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There are many indigenous groups of people who have live in the tropical rainforests. Many of these groups, like the Yanomamo tribe of the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and southern Venezuela, have lived in scattered villages in the rainforests for hundreds or thousands of years. These tribes get their food, clothing, and housing mainly from materials they obtain in the forests. Forest people are mostly hunter-gatherers; they get their food by hunting for meat (and fishing for fish) and gathering edible plants, like starchy roots and fruit. Many also have small gardens in cleared areas of the forest. Since the soil in the rainforest is so poor, the garden areas must be moved after just a few years, and another part of the forest is cleared. Most indigenous populations are declining. There are many reasons for this. Their primary problems are disease (like smallpox and measles, which were inadvertently introduced by Europeans) and governmental land seizure

The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world, covering over five and a half a million square kilometres (1.4 billion acres)

Over half of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil but it is also located in other South American countries including Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Bolivia, Suriname and French Guiana.

10% of the world’s known species live in the Amazon rainforest.

THE AMAZON BASIN: Amazing Facts and Figures The Amazon basin has the most developed rainforest of anywhere in the world. Over two-thirds of all the fresh water on earth is found with

covers an area of approximately 2.5 million square miles (650 million hectares) which is approximately 40% of South America. If superimposed on the United States, it would cover n

he Amazon basin and over 20% of the earth’s oxygen is produced there. Although exact numbers are not known, the basin may contain up to one million plant species. The Amazon basin is drained by the Amazon

Capybara

Capybaras are the largest of the rodent species. Weighing as much as a man, these oversized, pig-like animals are highly adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and even mate in the water. Capybaras are found over much of South America. Efficient grazers, they are able to crop even the short, dry grasses left at the end of the dry season. They are capable of a range of vocalisations and can purr and bark. Like rabbits, they eat their own dung to extract maximum nutrition from their food.