The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released an amazing video showing tens of thousands of Giant South American River turtle hatchlings (Podocnemis expansa) emerging from a sandy beach in a protected area along the Purus River – a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil.

“The Amazon, a fortress for life on Earth, is burning nearly twice as fast as last year. All parties must come together to stop the setting of these devastating fires.” – WCS Brazil Country Director Carlos Durigan

A new species of marmoset has been discovered in the south-west of Pará State in Brazil in an area of the Amazon that has suffered extensive illegal logging and agricultural incursion.

By analyzing records in countries of the Amazon and Orinoco basins—which include Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador—a paper published today in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation, categorized 85 past and present initiatives or projects that work to preserve the South American River Turtle, or charapa (Podocnemis expansa), a critically endangered species. These projects are protecting more than 147,000 female turtles across the basin, an unprecedented figure.