About the Ecuadorian Amazon
The Ecuadorian Amazon has a surface of 120 000 km2 with lush vegetation which is typical of the tropical rainforest. The average temperature is between 24 and 25 C°.
The Amazon is an extensive region of South America which contains the tropical jungle of the Amazon basin. This amazon jungle is the biggest tropical rainforest of the world. It is considered that its extension gets up to 6 000 000 km2. The Amazon is one of the eco-regions with the biggest biodiversity of the world. On November 11, 2011 the amazon jungle was declared one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
The Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana was the first European who travelled ont he Amazon River in 1542. He departed from Quito to look for the Land of Cinnamon on the Napo River until he reached the mouth of the Amazon at the Atlantic Ocean in August 1542.
Ecosystem
The high temperature helps to expand lush and ever green vegetation. The name The Lungs of the Planet, which holds the Amazon region, shows that it is not a coincidence as it maintains the balance of the climate: inflows and outflows of CO2 and O2 are balanced.
The Flora of the tropical rainforest of South America is present in the Amazon jungle. There is a variety of plants that are not classified yet, as well as an abundant bird live, a lot of amphibians and millions of insects.
Fauna
Between mammals, the Amazon has a great quantity of species, such as monkeys, jaguar, puma and tapir. Its water is home of two species of dolphins, one of those is the pink dolphin.
Also, a lot of species of reptiles can be found, like the water and land turtles, caimans, crocodiles and a great deal of snakes, one of them the anaconda, the largest snake of the world.
There is no other ecosystem in the world with such a quantity of bird species; between those are, macaws toucans, the big eagles, like the harpy eagle, and several other species, generally with colored feathers. 20% of the world’s bird species live in the Amazon rainforest.
Flora
20% of the world’s plant species can be found in the Amazon rainforest.