T r e a s u r e s   o f   T h e   A m a z o n

A long way up in the Andes Mountains in the country of Peru, there is a little stream that was only recently discovered by modern explorers. This little stream is the further most point at which the Mighty Amazon begins its journey to the sea. On its way through Peru it picks up more water from bigger streams. Soon it is snaking its way all through the country of Brazil, and is joined by many other large rivers and streams. Now the Amazon has become a huge river. During the rainy season there are places you can't even see across because it covers so much low land. All this land that the Amazon covers is called the Pantanal (pronounced, Pon-tan-all). When the water goes down there are lots of nutrients left behind and the animals and plants of that area depend on them for food and growth.

Along the banks of the Amazon there are mountainous areas and jungles so thick you can't walk through them. Some of the trees are almost 200 feet tall and form a canopy like a giant umbrella above the jungle floor that is so thick that no sunlight can come through to the ground beneath. Up there in the treetop canopy there is a different set of animals that only a few people ever see except in zoos. With their ropes and harnesses some naturalists climb these huge trees and break through this giant umbrella to a whole new world of animals, birds, insects and plants.

Among this new collection of wildlife live the parrots and macaws that are the loudest of all the birds in the jungle. Most of these large birds are very colorful and like jewels, they glisten in the sunlight. They glide with ease from treetop to treetop eating berries and fruit. Most of them fly in flocks and make a very noisy chatter. The macaws and parrots can mimic sounds they hear, even human speech. When they mimic our words, some people think they are making speech but really they have only learned to repeat what they hear. A teacher friend of mine had a parrot in his classroom and soon the parrot was talking so loud and so fast that he was removed to the room next door. Soon he learned to talk just like the kids sounded through the wall. He would talk in a muffled tone and sounded just like someone was just on the other side of the wall.

The Amazon River and Pantanal is home to over 600 different birds and at least 80 species of animals. Hundreds of reptiles and over 300 species of fish call this jungle and river habitat home. Thousands of insects of all kinds keep the treetop flowers pollinated and provide food for the birds and reptiles. There is no other place on Earth that has such a concentration of wildlife and plants than does the Amazon and Pantanal.

Beautiful Scarlet Macaws and Blue and Gold Macaws along with all the other parrots and macaws gather along the clay banks each day and eat clay as they chatter to each other. Scientists believe that they eat the clay to remove the poisons from their bodies since they eat so many poisonous fruits and berries. How did they know to do that?

The most rare and one of the most beautiful macaws is the Hyacinth Macaw that is colored almost entirely blue. With his large beak he can crack open hard Brazil nuts with ease. With 300 pounds of pressure he breaks large sticks with no trouble and could remove your finger if it got in his cage. This bird and all the other birds like him, need a large area to exist. They need large tree holes to nest in and lots of fruit to eat so people need to leave their jungle homes alone and quit collecting so many of them for pets.

Beneath all this jungle activity flows the dark rivers that flow into the Amazon, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Here after a 4000-mile journey it deposits tons and tons of precious nutrients into ocean. The tropical marine life there awaits the arrival of these nutrients and could not live without it. The Amazon carries at least 20 percent of all the fresh water that is emptied into the world's oceans This vast watershed and jungle system affects just about all parts of the world in one way or the other. My Father always referred to this as the "Web of Life" in his Public TV documentaries on the environment years ago.

The Christians Web of Life has as its center the Source of all wisdom and spiritual energy. Unlike the spiders web though, it doesn't entrap us, it gently pulls us nearer to this Source and teaches us by love and patience where we belong in the Great Plan laid out at creation by our Heavenly Father.

Burney Tompkins

    - Uncle Burney