SURVIVING THE AMAZON – A LIFE AMONG TREES

In the Amazon, the trees dominate the horizon. There are over three hundred billion of them, covering nine south American countries. More than twelve hundred species, spending all day pumping out much of the planets’ oxygen. But each and every one of them is also a thriving ecosystem all to itself. They all play host to a bustling community of dozens of different animal species. While the tree must push its way ever upward to harvest the sunlight it needs to survive, the creatures that live here spend their days pursuing agendas of their own. For some, the tree’s branches form a protective embrace, providing shelter and a place to raise their families in comparative safety, while the tree’s leaves are a welcome source of food. For others, every available nook, cranny and crevice is a hunting ground. Predator and prey live in close proximity in these titans of the jungle, forming a dog eat dog neighbourhood on each tree. With every sunrise and sunset the cast of characters inhabiting the tree changes over. At night, the tree switches to carbon dioxide production while its lower branches play host to nocturnal snakes and their targets, the juicy frogs on the forest floor. The spiders using the tree’s giant buttress roots as anchor points for their webs, ensnare much of their prey at night. And the Owl Monkeys, the world’s only nocturnal monkey begin their night-long search for insects. As the sun rises and the tree resumes making oxygen, a whole new cast of characters takes over, including the world’s smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset. These palm-sized simians take their nourishment directly from the tree. They use their sharp teeth to carve out holes in the bark that constantly refill with refreshing sap, providing the tiny monkeys with the amazon equivalent of an espresso bar. Every tree in the Amazon is home to a living soap opera.