Saving One of the World’s Rarest Birds: The Araripe Manakin
<p>Water is life. In the hottest and driest biome in northeastern Brazil, there is a distinctive region of shrubland and thorn forest known as “Caatinga,” a Tupi word meaning “white forest” or “white vegetation.”</p>
<p>This is the 2.4 million-acre Araripe Plateau, which lay beneath an ocean many millions of years ago and is known for its ancient fossils dating back to the age of the dinosaurs. Though the salty oceans receded, an ancient freshwater aquifer creates unexpectedly lush pockets of rainforest fed by streams flowing down the steep slopes of the Araripe plateau. Clinging to life in the tall, closed canopy among vines and bromeliads, one of the world’s rarest birds, with a population estimated at only about 800 individuals, survives on remnants of its rare habitat.</p>
<p><a href="https://rainforest-trust.medium.com/saving-one-of-the-worlds-rarest-birds-the-araripe-manakin-7bd0965a2d39"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>