Family counseling 

The Amazon flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The deepest rivers in the world. Who discovered the Amazon

Andrei Kirilenko / Photo: RIA Novosti / Evgenia Novozhenina

- How did it happen that, even after ending his career, Andrei Kirilenko remains the leader in Russian basketball?

“That’s how fate happened, that’s how the stars were formed. Indeed, he ended his career and in the summer he made a decision with his family what to do next. You could do nothing at all and leave, you could try something new related to basketball. Coincidentally, this position also makes it possible to manage basketball in Russia.

- In addition, Andrei Kirilenko was number one for 10 years. Number two was not. At the Olympics, you carried the flag, and everyone knew that Andrei Kirilenko was the standard bearer. Nobody else in basketball would be allowed to carry the Russian flag.

- Not true! You just judge that way because there was a certain leader. If it wasn't for him, there would be someone else. Viktor Khryapa used to be a leader, now he is Lesha Shved. Before that, there were Sergey Bazarevich, Vasily Karasev.

- Why did Kirilenko end his career? It was possible to play at a high level for several more years. And win the Euroleague!

- I do not agree that it was possible to play at a high level. He is different in your eyes and in mine. You are used to seeing me in the "He'll do it" style, and I'm used to seeing myself playing on a certain bar.

- Did you end your career to become the President of the Russian Basketball Federation?

- Not. Would have finished anyway.

– UMMC did not start the season very well. The club didn't even reach the Final Four of the Russian Cup, and this is a failure for such a big team. If coach Olaf Lange is fired now, will it be a piquant situation for the RSE?

- Why should it depend on the club? Do we have doubts about the coach's qualifications?

- The RBF coaching council has doubts.

- Good. Let's try to put it on paper then. What options are there? Donskov, Vasin, next?

- Sokolovsky.

And Lange. Let's compare which teams they work with, how successfully.

- At the moment, taking into account disputes, disagreements and other things, Andrei Kirilenko considers this choice the best?

- I think it's the best choice.

- The head coach of the Russian men's team, Sergei Bazarevich, has not been very successful in working with clubs in recent years.

- He won the Challenge Cup with Krasnye Krylia - doesn't that count? The question is simple. With Dynamo, he took fourth place in the Russian championship. See, you don't even have anything to say!

- You can argue all you want, but in fact - not a single club offered him a contract. He is unemployed.

He has a job, just not at the club.

- Is this a problem with the national team?

– I don't see that it's a big problem, but I would like him to have practice. Now there will be windows for international games, so it will be easier. And if they played only in the summer, as before, the coach would now be out of work for a year.

“There should still be option B.

- And why, if there is a main option? For example, I'm not even considering a second candidate right now. If we have chosen a coach, let's trust him!

– There were a lot of subtle moments.

- Yes, everything in our country is thin! You have to trust your people.

- The Swede says live in a timeout: "Coach, at least draw a combination." Vorontsevich argues with the Swede, Mozgov also fell out a couple of times.

- And when in the NBA there is a fight in the locker room? When is someone kicked out of the game? This is part of the process. There is always conflict.

- And when the club president goes down to the locker room and talks to the coach, is that also part of the job?

Every leader has their own approach. If the president of the club intervenes in the process, then let him be ready to take responsibility for his actions. Then don't ask the coach why he lost the match! If we played unsuccessfully, it will be easier for me to ask: “Sergei, why? What are your conclusions?

- Andrei Kirilenko is the leader of the Minnesota. Plays in the starting five, earns $10 million a year. He leaves the club, where he makes decisions, to the team, where he finds himself in a dead reserve and earns $ 3 million a year. Now how can this be explained?

– Of course, if I had known that this would happen, I would not have made such a decision now. If you remember, then in Minnesota the leadership changed - instead of David Kahn, Flip Saunders came. He did not see me in the squad, he planned to create a young team, rebuild the backbone, which happened, we are seeing it now. At that time, the money side was less important.

– More than 3 times! 10 - 3! 7 million dollars!

I understand that this sounds very loud. But during my career I have earned more than 100 million. Yes, this is a lot of money, but it will not affect my already formed life in any way. Here I have a chance to bring something to my biography, to my career, to compete for something serious. I had the option of being traded to, I think, San Antonio. When the trade didn’t take place, Saunders just didn’t go for it, and the Spurs won that year. And, of course, then I already understood: yes, money will be paid, but your role is not counted on. And in such conditions, for example, it is not interesting for me to play.

- A great career in the NBA - and such a faceless ending: the Brooklyn bench and the refusal to play for Philadelphia. It's a shame that it ended so crumpled?

- A little bit. But we are adults, you can't do anything. If you are not put in the squad, it is your own fault, you do not have a certain position where he could put you.

- How much does the president of the RFB earn now?

- This is confidential information. We have certain ethics. I will say that I am not the highest paid in the federation. There is one person who earns more than me. Will this answer suit you?

- Marvelous. How many times does the president of the RFB earn less than a professional basketball player?

- That's when I started in St. Petersburg "Spartak", it was similar to what it is now. And when in "Utah Jazz" ... Millions of times.

- Let's write it down. At the European Championships, we saw a lot of federation presidents…

- In suits and ties?

- ... also former players. Andrei Kirilenko was in a T-shirt and shorts.

– This is a correct remark. At such events, one must also appear in a T-shirt of the Russian national team.

A photo: RIA Novosti / Evgenia Novozhenina


Fair Basketball: Andrey Kirilenko

They became Andrey Kirilenko. He was the only candidate for this post. In a secret ballot at the electoral conference, Kirilenko won 215 votes after considering 215 valid ballots. As president of the RFB, he replaced Yulia Anikeeva who announced her resignation this morning.

Kirilenko is the bronze medalist of the 2012 Olympics, he also won the 2007 European Championship and became the owner of the EuroBasket 2011 bronze medal. He has four victories in the Russian Championship and two in the United League, he won these titles as part of CSKA.

Andrei Kirilenko. Photo: www.russianlook.com

Dossier

Andrei Gennadyevich Kirilenko was born on February 18, 1981 in Izhevsk, USSR. Andrew's father Gennady Kirilenko- athlete, is the head coach of the women's football club "Iskra" (Leningrad region). Mother - Olga Kirilenko- played basketball and played for the women's teams Burevestnik, Spartak, Hammer and Sickle and Skorokhod.

I started playing basketball at the Children's and Youth Sports School of the Frunzensky district of St. Petersburg from the 1st grade. At the age of 15, he began playing professional basketball.

In 1995, as part of the city team, he became the Russian basketball champion among players born in 1981.

In 1997, he began playing in the St. Petersburg "Spartak", becoming the youngest player in the championship of Russia in the history of the tournament.

In 1997, he took part in the European Championship among juniors, as a result of which he was recognized as the most valuable player (MVP - from the English Most Valuable Player) of the tournament.

In 1998 he moved to CSKA. Together with the team, for the first time, he won the gold medals of the Russian championship; in the Euroleague, the club finished the tournament ahead of schedule at the 1/8 final stage, losing in two matches to the Turkish Efes Pilsen.

In 2000 he was recognized as the best player in the Russian championship.

In 2001, he received an invitation to play in the NBA, as part of the Utah Jazz club, where he soon managed to win a place in the starting lineup.

As part of the Russian national basketball team, he won gold medals at the 2007 European Championship, bronze medals at the 2011 European Championship and a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games.

In the 2012/2013 season, he played in the United States under a 10 million contract for the Minnesota Timberwolves, played 64 games, was one of the seniors in the team, the team almost reached the playoffs of the NBA championship.

In recent years, he played for the Brooklyn Nets club team (Brooklyn Nets, New York, owner Mikhail Prokhorov).

Charity

Kirilenko devotes a lot of time to charitable and social activities. In 2003, he created the Kirilenko’s Kids Charitable Foundation (“Kirilenko for Children!”) in the USA, Salt Lake City, since 2006 the foundation has been operating in Russia. He helps children's hospitals, orphanages and boarding schools, sports schools, sports veterans and those basketball players with health problems, and is engaged in the development of mass non-professional children's sports.

In 2012, Andrei Kirilenko transferred to the fund everything he earned under the contract with PBC CSKA.

Ranks

Honored Master of Sports of Russia in basketball (2007).

Awards

  • Champion of Russia in basketball among youths (as part of the national team of St. Petersburg, 1995)
  • Silver medalist of the European Youth Championship (as part of the Russian national team, 1997)
  • Silver medalist of the first World Youth Games (as part of the Russian team, 1998, Moscow)
  • European champion (as part of the Russian national basketball team, 2007)
  • Standard-bearer of the Russian Olympic team at the opening ceremony of the XXIX Summer Olympic Games (2008, Beijing)
  • Bronze medalist of the European Championship (as part of the Russian national basketball team, 2011)
  • Three-time champion of Russia (as part of the PBK CSKA team, 1999, 2000, 2012)
  • International Basketball Federation/FIBA European Player of the Year (2007, 2012)
  • Bronze medalist of the XXX Summer Olympic Games (as part of the Russian national basketball team, 2012, London)
  • Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, for "great contribution to the development of physical culture and sports, high sports achievements at the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012 in London (Great Britain)" (2012)
  • Champion of the VTB United League (as part of the PBC CSKA team, 2012)
  • Euroleague Final Four participant (2001, 2012)
  • "The best European basketball player of 2012" according to the authoritative publication "La Gazzetta dello Sport" (2013)
  • Most Valuable Player/ MVP of the European Youth Championship (1997)
  • The youngest participant in the European All-Star Games (1999, 18 years 10 months 10 days)
  • The best player of the championship of Russia (2000)
  • Member of the "Star Games", Russia (1999, 2000)
  • Member of the NBA Rookie Team (2002)
  • Member of the NBA Rookie Games (2002, 2003)
  • Member of the NBA All-Star Game (2004)
  • Member of the NBA All-Star Team, defensive player (2004-2006)
  • NBA regular season leader in block shots (2005)
  • Most Valuable Player/MVP and Best Forward of the European Championship (2007)
  • Member of the symbolic team of the European Championship (2011)
  • Euroleague Regular Season Most Valuable Player/ MVP (2012)
  • Euroleague Defensive Player of the Year (2012)
  • Most Valuable Player/ MVP of the regular season of VTB United League (2012)
  • Most Valuable Player/ MVP of the VTB United League Final Four (2012), etc.

Family status

Married. Wife - Maria Kirilenko (Lopatova), video director, advertiser, singer, business woman, philanthropist.

A son - Fedor (2002).

A son - Stepan (2007).

Daughter - Alexandra(2009), adopted by the Kirilenko family in 2009.

Andrey Kirilenko with his family. Photo: From the personal archive

230 km northeast of Lima, from Lake Lavrikokha on a flat Bombon hill (4,300 m), stretching between Western and Eastern; first, it flows in meanders through a narrow mountain valley 220 km long, forming a series of waterfalls and rapids; only at Hen de Bracamoras, already after 700 km of stretch, it becomes navigable; after that, in an arc of 250 km, it turns to the northeast and east and cuts through the Cordillera with 13 streams, or pongo (gates). Near Rentema, it flows at an altitude of 378 m and widens to 1,600 m, then, after running through a space of 950 km, it enters the wooded under the tropics, where, no longer presenting obstacles to navigation, it continues its way through the lowlands of Peru and for 3,650 km and falls under into . Its total length is 5,000 km.

mouth of the amazon consists of three main branches, forming the islands of Caviana and Mexiana, and near the island of Maraio has a width of 250 km. From this main mouth, called the Canal Braganza, or Rio Macapu, a whole series of branches run southward, of which the largest is called Tahapuru, joining with the Rio Gran Para, which flows into the ocean in the northeast. Lying between two main mouths about. Maraio has an area of ​​19,270 square km. Despite the mass of land washed off the coast, the Amazon does not form deltas at its mouth, on the contrary, it demolished several islets from it; it has many shoals, and therefore its course often changes. The headwaters of the river up to Tabatinga are called Tunguragua and Marañon, before the Rio Negro flows into it, it is called Solimoos, and further to the mouth - Amazonas. The common name "Amazonian River" comes from a legend according to which a tribe of warlike women lived on its banks, or from the word "Amassona", that is, the destroyers of boats, by which name the Indians in the 16th century called this tribe.

The Amazon has over 200 tributaries, of which 100 are navigable; 17 rivers of the first magnitude flow into it with a length of 1500-3500 km; all these rivers form a water area of ​​​​7,337,000, and with the exception of Tocantin - 6,500,000 km2. The eastern slope of the Andes from 3 ° north. latitude to 20 ° south latitude delivers its waters to the Amazon River. Its six tributaries are more significant in length and quantity of water, but even the largest of them, the Rio Negro and Madeira, when flowing into it, have no effect on its course; their waters only at first in a narrow space near the coast have a different color, then they completely merge with it. Almost all tributaries form deltas at their confluence, and often branches flow from the main river into tributaries, so that a continuous network of branches and islands is formed: it is possible, for example, to sail in boats from Santarem up to Obidos, bypassing the main course of the river. The branching of one of the side arms of Madeira, reconnecting with the Amazon after 350 km of its flow, formed its largest island, Ilga dos Tumpinambarana, with a space of 14,300 square km, on which the last remnants of the once powerful Tumpinambas people were preserved.

The entrance to the Amazon is very dangerous, since there are many shoals at the mouths. As a tropical river, the Amazon is the opposite of the Nile, since it does not pass through different belts, but flows almost its entire length in a direction and therefore overflows almost throughout its entire space to incredible limits from falling rains. Rainy time for the Amazon and all its mountain tributaries is from January to March, and then the water, having risen by 10-15 m, protrudes from its banks for many miles. The flood lasts about 120 days. Stretching along the coast, virgin and animal world represents a wide variety of tropical countries.

The Amazon forms a whole network of shipping routes. From the mouth to the Andean slopes, it stretches along a continuous navigable road and near Tabatinga reaches a depth of 13 meters, so that the largest ships can navigate it. It is also quite convenient for sailing ships, since the upper trade winds blow almost all year round. Most of the tributaries are navigable for several hundred kilometers. The total length of all waterways along which Brazilian steamers sail was 9,900 km in 1873. The mouth of the Amazon was discovered in 1500 by Vincent Pinzon, and its source in 1537. Pizarro's companion, Francis de Orellana (1540-41), was the first to travel along it, setting in motion the legend of the country of the Amazons and the golden land, or El Dorado. Of the travelers who subsequently took up the study of this river, remarkable in their research are Pedro Texeira (1637-39), the Jesuit pastor Samuel Fritz (“the apostle of A.R.”), Condamine (1743-44), Spix and Marcius (1820), Mau (1826), Peppit (1831-32), Prussian Prince Adalbert (1842), Count of Castelnaud (1846); Particularly important in this respect are the expedition of Guerndon and Gibbon (1850-52), undertaken on behalf of the North American Union, and the scientific journey of Agassiz at the invitation of the Brazilian government.

Tributaries of the Amazon: The main tributaries of the Amazon: on the right - Guallaga, Ucayali, Khavari, Hutagi, Hurua Teffe Aofi, Purus, Madeira, Tapios, or Rio Preto, Xingu and Tocantin; on the left, Santiogo, Maroña, Pastaza, Napo, Putumayo, Yapura, Rio Negro with Cassikiare, Huatuma and Trombetas.

Inhabitants of the Amazon: The entire space, irrigated by the main stream and tributaries of the Rio Negro and Madeira, is divided into 4 different regions in terms of flora and fauna. The insect fauna is very rich, especially the ant one; , with the exception of monkeys, few. The Amazon is replete with aquatic plants and animals, caimans, dolphins, fish and very tasty turtles; the so-called “pira-ruku”, or red fish, is found in large numbers, reaching 2-2.5 m in length and 60-80 kilograms of weight; it is salted, dried and sold in whole batches in Para. In the Amazon there is a lot of manatee (sea cow), a genus of mammals, which is widely distributed here.

freezing of the amazon: does not freeze.

The Indians call the Amazon "Parana-Thing", which means "Queen of the Rivers". Indeed, this river is in all respects the greatest in the world.

It carries a quarter of all the waters carried into the ocean by the rivers of our planet. And the area of ​​​​its basin - more than seven million square kilometers - allows you to place in it the entire mainland of Australia or a country like the United States.

At the mouth of the Amazon, the width of the Amazon reaches two hundred kilometers, and the depth is one hundred meters! Even near the Peruvian city of Iquitos, three and a half thousand kilometers from the mouth, the depth of the river is more than twenty meters, so ships get here.


The full flow of the Amazon is explained simply: it flows almost exactly along the equator, and the usual summer rainy season for these places alternately occurs either in the northern hemisphere (in March-September), on its left tributaries, or in the southern (from October to April) - on the right tributaries.


Thus, the great river actually lives in a constant flood.

Until recently, it was not known exactly where the origins of the Amazon lie. Its length, together with the main of the two sources, the Ucayali River, was approximately determined at 6565 kilometers, which put the Queen of Rivers in second place in the world after the Nile, which is more than a hundred kilometers longer.


But an international expedition organized in 1995, having reached the upper reaches of the Ucayali, discovered that this source, in turn, is formed from the confluence of two rivers: Apurimac and Urubamba.

Coming to the source of the Alurimak River, the researchers determined that the total length of the entire grandiose Apurimac-Ucayali-Amazon water system is 7025 kilometers and, therefore, it is she who is the first in the world in length. The Nile with its sources the White Nile, Albert Nile, Victoria Nile, Lake Victoria Kageroy is almost three hundred kilometers shorter.



Seventeen of them are from 1800 to 3500 kilometers long. (This, for comparison, is the length of the Don and the Volga!) The huge mass of river water carried by the Amazon desalinates the sea 400 kilometers from the mouth.


The largest river island in the world, located in the Amazon delta - the island of Marajo, has an area of ​​​​48 thousand square kilometers, that is, more than Switzerland or the Netherlands, and the entire delta is larger than Bulgaria in area.


The river gets its name Amazon after the confluence of the Ucayali with the Marañon River.

Both sources begin in the Andes and break through to the plain through narrow rocky gorges - pongo. At the bottom of these gorges there is no place even for a narrow path - it is a continuous bubbling ferocious stream with stones sticking out here and there, sometimes narrowing to twenty meters.


Particularly wayward character in Maranion. On the way from the mountains, he passes through 27 pongos. The lower, most formidable of them is Pongo de Manserice ("Gate of the Parrots"). Breaking through the last canyon, the river enters the vast plain of the Amazon and becomes navigable.

The Amazonian lowland, or Amazonia, is the greatest lowland on Earth. This is a vast realm of swamps and jungles, where the only roads are rivers.


However, these roads are enough in abundance - after all, the rivers of the Amazon are navigable for eight thousand kilometers.


During floods, when the level of the Amazon rises by twenty meters, low banks are flooded for 80-100 kilometers in the area.

Huge territories then represent an endless sea with trees sticking out of the water.


In normal times, the Amazon does not look like a giant river, because it breaks into many branches separated by islands.


There are also floating islands on the river, slowly moving downstream. They are formed by intertwined plant roots and fallen tree trunks, on which new vegetation has risen.




The slope of the Amazonian lowland is so small that the influence of ocean tides is noticeable here even 1000 kilometers from the mouth of the river.


A special feature of the Amazonian tides is the famous “pororoka”.


From the collision of a mighty river with a tidal wave going towards the Amazon, a high shaft is formed, topped with a foamy ridge. It rolls up the river with a loud rumble, sweeping away everything in its path.

Woe to a ship that does not have time to take shelter in a side channel or in a bay in advance - a roaring six-meter water wall will turn it over and sink it.

From time immemorial, Indians have experienced a superstitious fear of this mysterious and formidable phenomenon, which seemed to them some kind of terrible monster that devastates the coast and terrifies with its bubbling roar.

Hence the name of the formidable shaft - pororoka ("thundering water").


The first end-to-end voyage across the Amazon from the Andes to the ocean was made in 1842 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Orellana. For eight months, his detachment sailed along the river for almost six thousand kilometers.


Now it is even difficult to imagine what it cost the Spaniards this almost incredible journey across the entire continent without maps, without knowledge of the characteristics of the river and the languages ​​​​of local tribes, without food supplies, on a fragile home-made boat.


Crocodiles and anacondas, piranhas and river sharks - all these “charms” of the Amazon the Orellana squad had to experience, as they say, on their own skin.

More than once on the way, the Spaniards had a chance to face warlike Indians. In one place, at the mouth of the Trombetas River, the fighting was especially fierce.

And most of all, the conquistadors were struck by the fact that tall half-naked women armed with bows fought in the forefront of the Indian warriors.

They stood out for their fearlessness even against the background of their fellow tribesmen. The brave warriors reminded the Spaniards of the ancient myth of the Amazons - female warriors who did not know defeat.

Therefore, Orellana named the river Amazon.


Since then, many scientists and researchers have visited the great river.

The Frenchman Condamine, the German Humboldt, the Englishman Bates and the Russian traveler Langsdorf at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century managed to penetrate the jungle of the Amazon and discovered for science the amazing living world of the Queen of the Rivers and the surrounding humid forests.

The waters of the local rivers are home to 2,000 species of fish - a third of the diversity of the freshwater fish kingdom of the Earth. (In all rivers of Europe - only 300 species.)

Among the unique inhabitants of the Amazon is a giant five-meter pyraruku (or arapaima), reaching 200 kilograms of weight.

A two-meter electric eel that knocks a person down with a discharge of 300 volts of current, huge river rays with a deadly spike on their tail, a dangerous river shark and a small toothy piranha that terrifies the locals.

The aggressiveness of this predatory creature is indescribable. A hunter who has shot a wild boar or a tapir from a boat often does not have time to swim with a trophy in tow to the shore: from a hefty carcass, a flock of bloodthirsty fish leaves one skeleton.

It happens that for the successful passage of the herd across the river, the shepherds have to sacrifice one cow, which, having previously been injured, is brought into the water below the crossing.

While the piranhas deal with the victim, the rest of the animals have time to cross the ford. Even a vicious predator caught on a bait desperately wriggles in the hands of a fisherman, striving to bite off his finger with razor-sharp teeth.


There are also huge manatees in the Amazon - relatives of the sea cow, and river dolphins, and five-meter crocodiles - black caimans, the victims of which are often not only two-meter tapirs or miniature peccary pigs who came to the watering hole, but also careless hunters.




True, the Indians still say that "one big crocodile is better than three small piranhas" ...

But perhaps the most famous inhabitant of the Amazonian waters is the monstrous anaconda water boa. There are anacondas up to 12 meters long and two meters in girth!


However, hunters talk about fifteen - and even eighteen-meter snakes. It is difficult even to imagine such a "living pipe" that could reach the ground, hanging from the roof of a six-story building.

Places where anacondas are found, and experienced Indian hunters bypass. Not a single animal in the selva (as the Amazonian forests are called in Brazil) can resist the two-hundred-kilogram giantess. Sometimes even jaguars swimming across the river become victims of the anaconda.


And on the smooth surface of calm oxbows and bays in the countless arms of the Amazon, one and a half meter leaves of the largest water lily in the world, Victoria Regia, sway. Round, with upturned edges, they resemble some strange green frying pans. On such a sheet, like Thumbelina, a child of twelve or fourteen years old can sit quietly.


The Amazon rainforest is the richest in terms of number of species of all the forests growing on our planet. On ten square kilometers, you can count up to 1,500 different types of flowers, 750 types of trees, more than a hundred different mammals, 400 species of birds and many snakes, amphibians and insects.

Many of them are still unknown and not described.





The largest selva trees reach 90 meters in height and 12 meters in girth. Even their names sound like music: bertolecia, mamorana, cinnamon, cedarella, babasu, rattan, hevea...

Many of them are of great value.

Tall Bertholets are famous for their delicious nuts. In one shell, weighing several kilograms, there are up to two dozen of these nuts.

They are collected only in calm weather, as the “packaging” torn off by the wind can lay down a careless picker on the spot.

The sweet and nutritious juice of the milk tree resembles milk in taste, and cocoa is obtained from the fruits of the chocolate tree.

Everyone, of course, has heard about the fruits of the melon tree - papaya, and about hevea, the main rubber plant of the modern world, and about the cinchona tree, the bark of which gives mankind the only remedy to relieve attacks of malaria, this scourge of tropical forests.

There are many trees in the selva with beautiful colored wood, like the pau-brazil mahogany, which gave the name to the largest country in South America. And the wood of the balsa tree is the lightest in the world. It is lighter than cork.

Indians build giant jangada rafts from balsa, floating timber down the Amazon, Rio Negro, Madeira and other large rivers. Such rafts sometimes reach hundreds of meters in length and twenty in width, so that an entire village is sometimes placed on them.


But most of all in the Amazon of palm trees - over a hundred species! Almost all of them: coconut, babasu, tukuma, mukata, bakaba, zhupati and karana - benefit a person. Some - with their nuts, others - with wood, others - with fiber, fourth - with fragrant juice.

And only the rattan palm is mercilessly cursed by the inhabitants of the selva.

This is the longest tree on earth (sometimes it reaches three hundred meters!) - in essence, a liana. Its thin trunk is all dotted with sharp spikes.

Clinging to other trees with them, the rattan palm reaches up towards the sun. Intertwining tree branches and trunks, it forms absolutely impenetrable thorny thickets.

No wonder the Indians call it the "devil's rope."

Animals - inhabitants of the selva - are no less diverse than plants. This is the largest animal of the Amazon - the shy and cautious tapir, and the giant capybara - the world champion among rodents. (Imagine a good-natured “mouse” weighing two pounds!)


There are many monkeys here, and they are completely different from their counterparts from Africa or Asia. Among them is the creepy wakiri, or "death's head", whose white muzzle resembles the skull of a dead man.



This one and a half meter cat is not afraid to attack even two-meter anacondas!

And in December, ocelots arrange mating concerts at night, like our March cats.

The most inconspicuous and inactive beast of the selva is, of course,. He spends his whole life hanging with his back down on the branches of trees and slowly absorbing the foliage around him. In order not to move, he manages to turn his head not even 180, but 270 degrees!


This phlegmatic breathes only once every eight seconds. On land, if it happens to descend to the ground, the sloth moves at a speed of 20 centimeters per minute, as in slow motion filming.

The "agile simpleton", as the Brazilians jokingly call him, is a tasty prey for the jaguar, and for the ocelot, and for the boa constrictor, and even for the harpy eagle. The sloth is saved by the fact that in its wool ... algae start up, coloring its skin in a protective greenish color.

Because of this, the immobile sloth is almost invisible on the branch, and the predator often does not notice it.


Under the canopy of branches in the darkness of the night, vampire bats silently sweep by. Their small thin teeth are so sharp that a person bitten in a dream does not feel pain and only, waking up in the morning, finds that the pillow is covered in blood, and there is a tiny wound on the neck.

Of the hundreds of species of selva birds, the most famous in our country, of course, are tiny, the size of a bee,.


And huge, up to a meter in length, macaw parrots. Their bright plumage, as well as the sparkling wings of numerous butterflies, enliven the monotonous greenery of the forest.


And above the crowns of the trees, the most terrible feathered predator of the Amazon - the crested tropical eagle harpy-monkey-eater soars. Powerful muscles and five-centimeter claws make the harpy a real thunderstorm for small monkeys and sloths.


There are many snakes in the forests of the Amazon basin, including poisonous ones. It is no coincidence that Brazil ranks first in the world in terms of the number of people who die each year from snake bites. But the Indians have long tamed small boas and kept them in huts to protect them from rodents and snakes.

A huge tarantula spider strikes and terrifies.


It feeds on careless hummingbirds caught in its wide, like a fishing net, web. And Indian children, for the sake of mischief, sometimes put a rope loop on this spider and lead it around the village like a dog.

But the worst thing for the inhabitants of the selva is not formidable predators and poisonous snakes and spiders, but small sacasaya ants. They live in large colonies underground, but from time to time they emerge from there in huge hordes and move through the forest in a deadly river, destroying all life in their path.