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Study of the Amazon discovers 381 new species in two years

<em>Zogue Zogue Rabo de Fogo monkeys were among the new species discovered (WWF)</em>
Zogue Zogue Rabo de Fogo monkeys were among the new species discovered (WWF)

Researchers have spent the past two years studying the Amazon rainforest – and discovered an astonishing 381 new species in that time.

According to the WWF and Brazil’s Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development, a new species was discovered every two days in the region.

This compares to over 2,000 new species discovered in the period between 1999 and 2015.

<em>The Araguaian river dolphin was the first new river dolphin species to be discovered since the end of the First World War (WWF)</em>
The Araguaian river dolphin was the first new river dolphin species to be discovered since the end of the First World War (WWF)

The researchers discovered 216 previously unknown plants, 93 fish, 32 amphibians, 20 mammals, 19 reptiles and one bird.

Despite the wide range of new discoveries, the authors of the report said that the animals and plants were found in areas at risk from human activity.

Ricardo Mello, co-ordinator of the WWF Brazil Amazon programme, warned that this activity – including farming and logging – posed a risk to the diverse range of life in the region.

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He said: “All the species that were discovered, all 381, are in areas where humankind is destroying the Amazon.

“This is very important to us, because it links the fact that our economic activities are causing species to go extinct before we even know about them.”

<em>The species were found in ares of the Amazon that are under threat fro human activities (Rex)</em>
The species were found in ares of the Amazon that are under threat fro human activities (Rex)

The reports comes in the same week a court suspended a government decree that would have opened up the Renca reserve in the eastern Amazon to commercial mining.

Opponents described it as “the biggest attack on the Amazon in the last 50 years”.