"Amazonia" on PBS

[Piabinha@aol.com]

did anyone else catch this wonderful program last night on PBS?  at least in 
nyc, it was shown last night.

no apistos but it was great to see some underwater photography.  there is 
very little freshwater U/W work in nature documentaries, i guess because the 
water is not as clear as in the ocean, there's not much interest in tropical 
freshwater fauna, or it's thought they are not as interesting or colorful as 
reef fishes.

it was good to see the big predators in action, including the infamous 
trahiras (Characiformes) gulping tetras (althought many of the sequences 
looked staged); tucunarés (aka lukaninis or peacock basses) and oscars 
feeding on (again) poor tetras; piranhas devouring a poor egret (funny how 
they shot the piranhas from above water but for the underwater shots they 
showed silver dollars (true pacus) in a feeding frenzy); tambaquis eating 
fallen fruit; pirarucus (Arapaimas) cruising in the dark; schools of 
Moenkhausias and Leporinus fasciatus; stingrays; dolphins; manatees etc.

what i mean by true pacus above is that what we call (erroneously) pacus in 
the aquarium trade are called 'tambaqui' in the amazon (Colossoma), those 
monsters that reach over 3 ft (almost 1 mtr) in length.  pacus in the amazon 
are silver dollars and other medium-sized characins in the genera Myleus, 
Mylossoma and Metynnis.  

i wish there would be more explorations in the FW faunas of the tropics.  
there was also in "Heart of Africa" series last year on PBS, one episode 
devoted to the cichlids of the rift lakes, including mating behaviors, which 
was quite amazing.  

tsuh yang chen, nyc, USA


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