Interesting Facts about the Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon rainforest, covering much of northwestern Brazil and extending into Colombia, Peru and other South American countries, is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, famed for its biodiversity. It’s crisscrossed by thousands of rivers, including the powerful Amazon. River towns, with 19th-century architecture from rubber-boom days, include Brazil’s Manaus and Belém and Peru’s Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado. Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. Since Amazon rain forest makes up 40% of the world’s tropical forest cover and produces the most significant quantity of oxygen, it is rightly described as the lungs of the earth.

Interesting Facts about the Amazon Rainforest

1. The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Covering over 5.5 million square kilometres, it’s so big that the UK and Ireland would fit into it 17 times!
2. In 2007, a man named Martin Strel swam the entire length of the Amazon river! To complete his splashing jungle journey, Martin powered through the water for up to ten hours a day for 66 days!
3. A lot of our food and medicine comes from there
4. The Amazon rainforest (also known as Amazonia) ranks #1 among the biggest forests in the world, covering around 2.1 million square miles. This includes approximately 60% of Peru, which is the largest extension in any country after Brazil.
5. One of the deadliest animals that lives in the rainforest is the Pirarucu. This is a type of meat-eating fish that devours other fish and can grow up to 10 feet long.
6. It is located in a territory of nine countries
7. According to Survival International, there are approximately 240 indigenous tribes in Brazil today (around 90,000 people in total), living in 690 different government-recognized territories. The vast majority of this reserved land (over 98%) lies within the Amazon basin. Brazil is also home to more uncontacted indigenous tribes than any other country in the world, with an estimated 80 of them living in remote corners of the Brazilian Amazon.
8. The Amazon rainforest covers over half of the world’s remaining rainforest
9. Interestingly, a European by the name Francisco de Orellana is named after the Amazon for navigating the entire Amazon River
10. A quarter of the western medicine pharmaceuticals used today has rainforest based ingredients that originate from the Amazon rainforest
11. The Amazon rainforest contains more than 3,000 fruits. Only 200 of these are consumed in the western world.
12. Guinness Record For Swimming Across Amazon River
13. It is thought that between 400 or 500 different groups of native tribes live in the forest, with over 50 groups of them never having met people outside of their tribe!
14. There are many types of rare plants that live in the Amazon Rainforest- around 40,000 different kinds to be exact!
15. Around 2% of sunlight reaches the ground.
16. Chocolate, pineapple and cinnamon all come from rainforests!
17. The Amazon rainforest in South America is the largest tropical rainforest.