The 3 Amazon Animals We Love the Most

With February being a month all about love, and with Amazon wildlife being a major feature of Aqua Expeditions’ Amazon cruises, we would like to introduce you to the three Amazon animals we love the most.

Pink Dolphin

The Amazon river dolphin, also known as the Boto or pink river dolphin, are only found in the Amazon basin and is the largest species of river dolphin. Their body color varies with age with newborns and young dolphins having a dark grey tint which turns into a light grey in adolescence. Adults develop a pink color as a result of repeated abrasion of the skin surface, usually more prominent in males, and is the reason they have the nickname “pink river dolphin”. These unique Amazon animals feed on up to 53 different species of fish including the infamous piranha as well as consuming other river-based animals such as river turtles and freshwater crabs.

Noisy Night Monkey

The night monkey, also known as the owl monkey, is native to many areas in tropical South America. The name of this adorable monkey comes from the fact that they are the only truly nocturnal monkey. Night monkeys make a notably wide variety of vocal sounds, with up to eight distinct calls, one of which is a “hoot” sounding similar to an owl’s. Night monkeys have beautiful brown eyes which are larger to improve their ability to see at night but their vision is also, unusually, monochromatic  as they have no colour vision. The night monkey is monogamous, picking a long-term mate and birthing only one infant per year. The male is the primary caregiver with night monkey moms care giving for their infants only during the first week or so of the baby’s life.

Blue and Yellow Macaw

The blue and yellow macaw is a large South American parrot found typically in rainforest and woodland areas in tropical regions in South America and prefer to make their nests in hollowed trees. Their strong colors can sometimes even act as camouflage as they blend with the blue sky and bright sun. Blue and yellow macaws are large birds with a wingspan of up to three to four feet. Macaws have extremely powerful beaks that are used to break open seeds and also as a third foot for climbing. They are particularly popular to fans of ornithology because of their striking colours, their intelligence and ability to mimic language and their ready bonding to humans. They are popular pets in many countries but this has unfortunately caused a dramatic decrease in their numbers in the wild due to illegal wildlife trafficking.

Also see our list of currently endangered animals of the Amazonian rainforest