Amazon Expedition:science, adventure and conservation

Jay Bancroft8 Dec 2010

University of Delaware Entomology and Wildlife Ecology Seminar

AcknowledgementWildernessclassroom.com

http://www.wildernessclassroom.com/amazon/2008/10/our_home_away_from_home.html

and its sponsors

Fellow expedition adventurers :Dave FreemanAmy Voytella

Eric FrostTonico Osse

Anne DeCock

• Objective for trip, teach kids about culture and biology of Amazonia

• Objective for this talk, give you highlights of our experiences with ecology and conservation spun into our cultural adventure

Conceptual categories3 very interrelated

Culture – indian, Portuguese DevelopmentAgriculture - timber, farms and ranchesEnergy & mining

Biology – biodiversity, ecosystems, bio-prospecting

Outline

SustainabilityRiver & Rainforest

Daily LifeOrganisms & Biodiversity

Culture

Brazil=8,511,965 sq km vs. USA= 9,826,675 sq km

Warming and Carbon

• Losing biodiversity, indians, • My guess is unrestrained growth will decimate ecology

and freshwater system, eventually.• Technology may improve low damn efficiency (still

hydrologic impairment).

Amazon basin =5.4 million square kilometers

Bore http://www.surfline.com/video/video_player/video_player.cfm?id=16195

River: 5x vol of next largest 5 rivers, 11x Miss, 50000 mi navigable, 30’ wet rise on 100”/yr,200m deep at Obidos - 2km wide

River I was hoping for

http://www.wildernessclassroom.com/amazon/2008/10/shopping_in_manaus.html

Expedition Life

Bats,,,fires

Storm & barge

Sickness

Night canoeing with tide

Life vests on

Morning after

No crossing now

Diesel

Sunset dishes with shrimp-pot stakes

Piranha mud or cows with hideous flies

Trails to farinia fields often went by scary hummocks

Biodiversity3000 sp fish 10x Miss.most characins and catfish,800 sp mammals, 2000 sp birds

Atta

Eciton

Not Jays

http://www.wildernessclassroom.com/amazon/2008/10/amazon_honey.html

http://www.wildernessclassroom.com/amazon/2008/10/termite_tunnels_of_the_rain_fo.html

Termite nests abound

Wandering .006mg kills mouse, 7 peptides+priapism, .3mg LD50 v. 5.5mg for black widow

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays but I saw lots

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

Imagine this sound on a walk

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jay

Not Jays

Not Jays

Not Jays

History &CultureManaus – 1669, rubber boom town, now flat screens Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes,

Wallace: lived richly, provided key support for evolution

1852 Monkeys of the Amazon – 3 river barrier subspecies, boat from Belem sank

Humbolt, Bates, Goeldi, Lyell, Darwin, to Wegener’s continental drift

Mandatory voting

Water savvy

Besse and Botos

Missed crash and election