Adventure in The Amazon Rainforest - Short Story
- 1. Adventure in The Amazon Rainforest (short story)
- 2. James Watson had a passion for adventure. He had just returned from the Amazon rainforest. He is sharing his story of the Amazon Jungle with his friend Samuel Parker. James lives in California, USA.. His friend lives in his neighborhood. James and Samuel were talking to one another. James Watson said: “I went to the Amazon biome. It is a wonderful tropical rainforest. It is an amazing basin in South America.” Samel Parker replied, “Tell me more about it.”
- 3. James said, “This basin includes 7,000,000 km2 or 2,700,000 sq miles and out of them 500,000 km2 or 2,100,000 sq mi, they have been covered by rainforest. There were nine nations.” Samuel said, “I have heard that forest has been found within Brazil. There is 60% rainforest there. You will be happy to know that Peru has 13% rainforest. Columbia has 10% forest cover. There are also small rainforest cover in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname.”
- 4. James asked, “ What are the amazing facts about Amazon?” Samuel replied, “I have heard that Amazon shows half of our earth’s rainforests! It includes approximately 390 billion individual trees and there are 16,000 species!”
- 5. James said, “You are right! The tribal societies have made wars among themselves. The animosity is going on between local tribes of Jivaro. Jivaroan group consists of Shuar, who adopted the profession of headhunting as their trophies along with headshrinking.” Samuel said, “ It is true that there is conflict among Yanomami tribes. The Yanomamo males have given their lives due to warfare”.
- 6. James said, “With the expansion of rubber cultivation of Amazon, the immigrants have brought diseases like malaria and typhus. It had caused the death of around 40,000 native people of Amazon”. Samuel said, “ I came to know from my anthropology teachers that there are wet tropical forests along tropical forests in Americas. There is amazing biodiversity. It is said that one in ten known species in our world are present in the Amazon rainforest.”
- 7. James replied, “You are right! The region has 2.5 million species of insects. There are tens of thousands of the plants along with 2,000 birds plus mammals.” Samuel said, “ I read from different books that Amazon has 40,000 plant species along with 2,200 fishes. There are 1,294 birds along with 427 mammals.”
- 8. James exclaimed, “ It is true that there are 428 amphibians along with 378 reptiles. There has been scientific classification. It is interesting to note that 1 in 5 of those bird species are present in the rainforest of Amazon.” Samuel said, “ You are right! One out of five fish species inhabit in the rivers of Amazon. There are between 96,660 and 128,843 species of invertebrate in Brazil.”
- 9. James asked, “ Do you know that the biodiversity of plant is highest on our Earth with 2001 research report? Do you know that one fourth square kilometer of rainforest of Ecuador have greater than 1,100 tree species?” Samuel said, “ Oh! That is really interesting! Tell me more about it!”
- 10. James said, ‘In 1999, it has been found that one square kilometer of the rainforest of Amazon have 90,790 tonnes of the plants. The plant biomass on an average has been roughly at 356 ± 47 tonnes per hectare.” Samuel said, “Wow! That is really interesting! I have heard that the plant species is 438,000 species and they have social and economic interest. They have been associated with that region and more species are going to be catalogued. So, there is a lot of research work which needs to be done!”
- 11. James said, “ I will go into another expedition in Amazon to do research there! There are 16000 species of tree.” Samuel asked, “ Tell me about the animals of Amazon. I would like to know about them. They are interesting too!”
- 12. James said, “ The rainforest consists of a number of species which might be hazardous. There are big predators like Jaguar, black caiman, anaconda, cougar, etc.” Samuel asked, That’s great! What kind of animals are there in river?
- 13. James said, “There are electric eels, which can give electric shock. It might kill. There were piranha and one of my crew member was bitten and injured.” Samuel said, “ I have heard about frogs and other species. Tell me about them.”
- 14. James said, “ There are different species of the dart frogs, which are poisonous! They secret a substance known as lipophilic alkaloid which is a toxin secreted from flesh. I have come across vampire bats in the jungle. I have heard that they can spread the virus named rabies.”
- 15. Want More Short Stories? Pratanu Banerjee is a short story writer from kolkata Call 91-8017517171 Email pratanubanerjee9@gmail.com INSTITUTE OF PERFORMING ART AND MIND POWER DEVELOPMENT AFFILIATED UNDER WORLD ART ORGANIZATION