Every night, a single colony of Amazonian bats can spread millions of seeds and pollinate more than 500 plant species. Their work supports forest regeneration, biodiversity and the livelihoods of river communities.
After more than three decades missing from parts of the Rio Negro, black caimans are being recorded again, including adults and juveniles. Their return shows how conservation, science, and local communities can help restore an ecological balance.
With moustaches sweeping past its shoulders, the emperor tamarin of the western Amazon raises its twins as a team and joins saddleback tamarins to watch the forest on two levels.
Near black on top, yellow along the belly and a tail of blazing red: the redtail catfish is the most colourful giant in the Amazon and one of the few large predators that also eats fruit and plants trees while doing it.
One part sugar to four parts water, white refined or granulated sugar only, never honey or brown sugar, and the solution replaced daily. A backyard feeder supports urban Amazonian wildlife when it is managed well, and becomes a disease hotspot when it is neglected.
This is not the false coral snake. Snakes of the genus Micrurus carry the most potent neurotoxic venom in Brazil, a nearly painless bite that can lead to respiratory paralysis within hours.
It flies more than 8,000 kilometres from the United States and Canada to spend the northern winter fishing in Amazonian rivers, returning to the same lake each season.
The world’s largest parrot picks a stone, carries it and uses it to open nuts no other forest animal can crack. A case of animal cognition that left primatology rethinking its own definitions.
Biological corridors, bioacoustics, genomics and community guardianship: the methods the Amazon built to save rare birds are now travelling to other continents.
The yellow-footed tortoise swallows the Amazon’s heaviest seeds whole and releases them weeks later, far from the parent tree, a role no bird or rodent can replace.
