#amazon river

[samimarkart]

drawing inspired by one of the tanks at the Shedd Aquarium… arapaima my beloved

day and night version because i’m indecisive!

[free-my-mindd]

Experts estimate that nearly 60% of the Amazon rainforest remains unexplored.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: mata mata

Buckle up, buccaneers, because it's turtle time. We travel to the swamps and streams of the Amazon in search of this raggedy reptile. The mata mata is truly the world's skrunkliest turt and it has carved out an interesting niche in the world.

(Image: a mata mata out of water. It is a turtle with a light brown shell that has spiked ridges running down it. The feet have webbed toes and claws. The neck and head are disproportionately large and have a ragged appearance. The head is flat and triangular, with small eyes and nostrils on a tubular nose. End ID)

Mata mata refers to two closely related species of freshwater turtle: the Amazonian mata mata (Chelus fimbriata) and Orinoco mata mata (Chelus orinocensis).Prior to 2020,these were classified as the same species and both have a very similar anatomy and lifestyle. Mata matas are large turtles, with a carapace length up to 45 cm (18 in) and weight of 17.2 kg (38 lbs). Their shells have many spines and ridges while the body, especially the large neck and head, has many skin flaps, tubercles, and ridges. The body and shell are primarily brown to black. This has the effect of making the turtle look like decaying bark and leaves, an effective form of camouflage. The nose is very long, with nostrils at the tip, which, when combined with the long neck, allows the turtle to reach the water's surface to breathe while staying on the bottom. The chin has some short sensory barbels growing from it.

(Image: a mata mata in an aquarium. It is sitting on some rocks with its neck outstretched to reach the surface. End ID)

Mata matas are native to the Amazonian and Orinoco river basins, where they prefer slow-moving waters with low visibility, such as streams, backwaters, and swamps. They are primarily carnivorous, but have been known to eat plants, possibly to supplement their diets or by accident. They are sit and wait predators whose hunting strategy is to sit very still among vegetation. Their camouflage allows them to remain unnoticed by prey. When prey draws close, the turtle opens its mouth. This creates a vacuum, drawing water and prey into the mouth. The turtle then closes its mouth, forcing the water out, and swallows the prey whole. Unlike snapping turtles, who have a similar sit and wait hunting style, the mata mata has weak jaws with fleshy lips rather than beaks and thus cannot bite prey into chunks. It therefore has to feed on animals small enough to swallow whole. Their diet consists of small fish, frogs, and invertebrates. Because they inhabit waters with very low visibility, mata matas have very poor eyesight and rely on other senses to tell when prey is near. Mata matas have also been known to herd groups of fish into shallow water before eating. Unlike many other aquatic turtles, mata matas rarely come ashore to bask in the sunlight. They are also very poor swimmers and mostly crawl along the bottom of their habitats.

(Image: a mata mata facing the camera with its mouth open. The mouth is very wide and takes up most of the head. End ID)

Mata matas display sexual dimorphism. Females are generally larger, though not by that much. Males have longer, thicker tails than females as well as a concave plastron (lover shell) as opposed to the female's flat plastron. Mating occurs late in the year, around October. Males will seek out females and engage in a courtship dance that involves playing out the limbs, wiggling the skin flaps, and extending the heat toward the female while opening and closing his mouth. During mating, the male mounts the female. His concave plastron helps him stay on her shell without falling off. The female will emerge from the water to lay her eggs. She will bury them either in sand or decaying vegetation to keep them warm. She then leaves and neither parent provides parental care. The gestation period varies depending on temperature, up to 200 days at low enough temperatures. In other turtle species, the temperature of the eggs determines the sex of the hatchling. I could not find any references describing how or if this is the same in mata matas. Hatchlings have to scramble their way into the water. Juvenile mata matas have pink plastrons that darken to brown as they age. The maximum age of mata matas in the wild is unknown. In captivity, they usually live for 15 years, but sometimes up to 30.

(Image: a juvenile mata mata held in hand. It is held so the underside is facing the camera, displaying the pink color of the plastron. It is smaller than a cell phone. End ID)

Both species of mata mata are classified at least concern by the IUCN, meaning they are not in danger of extinction. Their primarly threat comes from habitat loss as more and more parts of their rivers are taken over fro land development. Mata matas are also edible and sometimes caught for food. Their unusual appearances have made them somewhat popular in the pet trade and wild mata mata are often caught for this purpose.

(Image: an extreme close-up of a mata mata's face. The shape of its mouth makes it look like it has a smug smile. End ID)

[cosmopoliturtle]

Riverbed Berserker

[homo-house]

hey uh so I haven't seen anyone talking about this here yet, but

the amazon river, like the biggest river in the fucking world, in the middle of the amazon fucking rainforest, is currently going through its worst drought since the records began 121 years ago

picture from Folha PE

there's a lot going on but I haven't seen much international buzz around this like there was when the forest was on fire (maybe because it's harder to shift the narrative to blame brazil exclusively as if the rest of the world didn't have fault in this) so I wanted to bring this to tumblr's attention

I don't know too many details as I live in the other side of the country and we are suffering from the exact opposite (at least three cyclones this year, honestly have stopped counting - it's unusual for us to get hit by even one - floods, landslides, we have a death toll, people are losing everything to the water), but like, I as a brazilian have literally never seen pictures of the river like this before. every single city in the amazonas state is in a state of emergency as of november 1st.

pictures by Adriano Liziero (ig: geopanoramas)

we are used to seeing images of rio negro and solimões, the two main amazon river affluents, in all their grandiose and beauty and seeing these pictures is really fucking chilling. some of our news outlets are saying the solimões has turned to a sand desert... can you imagine this watery sight turning into a desert in the span of a year?

while down south we are seeing amounts of rain and hailstorms the likes of which our infrastructure is simply not built to deal with, up north people who have built everything around the river are at a loss of what to do.

the houses there that are built to float are just on the ground, people who depend on fishing for a living have to walk kilometers to find any fish that are still alive at all, the biodiversity there is at risk, and on an economic level it's hard to grasp how people from the northern states are getting by at all - the main means of transport for ANYTHING in that region is via the river water. this will impact the region for months to come. it doesnt make a lot of sense to build a lot of roads bc it's just better to use the waterway system, everything is built around or floats on the river after all. and like, the water level is so incomprehensibly low the boats are just STUCK. people are having a hard time getting from one place to another - keep in mind the widest parts of the river are over 10 km apart!!

this shit is really serious and i am trying not to think about it because we have a different kind of problem to worry about down south but it's really terrifying when I stop to think about it. you already know the climate crisis is real and the effects are beyond preventable now (we're past global warming, get used to calling it "global boiling"). we'll be switching strategies to damage control from now on and like, this is what it's come to.

I don't like to be alarmist but it's hard not to be alarmed. I'm sorry that I can't end this post with very clear intructions on how people overseas can help, there really isn't much to do except hope the water level rises soon, maybe pray if you believe in something. in that regard we just have to keep pressing for change at a global level; local conditions only would not, COULD NOT be causing this - the amazon river is a CONTINENTAL body of water, it spans across multiple countries. so my advice is spread the word, let your representatives know that you're worried and you want change towards sustainability, degrowth and reduced carbon emissions, support your local NGOs, maybe join a cause, I don't know? I recommend reading on ecological and feminist economics though

however, I know you can help the affected riverine families by donating to organizations dedicated to helping the region. keep in mind a single US dollar, pound or euro is worth over 5x more in our currency so anything you donate at all will certainly help those affected.

FAS - Sustainable Amazon Fundation

Idesam - Sustainable Developent and Preservation Institute of Amazonas

Greenpeace Brasil - I know Greenpeace isn't the best but they're one of the few options I can think of that have a bridge to the international world and they are helping directly

There are a lot of other smaller/local NGOs but I'm not sure how you could donate to them from overseas, I'll leave some of them here anyway:

Projeto Gari

Caritás Brasileira

If you know any other organizations please link them, I'll be sure to reblog though my reach isn't a lot

thank you so much for reading this to the end, don't feel obligated to share but please do if you can! even if you just read up to here it means a lot to me that someone out there knows

also as an afterthought, I wanted to expand on why I think this hasn't made big news yet: because unlike the case of the 2020 forest fires, other countries have to hold themselves accountable when looking at this situation. while in 2020 it was easier to pretend the fires were all our fault and people were talking about taking the amazon away from us like they wouldn't do much worse. global superpowers have no more forests to speak of so I guess they've been eyeing what latin america still has. so like this bit of the post is just to say if you're thinking of saying anything of the sort, maybe think of what your own country has done to contribute to this instead of blaming brazil exclusively and saying the amazon should be protected by force or whatever

[wenbochenphoto]

The confluence of the Amazon and the Rio Negro is phenomenal. They don't immediately mix when meeting at Manaus; they flow side by side for 6 kilometres, and the full mixing takes another 60 kilometres to complete. This is due to the differences in temperature and sediments.

[wachinyeya]

MSN

[illustratus]

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)