Amazonia National Park

Amazonia National Park is located in Pará state in north-central Brazil and along the Tapajós River. The National Park contains a highly biodiverse habitat of dense lowland rainforest with white-sand grassland areas beside the river's upper reaches.

Established in 1974, the oldest national park in the Amazon currently covers 1,070,737 ha (2,645,850 acres). The specific objectives of the park are the preservation of various Amazonic ecosystems through scientific, educational and recreational means.

Amazonia National Park lies on either side of the Tapajós River. This river rises in the Precambrian crystalline shields area of ancient igneous rock and carries little sediment. The river acts as a barrier, so some animals and plants on one bank are not found on the other.

To the west, Amazonia National Park adjoins the 827,877 ha (2,045,730 acres) Pau-Rosa National Forest, created in 2001.

The proposed South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor would link the park to other protected areas and indigenous territories and transition between the Amazon Rainforest's south and the Brazilian Cerrado's north. An "ecotone" is a transition area between two biomes.

Except for about 2% of more open forests, the National Park consists of dense humid tropical forests. The largest trees reach a height of about 50 m (160 ft), and the light filtering through the canopy is sufficient to produce a biodiverse understory of vines, lichens, mosses and orchids.

Many of the mammals in the park are nocturnal, and some, such as the giant otter, Amazonian manatee and giant anteater, are endangered. There are also large numbers of reptiles and fish.