Covering more than 2.5 million square miles, about the size of the United States west of the Mississippi River, and two-fifths of South America, the Amazon rain forest is the largest and densest rain forest on Earth. If the Amazon rain forest were a country, it would be the ninth largest country in the world. Rain forests only cover less than 6 percent of Earth's total land surface today, and the Amazon represents 54 percent of the rain forest cover. Diminishing the percentage, 2.7 billion acres of rain forest are burned each year.
The Amazon River runs through the Amazon rain forest and discharges to the Atlantic Ocean at a rate of 3.4 million gallons per minute. The Amazon River originates from the Andes and is more than 4,000 miles long, making it the second longest river in the world after the Nile. It runs through eight countries. The Amazon has more than 1,100 tributaries, and 17 of them are longer than 1,000 miles. More than two-thirds of the fresh water in the world can be found in the rivers, streams and tributaries associated with the Amazon River.
A single hectare of Amazon rain forest has more than 900 tons of living plants, which include 750 different types of trees and 1,500 other plants, making the Amazon the biggest collection of plant species in the world and home to more than half of the world's plants. The plants found in the Amazon have numerous medical uses, with many of the possible medical uses still undiscovered. About 70 percent of the plants having anticancer abilities are from the Amazon rain forest, and more than 90 percent of the plants used by native tribes living in the Amazon have not been studied by scientists for more possible medical purposes. In addition, numerous edible fruits familiar to native tribes are not cultivated for commercial consumption. The estimation is that there are more than 3,000 fruits growing in the Amazon; native tribes use more than 1,500 of them, but only 200 are grown for outside use.
The toucan is the symbol of the Amazon, and more than one-third of the world's bird species live in the rain forest. In addition to birds, the Amazon rain forest is full of other animal species such as insects, frogs, fish and ants. Actually, there are more ants in the rain forest, considering both weight and numbers, than any other animal species. If you swiped a net in the air less than 2,000 times, you would catch more than 500 different species. And don't forget the fish. The Amazon River has more fish species than there are in the Atlantic Ocean--over 2,500.
The Amazon rain forest is also home to humans. Around 250,000 Amazon natives are believed to be living in the rain forest, and they comprise 215 ethnic groups speaking 170 different languages. About 50 native Amazon tribes living deep in the rain forest have never had any contact with the civilized world.
