick, without hurting it, it's just to attract it and you will see the size of this critter. Check out that size, check this out! I'm gonna be quiet now so it comes out!

It's almost the size of my hand. This spider eats small birds, small lizards, it's venomous, but its venon is not active in human beings. But if you get bitten by this critter, it's gonna hurt a lot - you won't die, but it's gonna hurt!

The big issue when it comes to this critter, is that it rubs its back legs against its abdomen, when it feels threatened, people say against its butt, spider's butt, it releases a fur and when you breathe this fur, it can cause respiratory problems, so the great danger is when it starts to rub its legs against the abdomen. I know I'm cool, I'm gonna try again! It's mad, check this out!

Strong critter, I can feel its strength! Check this out! Damn, what an amazing critter!

♪ With this amount of fresh water, obviously the biodiversity of fish here in the Amazon is huge, over 1300 species already catalogued and new species being discovered all the time. Almost 80% of South American fish live here. Fish that have a huge importance for the population of the Amazon, because they are source of protein for these people.

An interesting detail is that the names of many fish of this biome, start with the prefix <i>"pira"</i>, such as <i>piracatinga</i> fish, <i>piraputanga</i> fish, <i>pirarucu</i> fish, whereas <i>"pira"</i> comes from the <i>tupi-guarani</i> dialect and means fish, case in point, <i>pirarucu</i> means <i>"fish painted with urucu"</i>, whereas the <i>urucu</i> is a fruit utilized by the natives to paint themselves for celebrations, so if you take a look at the <i>pirarucu</i> fish tail, it's all painted, hence the name <i>pirarucu</i>, it's indigenous culture for you! As the Amazon rivers empty into the Atlantic Ocean, they bring many sediments and nutrients for the Foz region, which is where the river meets the sea. That's very important for the big diversity of fish in the ocean, besides, large manguezal areas are formed in this region, where various species utilize it as nursery for their offspring.

In other words, the Amazon existence is fundamental for the maintenance of life in the ocean as well. ♫ Of course there's so much water, so much moisture and so much habitat diversity, that the amount of amphibians in the Amazon is supposed to be huge. We have about 400 catalogued species, amid frogs and toads, such as poison dart frogs that secrete a substance through their skin, which is utilized by the natives who dip their arrows in this secretion for hunting purposes.

<i>- "Won't they die after they eat the prey? "</i> No! Because they will heat the prey and this toxin is a protein, whenever I heat protein, it denatures, it loses its function, then they are able to eat their food with easy.

There's a lot of venomous amphibians here. No vertebrate group has so much endemism, than the reptile group, about 2/3 of 400 catalogued species, are endemic of the Amazon, in other words, you only find these species in this biome, with special highlight for serpents. There's a lot of serpents here, it's scary - guys, that's cool!

I just found a snake skin, so it shed its skin and let the remains here, take a look - that's the belly of a big one! If you like alligators, get ready to learn a sound to call this animal - whenever you want to pet an alligator you just come by the riverside and make this noise: [animal sound] ♪ If you like birds, surely the Amazon is your place - there's a ton of birds here, it's a wonderful thing. There are almost 1300 catalogued species, whereas 30% of them are endemic, in other words, you know, they are only found in this biome.

Special highlights for the harpy, one of the biggest eagles of the world, which can reach 6. 5 feet of wingspan. But Amazon birds are usually small, because you have to be small to be able to move between such a dense vegetation, so you can't be too big, apart from some rare exceptions, they are usually small.

How cool is that? This is the fruit that comes from the babassu palm that's behind me, it shows bite markings. Toucan birds enjoy this fruit very much, and many times by eating this fruit, the toucan ends up taking it to other places, which ends up helping to disseminate the seeds of this plant, in other words, the babassu fruit helps the toucan to get food and the toucan helps the babassu palm to spread its seeds throughout the forest.

Another interesting detail is that there's an insect larva that grows inside the babassu fruit, which is this white larva you see here. After the larva goes through its life cycle, it will turn into an insect and the local natives enjoy eating this larva. I don't know if I'm brave enough to eat it!

I'm gonna eat it! They said it's tasty! An insect larva guys, take a look!

Gee! See if I eat it! Guys, if I eat it, give that like ok?

Dude, it stinks! You gotta be brave! The guy told me to chew on it.

Our guide who's a native, is telling me to chew on it! [drums] - I don't know if I can! - Come on Jubilut, be strong, you can make it!

- Holy cow, I'm gonna eat it! - I can't do it! - I'm gonna pretend it's a jujube!

I just ate it and its head is crunchy! I'm gonna swallow it! Dude, it tastes like coconut, it tastes just like cocunut, but it's so weird!

♫ Of course we can't forget the mammals, we have about 450 catalogued species and scientists find new species all the time, animals that live in the water and on top of the trees. It's hard to find a mammal here in the Amazon - not because there's none, but because there's so much water and the forest is so dense, that it's difficult to spot them and they also listen to me, smell me and back away when they feel my presence, as long as wild animals don't like being close to humans. Unfortunately, various human activities made here in the Amazon, are putting this biodiversity at risk.

Hunting and illegal capture are some of them, so these animals are hunted for food or simply for sport, some animals are captured because they will be sold to be domesticated by some people. So there's a whole market that involves the Amazon biodiversity - just so you know, about 180 species of animals found here, are endangered species. Check this out, I'm walking through the Amazon forest and I suddenly found remains of a campfire, so there was some illegal hunting here.

People come to this region to extract latex from rubber trees, then they hunt armadillos, tapirs, they roast the animals in here, then they put them over this type of table they call <i>"gira"</i> and they eat their meat right here. This is an example of activity that's putting the Amazon fauna at risk. Of course the activity that most endangers the Amazon is illegal deforestation, they usually take place for widening areas utilized for livestock - just so you know, almost a 100 cities today, are responsible for 70% of the deforestation that occurs in the Amazon, forming what we call "deforestation arch", which happens in the states of Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia.

♫ Most of this deforestation happens inwards, in other words from the outskirts towards the interior, suffocating the Amazon. I want to give you a heads up: Nowadays, we don't need to cut any more trees in order to farm livestock, because the Amazon itself presents some regions with the predominance of grasses, that's right, natural pasture, where people could farm their livestock, the problem is that those are far areas and people want to keep their animals near the highways, in other words, in an easier place to distribute the meat. So there's my suggestion: Public authorities should give this incentive, in other words, to build roads in these regions and ask <i>"- Do you want to farm livestock?

Ok, I'll give you</i> <i>all the support, so you can farm livestock in this region",</i> thus avoiding to cause more impact over the Amazon - an interesting detail, is that many of these cities that are deforesting the Amazon, already face the problem of water shortage, because these people aren't able to understand that the trees are responsible for most of the rain in this region. When you cut down the trees, you prevent the process of vegetal perspiration that creates rain. So the less trees I have in the region, the less water I'll have.

Bear in mind that <i>the less forest</i> <i>we have, the less fresh water will be available in our houses. </i> Unfortunately, the deforestation of the Amazon still high, and besides livestock, there's also the agriculture, which causes impact in this region. <i>- "But Jubijubao, didn't you say that</i> <i>the Amazon soil is poor in nutrients?

"</i> Yes! That's the problem, because folks who come here to plant stuff, they deforest and by the time they do that, the soil still has nutrients. They are able to plant for a while, but it turns out that the rain will wash away this soil and it becomes very poor, then the folks can't plant anything else there.

Do you know what they do? They deforest the next area. They plant until they wear out the soil, deforest, plant, wear out the soil, rinse and repeat, and this cycle heavily contributes for the destruction of the Amazon forest.

I want to make an exercise of imagination with you Jubi-student, come with me - Imagine that this huge <i>samauma</i> tree here, is cut down, I cut it down! It turns out that as we clear this space, the rain will come down strong and hit this soil. All this humus, all this organic matter that's laying on the surface, will begin to be washed away and carried away into this river here, a process we call leaching - so it rains and the soil will be washed away.

In a short time there will be mud, sand and stone, nothing else, the nutrients will be gone - another detail is that this clearing will allow the solar rays to come in strong, they will hurt this soil by causing erosion, in other words, in very short time, nothing will grow here, that's the end of the biodiversity of this forest. Bear in mind that all the soil sediments that are carried away by the rain, end up in the river, pilling up at the bottom, reducing its water volume, a process known as siltation - as if you kept throwing dirt inside a bucket of water. I want you to take notice how clear this region is now.

I'm inside the Amazon Forest, I'm inside the <i>terra firme</i> forest. Do you know why it's so clear here? Because this tree was cut down, so notice that from the moment a tree is cut, the area is cleared - the rain is damaging the soil, the solar rays are hurting the soil, it should be very hard for the forest to be able to recover this part here.

Almost 20% of the Amazon Forest has been currently destroyed. It's estimated that if we destroy another 10%, this biome will collapse - an interesting detail, is that the equivalent to 10 football fields are daily destroyed in this forest. Just so you know, only 3% of the forest had been damaged until 1970, so notice how we hit it hard over the past 50 years.

If we keep that up - do the math - if we keep that rhythm, how many years will be necessary to destroy everything that exists here? We also have the wildfires, which is the fastest and cheapest way a rural producer finds to clear a terrain. But it turns out that besides destroying the trees, they also destroy the fungi and bacteria that live in the soil.

You know how important they are to build up humus. And what is it? Humus is the forest's fertilizer, so this will die and you no longer have the formation of humus.

It turns out that although the remaining ashes from the wildfire are nutritious, the rain that falls onto this terrain will wash away these ashes and the soil will become poor really fast. There will be only sand, mud and stone, nothing else! Besides, as the wildfires destroy this tree - bear in mind that there's carbon in here.

Whenever you burn a tree like this, this carbon goes to the amosphere as carbon dioxide, which is one of the biggest contributors for climate change phonomena our planet is currently going through. ♫ Surely the climate changes will affect the Amazon - it's estimated that within the next 80 years, the temperature will rise a lot around here, then you must understand that these species that live in the Amazon, are adapted to the local climate already. As well as the flood and ebb cycles - these plants are used to stay three or four months underwater, but if you put them underwater for seven or eight months, we don't know what's gonna happen.

Or even worse! What if the drough seasons here in the Amazon become bigger than the species are used to? Case in point, trees like these behind me, will lose more water in case it gets drier here.

How are they supposed to react? Will they adapt or die? So you have to understand that whenever the climate changes, there's an extreme danger of getting into an ecological collapse, because we don't know whether the species that exist here are prepared for these changes - we are about to go through the worst extinction age that this planet has ever seen.

Mining is another activity that endangers the maintenance of this biome, it's an activity that causes a lot of deforestation. Many times mining utilizes chemical elements to do this process that pollutes the river. Today, various rivers of the Amazon are contaminated with mercury that accumulates in the organisms, it accumulates in the fish and the people that eat this fish will end up acquiring this mercury that in the long term may even cause cancer in those people - bear in mind that the fishing industry of the Amazon is multimillionaire, there's a lot of people that feed off fish, that's why we have to be careful with this mining activity, because it does cause a huge damage to the biome.

Of course when we talk about preserving the Amazon, it's not only about preserving natural resources, but also preserving the culture. Various indigenous tribes live in this biome, and in case they vanish, so will vanish all the knowledge the natives have about the forest - it's worth remembering that about 20% of the active ingredients of medicines and cosmetics we utilize today, are harvested from tropical rainforests, and there's a lot knowledge in here that nobody knows about, only the natives. Check this out!

Case in point, these ants here - if I put my hand over here - this is an anthill - and rub it all over my hand, it has a very strong scent and it can be utilized as a natural repellent against mosquitoes, so if someone comes here and studies whatever these ants have, a new type of repellent could be created, one much more potent than the ones that exist today. Imagine if you could extract a repellent against the mosquito that transmits malaria, which kills millions of people today. There's a ton of knowledge that still being kept in here.

♫ Planet Earth has over 7. 5 billion people and this number keeps increasing. Do you think that there will still be fresh water for everybody in the near future, if the destruction of nature continues so fast and devastating, as it has been over the past decades?

Will there be a proper climate to produce food? Will there be forests with animals or just industrial forests, such as the ones we find today in Europe and North America? Will there be an inhabitable planet?

For how long people will keep treating nature as a slave, rather than a companion? It's worth remembering that destroying the Amazon means the end of the "flying rivers", and a monstrous drought will hit the entire South America. This place is one the last places in the world, where you can observe nature in its wildest state.

We have the obligation to preserve the Amazon, not only to protect the species that live here, but to protect our species as well. Our existence depends on the preservation of this place. All in all, needless to say that was a treat to be here with you, a big hug, bye!