The Flooded Forest
Summary:
The film started off by highlighting how the Amazon River started as a lake then broke through Atlantic to create what we now know as the Amazon River. The Amazon today has a drainage basin that is almost as large as the United States. The area has a dry season lasting six months and a wet season lasting six months. Every year the rain causes thousands of miles of flooding, about forty miles inland on either side of the river. The rise and fall of the water levels indicate the local’s way of life. The film followed Michael Gouling, an ecologist and naturalist, as he studied the flooded forest and how it worked.
The native people helped Michael immensely. They are called Caboclos and they are people of a mixed Indian and European blood. Many people consider Caboclos scientists because they must understand ecology of animals in order to be successful in life. The Caboclos live off of the river.
The Amazon has the greatest diversity of fish than any other river in world, consisting of 2000 known species with possibly just as many undiscovered. For example, there are twenty different types of Piranha that occupy different niches, which is why they are all successful in living together in the river. Another example is the rivers sting rays whose ancestors were trapped when the lake became a river and became adapted to fresh water. The river dolphins had the same fate, but locals believe that to kill one of the dolphins brings bad luck or ill health to your future. Also mentioned was the River monkey or Arowona which will spring out of the water to catch bugs.
Not only is the Amazon home to large amounts of fish biodiversity but also mammal diversity as well. The Uakari, a unique monkey that is white in color with a red face, calls the Amazon and only the Amazon home. Scientists found that the brighter the red face the healthier the monkey. Howler monkeys are the loudest monkeys in forest, their calls travel up to two miles. Sloths also inch through life in the Amazon in slow motion. They feed and rest in same tree eating only the leaves surrounding them. Another interesting species that calls the Amazon home is a bird called the Watson, the most rare bird in the flooded forest.
From December to may it may rain every day in the Amazon.
Towns that surround the river use large fishing vessels to help bring in larger catches but large fisheries threaten the populations of Amazon fish.
During the dry season, the land dries and the water recedes revealing beaches that were previously covered. River Turtles go to beaches and breed at same time every year. So while turtle species are protected, local fisherman have higher catch rates because the fish are in a smaller amount of water. The film ended with this quote that I very much liked: "Let us permit nature to take her own way, she better understands her own affairs than we."
Reflection:
The Flooded Forest was a brilliant film. It was full of information on biodiversity in the rainforest and really highlighted key elements to what life is really like for natives in the rainforest.Before watching this film, I was already curious about the immense amount of wildlife in the rainforest which was why I was truly interested throughout it. Seeing the different types of birds, monkeys, fish and insects really got me excited to go and experience the Amazon first hand. But I believe that the selling point for me on the film was the native people, the Caboclos. It was truly mind blowing to see their way of life. The techniques they used to fish like using fruits from trees or hanging gill-nets between trees just showed the amount of knowledge that they have about the fish with whom they share their home with. Also, the way that they kept their livestock on their dock during the wet season also surprised me. I guess i really never realized how different the amazonian culture is to ours until i watched this film. It really made the point sink in that they are still so technologically behind us, sometimes we forget.
Golden Amazon
Summary:
The Golden Amazon begins by going behind the scenes of an illegal Amazonian logging company by using a hidden camera. These loggers are contributing illegal deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest. The narrators of the film found a ton of the illegal wood and followed a truck full of it. Workers are paid highly to find trees and mark them so logging company can go in and cut them down. It is an extremely profitable business but has serious ecological consequences. The loggers take down tree after tree and in turn shorten the life of the forest. The film stated that at least twenty other species of trees get taken down for each one tree that the loggers cut. Also, cutting one tree causes irreparable damage up to fifty meters around the fallen tree.
The tree logging business is very hushed; it is life threatening to talk about it. Foreign countries are the biggest contributors to the illegal logging. In order to ship the lumber out of Brazil, the logging workers hide the illegal wood between and behind the legal wood on cargo ships.
Manaus is home to only ecologically friendly logging company, they believe that they can only be successful if the ecosystem doesn't suffer and as long as conservation policy is pursued. They also plant three trees for every fallen one and they study the effects of cutting the tree for all the surrounding area. The wood cut this way is marked so people know they are getting wood from people who respect the environment.
Fisherman also practice with respect to the environment. Communal fishing with nets and spears is a sustainable way to fish the Amazon River. A fish nicknamed the"Brazilian cod" fish is fished heavily but only in season and and provides tons of food for the Amazonian people. Fish is their main source of protein. In fact, twenty million Brazilians consume one hundred and ninety grams fish a day.
Gold diggers in Brazil search for gold every day of their lives. They search for anything, even a little nugget to be able to pull them out of poverty. Largest nugget ever found was thirty-two kilos. Five thousand tons of earth is crushed and processed in gold mills. Mercury is used to process gold dust and is often dumped into the Amazon River.
That mercury is taken up in the ecosystem and ingested by fish and transferred to humans, which can cause serious medical issues.
Reflection:
Golden Amazon was a very hard film to watch. It highlighted some extremely disturbing facts and actions done in the Amazon. As a conservation student, it was very hard for me to be able to watch all the trees get cut down in the rainforest because it is so important with global intake of carbon dioxide. It was also unsettling to see all the illegal fish being sold when there were strict regulations on them. This was awakening for me to be able to actually see what goes on behind all these illegal sales and deals. This film was well done with tons of examples in order for the viewer to understand the message behind what the director was trying to convey. I really enjoyed the part about the chemistry of the gold, I'm a bit of a chemistry nerd and it was exciting to watch the physical changes in the gold alloys.
I Have Seen the Earth Change
Summary:
This film started by introducing the country of Para and the Tapajós river that runs into the Amazon. It is mainly about the native people living on water. The film follows Marlene, a native who loves where she lives and doesn't want to leave. She is preparing for the rainy season. Typically, the natives welcome the rainy seasons but recently, the water was coming higher than usual. Banzeros are large waves that roll through the river and are extremely dangerous when the water levels are very high. Preparing for floods is no joke; people are sleep deprived because the banzeros keep moving houses and boats all night.
Mentioned a lot through the film was the storm in 2009 that was extremely devastating for the native people living along the river, many people moved inland after it. The Amazonian environmental research institute helps people adapt to climatic changes. The Center of research for the biosphere and atmosphere in the Amazon points to climatic changes for the reason of the extreme flood. They state that there is no balance between the seasons and that there is no longer a border separating dry and wet seasons. Every year the situation worsens a little more. Specifically, La Niña increases rainfall in Brazil and causes extreme floods. Climate change strongly reinforced the effects.
We watched Marlene raise her boat dock to deal with rising tide, and also check her house to prepare for winds. Then we heard from a fisherman who claimed that when the area started becoming deforested was when all the extreme flooding occurred. He said that without trees the land disappears. He also thinks that rising tides are a direct link to deforestation since the 1960's. Fishing supports the cities, when the weather is altered their livelihood is threatened. The quantity of fish declines because of global warming, and amount of fisherman.
Another thing that we watched Marlene do was gather her medical plants. Marlene helps people; she is sort of like a doctor. We watched her take medical supplies and put them onto a communal boat to save them from the possible flood. After that, the film showed that vegetation plays key role in the change of the region. Students got the opportunity to replant canarana to help keep city safe. Reforestation to repair damage already done.
Reflection:
This was the perfect order to watch these videos in. I wanted to watch a video about the amazonian people and this video was perfect. The film followed a sweet lady named Marlene around and it was just interesting to see the way she lives. Her house was very unique and I enjoyed seeing her love for the area she lived in. She grew up on that river and she was determined to stay, regardless of what she had to do about it. The film was well put together to tell Marlene's story and how she was able to overcome the floods. I am excited to watch the next film because now it will focus more on the wildlife of the unique rainforest and river.
Wildlife of Brazils Amazon
Summary:
The film started by introducing the Amazon Rainforest as the world’s greatest natural habitat on earth. It is the world’s largest rainforest and worlds mightiest river. It is home to the largest biodiversity of animals and plants and this film pointed out some of the most interesting of them all.
The amazon largest predator is an alligatorid crocodilian called the Cayman. They utillize group work to hunt prey and are very successful hunters. Next, the relationship between the dotted humming frog and borrowing tarantella spider was explained. It is a symbiotic relationship in which frogs eat ants that prey on spider eggs and spiderlings, while the spiders provide protection for the frogs. Another symbiotic relationship was between a tree, a bee and a rodent. The bees fertilizes the trees, the rodent opens tree nut to get a meal but hides leftovers all over the forest, and the tree seeds are spread. Another interesting animal was the macaw. Macaws eat toxic plants during dry seasons but they go to clay banks to neutralize toxins in their diet. While at these clay banks they socialize and find a mate.
The native tribes of the rainforest are the Martias people. They live in the protection of a national park now but have deep knowledge of the jungle that they call home from their ancestors. They make use of poisonous plants around them, for example they use one plant to hunt monkeys, the squirrel monkey specifically. In Brazil there are over one hundred different kinds of monkeys, and nine were newly discovered in the last decade.
The Mata-Mata turtle is a highly trained killer. It has a highly extendable neck and it uses large jaws to catch fish quicker than the blink of a human’s eye. Also, the Amazon River dolphin uses sonar to hunt like its oceanic ancestors but he is much more flexible for swimming in rivers. The river dolphins throw driftwood around in a courtship dance. Mentioned in a previous film, the Amazon River turtle breeds specifically in the dry season when the water levels are so low that there are beaches exposed. Another animal that depends on low water levels is the Amazon river otter. It needs that dry season so that the mother can make a den for her pups to have shelter and so that her pups can play in shallow waters.
Sloths have very low mobility, which makes it harder for them to adapt to changing forest conditions. If the forest becomes more fragmented, sloths may not survive. This goes with all of the organisms in the rainforest, if the climate changes too much the animals may not be able to live there and will either be forced to adapt more or go extinct.
Reflection:
This video was very interesting. I enjoy learning about wildlife so this film was extremely pleasant to watch. Learning how all the animals interact with their habitat was the best part of this film. Also, I really enjoyed that the director really emphasized the beauty of all the animals and how unique each and every one of their niches are so that the final take home message of the film really hit home. If we keep changing the forest we will in turn effect the climate and the climate change will have an immense effect on the amazing animals that call the rainforest their home. I cannot wait to go to this beautiful country and get to see these creatures first hand. I think this video made me the most excited to go to Manaus and see the rainforest and the Amazon river.