59 Fun Facts About Amazon Rainforest

How many countries share the Amazon basin?

Nine countries share the basin, with Brazil holding by far the largest share, followed by Peru and Colombia; the count includes French Guiana, an overseas region of France.

Roughly what share of the Amazon rainforest lies inside Brazil?

Brazil holds about 60% of the Amazon rainforest; Peru has about 13% and Colombia about 10%, with the remainder spread among the other basin countries.

Roughly how many individual trees are estimated to grow in the Amazon rainforest?

A 2013 survey estimated about 390 billion individual trees in the Amazon, belonging to roughly 16,000 species, with a few hundred 'hyperdominant' species making up half of them.

What share of all the world's known species is said to live in the Amazon rainforest?

About one in ten of the world's known species lives in the Amazon, including roughly 2.5 million insect species and some 2,000 birds and mammals.

How much of the world's remaining rainforest does the Amazon represent?

The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforest and is the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest on Earth.

Francisco de Orellana coined the name 'Amazon' after fighting tribes whose women did what?

Orellana reported women who fought alongside the men, and named the river after the Amazons, the warrior women of Greek myth described by Herodotus.

In which year did Orellana become the first European to travel the length of the Amazon River?

Orellana's expedition reached the Atlantic in 1542 after descending the river from the Andes; his reports of populous settlements along the banks, long dismissed, now look accurate.

Excavations at Caverna da Pedra Pintada show humans settled the Amazon at least how long ago?

Excavations at Caverna da Pedra Pintada near Monte Alegre date human settlement of the Amazon to at least 11,200 years ago; by AD 1250 there were substantial settlements around the forest's edge.

Which British explorer vanished in the 1920s searching the Amazon for a lost civilisation he called the City of Z?

Percy Fawcett disappeared in 1925 with his son Jack while searching for his 'Z'; geoglyphs found since the 1970s support the idea of large pre-Columbian societies.

What gives terra preta, the dark fertile earth found across the Amazon, its black colour?

Terra preta owes its black colour to charcoal added by ancient people, along with pottery shards and organic waste; it is now accepted as a product of indigenous soil management.

More than half the dust that fertilises the Amazon blows in from a single depression in which desert?

The Bodélé depression in Chad, in the Sahara, supplies more than half of the dust; its phosphorus replaces what rain washes out of the Amazon's soil each year.

Roughly how long has the Amazon rainforest existed?

The Amazon rainforest has existed for at least 55 million years, probably forming in the Eocene once the Atlantic was wide enough to deliver a warm, moist climate to the basin.

What proportion of the Amazon rainforest had been deforested by 2022?

Around 20% of the Amazon rainforest had been cleared by 2022; scientists warn that at 20–25% loss the forest could tip into degraded savanna.

What is the primary cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, responsible for about 80% of it?

Cattle ranching accounts for about 80% of clearing in the Brazilian Amazon, far ahead of soy, logging and mining; pasture is usually the first use of newly cleared land.

Which road, opened in 1972, is blamed for opening the interior of the Amazon to large-scale clearing?

The Trans-Amazonian Highway, officially BR-230, was inaugurated in 1972 and runs about 4,000 km across northern Brazil, much of it never paved.

Which two Brazilian states have suffered the highest levels of Amazon deforestation?

Mato Grosso and Pará have lost the most forest of any Brazilian states: Mato Grosso to soy and cattle expansion along the 'arc of deforestation', Pará to ranching, logging and roads.

What did the 2006 Soy Moratorium ban?

Under the 2006 Soy Moratorium, major grain traders agreed to stop buying soy from newly deforested land in the Amazon biome, after a Greenpeace campaign and pressure from European retailers.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by about how much in the first ten months of 2023 under Lula?

Satellite alerts showed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon down about 50% in January–October 2023 compared with the same months of 2022, after Lula restored enforcement.

Smoke from the 2019 Amazon fires darkened the daytime sky over which city thousands of km away?

On 19 August 2019 smoke carried from the burning Amazon turned the afternoon sky over São Paulo dark, more than 2,000 km from the fires, drawing global attention.

What did President Bolsonaro do after INPE reported deforestation up 88% in June 2019?

Bolsonaro called INPE's data lies and fired the agency's director, Ricardo Galvão, in August 2019; after G7 pressure over the fires he sent 44,000 troops to the region.

Which country has been the largest donor to Brazil's Amazon Fund, set up in 2008 to fight deforestation?

Norway has provided the overwhelming majority of the Amazon Fund's donations since 2008, with Germany and the oil company Petrobras the next biggest contributors.

Chico Mendes, the Amazon activist murdered in 1988, worked in what trade?

Chico Mendes was a rubber tapper who led his fellow tappers' union in defending the forest their trade depended on; he was shot dead at his home in December 1988.

In which Brazilian state was Chico Mendes born and killed?

Mendes was born in and killed at Xapuri, in the state of Acre; the rancher Darly Alves da Silva, who had claimed part of a nearby rubber reserve, ordered the killing.

What was the 'empate' tactic used by Chico Mendes and his followers?

An empate was a human blockade: families stood in front of chainsaw crews to stop forest clearing; the movement also produced the concept of extractive reserves.

The first Amazon rubber boom ran roughly from 1879 until which year?

The first Amazon rubber boom ran from 1879 to 1912, collapsing once Asian plantations undercut wild Brazilian rubber; a brief second boom came during World War II, from 1942 to 1945.

Who smuggled some 70,000 rubber tree seeds from Brazil to Kew Gardens in 1876?

Henry Wickham shipped the seeds from Santarém in 1876; only about 4% germinated, but the seedlings sent on to Ceylon and Singapore founded Asia's rubber plantations.

Which Irish diplomat documented the enslavement and torture of natives in Peru's Putumayo region in 1910-11?

Roger Casement, then a British consul, investigated the Peruvian Amazon Company's rubber stations on the Putumayo in 1910–11, after exposing similar atrocities in the Congo in 1904.

Manaus's Teatro Amazonas opera house, built with rubber money, opened in which year?

The Teatro Amazonas was inaugurated on 31 December 1896, built with bricks from Europe, French glass and Italian marble at the height of the rubber boom.

Which animal, the world's largest rodent, grazes along Amazon rivers and wetlands?

The capybara, the world's largest rodent, is a semi-aquatic grazer that lives in groups along rivers and wetlands across the Amazon basin, escaping jaguars by diving.

Where did Ford move his rubber project after abandoning Fordlândia in 1934?

Ford moved the project to Belterra, 40 km south of Santarém on a flatter site better suited to rubber; synthetic rubber killed demand and Ford sold up in 1945.

What is the fungal disease, endemic to the Amazon, that makes rubber plantations there so hard to run?

South American leaf blight, a fungus native to the Amazon, devastates dense rubber plantings; it is one reason most of the world's rubber is grown in Asia, far from the fungus.

The Yanomami, about 35,000 people, live in the forest on the border between Brazil and which country?

The Yanomami live in the forested highlands straddling the Brazil–Venezuela border, with an entire village sharing one communal roof called a shabono.

What are the small independent gold-diggers who invaded Yanomami land from the 1970s called?

Garimpeiros are small-scale independent gold miners; after 1987 their trickle into Yanomami land became a full gold rush of tens of thousands, bringing malaria and mercury pollution.

Which Brazilian agency created a Department of Isolated Indians in 1987 to protect uncontacted peoples?

FUNAI, Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, created the Department of Isolated Indians in 1987 under Sydney Possuelo, adopting a policy of no forced contact with uncontacted groups.

Which Amazon bird's chicks hatch with claws on their wings?

Hoatzin chicks hatch with two claws on each wing, which they use to clamber back through branches after dropping into water; the adults ferment leaves in an enlarged crop.

Why are they called poison 'dart' frogs?

Indigenous people tipped blowdarts with their toxin, though only a few Phyllobates species were actually used; the frogs' bright colours warn predators, a trait called aposematism.

Which rodent gnaws open the hard capsule of the Brazil nut, spreading its seeds?

The agouti, a large rodent with chisel-like teeth, is almost the only animal able to open the Brazil nut's woody capsule; it buries spare seeds, some of which sprout into new trees.

Brazil nuts are notable for an unusually high content of which micronutrient?

They also contain traces of radium, more than most common foods.

Which country joins Brazil in producing about 87% of the world's Brazil nuts?

Bolivia and Brazil between them produce roughly 87% of the world's Brazil nuts, gathered mostly from wild trees, with Peru supplying most of the rest.

The harpy eagle, the Amazon's largest bird of prey, is the national bird of which country?

The harpy eagle is Panama's national bird and appears on its coat of arms; it snatches live sloths and monkeys from the branches.

The giant water lily Victoria amazonica has floating leaves up to how wide?

Victoria amazonica's floating leaves can reach 3 metres across; their ribbed undersides inspired Joseph Paxton's design for the Crystal Palace.

Victoria amazonica's flowers change from white to reddish pink after being pollinated by what?

Scarab beetles are lured by the white flower's scent and warmth, get trapped overnight, and carry pollen to the next bloom, which then turns reddish pink.

Açaí berries grow on what kind of plant?

Açaí is the fruit of the Euterpe oleracea palm, harvested by climbing its tall, slender trunks in the eastern Amazon floodplains and eaten as a purple pulp.

Amazon legend says the pink river dolphin can turn into a handsome man; what is this shapeshifter called?

The encantado is the shapeshifting boto of Amazon folklore, said to come ashore as a handsome man in a hat that hides his blowhole; another legend says meeting its eye brings lifelong nightmares.

The Amazon river dolphin is unusual among dolphins because its neck vertebrae are what?

The boto's neck vertebrae are unfused, unlike those of most dolphins, letting it turn its head 90 degrees to hunt among flooded forest trees.

The Belo Monte Dam, Brazil's second-largest hydro complex, is built on which Amazon tributary?

Belo Monte sits on the Xingu River near Altamira, diverting much of the river's flow around its 'Big Bend'; Kayapó leader Raoni Metuktire warned of 'a war' over it.

What is the Amazon's 'Meeting of Waters' near Manaus?

The dark Rio Negro and the sandy Solimões run alongside each other for kilometres before merging.

About half the Amazon biome's rainfall comes from the Atlantic; where does the other half come from?

Roughly half of the Amazon's rain is recycled through evapotranspiration within the forest itself, moisture released by the trees that falls again downwind, which is why clearing it can dry it out.

What is the Amazon's seasonally flooded forest along whitewater rivers called?

Várzea is the forest flooded each year by sediment-rich whitewater rivers such as the Solimões; igapó is its blackwater counterpart and terra firme stays dry.

Which head-shrinking Amazonian people fought long wars on the Ecuador-Peru borderlands?

The Jivaro peoples, of whom the Shuar are the best known, shrank enemy heads into tsantsas and resisted both Inca and Spanish conquest in the Ecuador–Peru borderlands.

In which year was Brazil's first indigenous park, championed by the Villas-Bôas brothers, created?

The park, covering the upper basin of a major southern Amazon tributary, was created in 1961 after a decade-long campaign by the Villas-Bôas brothers, backed by the explorer Cândido Rondon.

Manaus was given what special status in 1967 to attract industry to the interior?

Manaus became a free trade zone in 1967, with tax exemptions meant to draw factories to the interior; the military government worried about a 'demographic gap' in the region.

Which Amazon gold rush, with tens of thousands of hand-diggers, did Sebastião Salgado photograph in 1986?

Serra Pelada, in the eastern Amazon, drew up to 100,000 hand-diggers in the 1980s; Sebastião Salgado's 1986 photographs of mud-caked men climbing ladders out of the pit became famous.

The Amazon is often said to make a quarter of Earth's oxygen; what is its actual net oxygen contribution?

The Amazon's net oxygen contribution is roughly zero: respiration and decomposition consume about as much oxygen as photosynthesis produces, so the famous 'lungs' statistic only describes turnover.

In a typical year the Amazon absorbs about 1.5 Gt of CO2; how much did it release in the 2010 drought?

The 2010 drought hit some 3 million km², compared with 1.9 million km² in the 2005 'once-in-a-century' drought.

A 2001 study found how many tree species in just a quarter square kilometre of Ecuadorian rainforest?

A 2001 study counted more than 1,100 tree species in a quarter square kilometre of Ecuadorian rainforest; the whole Amazon is thought to hold about 16,000 tree species.

Which tribe in southern Suriname uses handheld GPS and Google Earth to map its ancestral lands?

The Trio (Tiriyó) of southern Suriname mapped their ancestral lands with handheld GPS and Google Earth, helping the tribe defend boundaries against commercial ventures.

A 2023 World Bank report put Brazil's annual economic losses from deforestation at roughly what?

The World Bank's 2023 report estimated Brazil loses roughly $317 billion a year to Amazon deforestation, about seven times the value of all commodities produced on cleared land.

By what percentage did Colombia say Amazon deforestation fell in January–September 2023?

Colombia reported a 70% fall in Amazon deforestation for January–September 2023 compared with 2022, crediting policies such as paying local residents to conserve the forest.