Follow streams that flow from the Andes Mountains and merge to form the Amazon River
Learn about the origins of the Amazon River by following streams from the Andes Mountains to the Amazon basin.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn how the Andes Mountains block warm moist air, causing persistent heavy rainfall on their eastern slopes that feeds the Amazon River.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Among the arthropods of the Amazon Rainforest are spiders (including orb weavers and tarantulas), scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, butterflies, wasps, rhinoceros beetles, ponerine ants, mantids, and walkingsticks.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn about wildlife of the Amazon Rainforest, including macaws, toucans, tyrant flycatchers, capybaras, tapirs, sloths, squirrel monkeys, red howler monkeys, jaguars, caimans, anacondas, tarantulas, leaf-cutter ants, scarlet ibis, and black skimmers.
Transcript
NARRATOR: The Amazon River has its beginnings high in the Andes, where countless rivers course down the eastern slopes of the mountain range.
Powerful rushing streams surge eastwards from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
In Brazil the current slows as the rivers meander along the gentle slopes of the Amazon basin. These rivers merge to form the largest river in the world—the Amazon. On its way to the Atlantic, the Amazon and its tributaries flow through vast lowlands containing more than half the tropical rainforest left on earth.
Powerful rushing streams surge eastwards from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
In Brazil the current slows as the rivers meander along the gentle slopes of the Amazon basin. These rivers merge to form the largest river in the world—the Amazon. On its way to the Atlantic, the Amazon and its tributaries flow through vast lowlands containing more than half the tropical rainforest left on earth.