Images of rarely seen animals of the Amazon have been released. Some of them are strange indeed
Born about 10 million years ago and now covering half a million square miles of the Amazon basin, the Amazon rainforest represents half of the world's remaining rainforests. Sixty percent of it lies in Brazil, with the rest covering parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. It is most biodiverse tropical rainforest on Earth.
Many of the animals that live there have rarely been seen, but thanks to 23 hidden cameras set up in remote areas of the rainforest in Peru by the Smithsonian's Peruvian Amazon Biodiversity Project, we can now view some of these little-known creatures.
National Georgraphic has posted a story on their Web site featuring some of these remarkable photos, like this giant armadillo.
But the days of these and many other plants and animals are numbered due to human activity like deforestation due to logging, human development and agriculture, as well as oil and gas exploration.
GET INVOLVED
- Do these ten things recommended by Countdown 2010 to help stop biodiversity loss
- Protect an acre of rainforest through Conservation International
- Donate to the Rainforest Action Network
- Take these seven steps to help save the Amazon rainforest
- Support Survival International's campaigns to help the tribes of the Amazon
- Hey You, Get Off of My Cloud (May 30, 2009)
- Blowing Noses Into Dead, Ancient Trees (February 29, 2009)
- Dismembering the Earth's Heart and Lungs (January 25, 2009)
- Reading List: How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth (December 1, 2008)
- Amazon Threatened By Oil and Gas Exploration (August 15, 2008)
