Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Rainforest Rescue, the exciting new middle grade title from author Jonny Daymond.
In celebration of the launch of Jonny Daymond’s children’s adventure series, Globe Defenders, Jonny is sharing some amazing Amazonian animal facts. Jonny’s enthralling thriller series is published by New Frontier and takes readers on a journey to the Amazon rainforest with illustrations by the multi-award-winning artist, Marco Guadalupi.
Amazing Amazonian Animal Facts!
The truth about Tooth Fish
Everyone knows Piranha can strip a cow of its flesh in seconds, right? Well, they can, but in reality, they mostly feed on animals that are already dead in the water.
But do you know where their name comes from?
It comes from the Tupi language of the indigenous people of the forest. The name is a combination of the Tupi word for fish PIRA and tooth RANHA. So literally Fish tooth, or Tooth Fish!
When is a Jaguar not a Jaguar?
Answer: when it’s a Leopard.
Both are large spotted cats. One lives in Africa and one in South American. But if you came face to face with them, could you tell them apart?
Well, the Jaguar is slightly smaller than the Leopard. It is only the third largest cat in the world, the Lion of course is the largest.
But there is an easy way to spot the difference (pun completely intended). If you look at a Jaguar, they have spots inside their spots and Leopards do not.
Jaguars also get their name from a Tupi word, yaguara which means fierce beast.
They are certainly fierce and have the strongest bite of all the cats and can bite through the skull of their prey!
Caiman are fast!
Part of the Alligator family, the Caiman of the rivers of the Amazon can grow up to 5 metres in length.
They are also very fast in water and on land (over short distances).
In water they can swim up to around 20 miles per hour. Which doesn’t sound that fast until you consider that Olympic swimmers only get to about 6 miles per hour.
So sorry, swimming out of their way isn’t really an option!
Anacondas eat with a dislocated jaw
Ever wondered how an Anaconda can eat prey much larger than itself?
Well once they’ve dealt with the whole suffocating bit, they begin the process of eating by dislocating their jaw in four places to allow large prey down their throat into their stomach.
They also have teeth that face backwards so they “walk” the sides of their jaw up their prey and the teeth pull them in to be slowly digested!
Discover more about Jonny Daymond and the Globe Defenders: https://www.jonnydaymond.com/
My enormous thanks to Midas PR and publisher New Frontier books for my gifted review copy of the book and for inviting me to take part in the blog tour. Globe Defenders: Rainforest Rescue publishes 21st March and you can read my review of the book here.
Don’t forget to check out the other stops on the tour:
Mrs Sydney's Famous World's Smallest Library 