The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The striated heron also known as mangrove heron, little heron or green-backed heron, is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. Striated herons are mostly non-migratory and noted for some interesting behavioral traits. Their breeding habitat is small wetlands in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia, and in South America. Vagrants have been recorded on oceanic islands, such as Chuuk and Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marianas and Palau; the bird recorded on Yap on February 25, 1991, was from a continental Asian rather than from a Melanesian population, while the origin of the bird seen on Palau on May 3, 2005 was not clear.
Orellana is an inland province of Ecuador. The capital is Puerto Francisco de Orellana. It was created on July 30, 1998, from part of Napo Province.
Sucumbíos is a province in northeast Ecuador. The capital and largest city is Nueva Loja. It is the fifth largest province in the country, with an area of 18,084 km². In 2010, it had a population of 176,472 inhabitants.
The black-throated mango is a mainly South American hummingbird species.
The green-breasted mango is a hummingbird from tropical America. The scientific name of this bird commemorates the French naturalist Florent Prévost.
The white-winged swallow is a resident breeding swallow in tropical South America from Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad south to northern Argentina. It is not found west of the Andes. This swallow is largely non-migratory.
The red-capped cardinal is a small South American bird. It belongs to Paroaria, a genus in the tanager family Thraupidae.
Ramón Piaguaje, is the son of Cecilio Piaguaje, the Chief of the Secoya Indians. He lives with his wife and four children deep in the rainforest in Secoya territory, close to the Aguarico River. From an early age, he drew the rainforest with his fingers in the sand and later worked with black ink on paper. The young man who has captured the attention of the art world was first encouraged in his efforts by Orville and Mary Johnson, Wycliffe Bible Translators working in his village. The discovery of colored pencils at the evangelical missionary school he later attended enabled him to further develop his talent.
The Siona people are an indigenous ethnic group living in the Ecuadorian Amazon or Oriente, and in Putumayo Department in Colombia. They share territory along the Shushufindi, Aguarico, and Cuyabeno river with the Secoya people, with whom they are sometimes considered a single population.
The Secoya are an indigenous peoples living in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon. They speak the Secoya language Pai Coca, which is part of the Western Tucanoan language group. In Ecuador the Secoya number about 400 people who for the most part are located in three settlements, Eno, San Pablo de Katitsiaya and Siecoya Remolino, all found on the banks of the Aguarico river. Their Ecuadorian territory covers 40.000 hectares along the Shushufindi, Aguarico, and Cuyabeno river in the state of Sucumbios. Until recently they shared territory with the Siona people, with whom they are sometimes considered a single population, although both peoples have independent governance. In Peru the Secoya population numbers about 700.
The Teteté were a small group of Western Tucanoan speakers, who once lived in the Ecuadorian Amazon or Oriente. Today, their territory would lie within Ecuador’s Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a popular site for ecotourism. From 1877 through the 1920s, however, Ecuadorian and Colombian rubber collectors (caucheros) and their native press gangs worked this part of the upper Aguarico and Putumayo watersheds, shooting or kidnapping Tetete people whenever they showed themselves. Sometime before 1940, most of the remaining Tetete were killed in a raid by neighboring Siona people. “On a sandbar, the two groups faced each other in long lines and began to fight. Very soon, the Siona won; a few Tetete escaped, others died, and several were wounded…Later, a Siona man found them fishing on Lake Cuyabeno, and they wounded him slightly in the shoulder…After that, we never saw them again.”. A persistent legend claims that large numbers were driven to extinction by missionaries and petroleum companies after oil exploration began nearby in 1964. However, when they were “rediscovered” by Catholic priests in 1966, only three elderly survivors remained. Their last contact with outsiders – an American Evangelical missionary and his Siona-Secoya translators – occurred in 1973.
Güeppi-Sekime National Park is a protected area located in the Peruvian region of Loreto, on the border with Ecuador. The park encompasses 203,628.51 hectares (2,036 km2) of forests in a landscape that features hills and seasonally flooded lowlands.
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague.
The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve is the second largest reserve of the 45 national parks and protected areas in Ecuador. It is located in the Putumayo Canton in the Sucumbíos Province and in the Aguarico Canton in the Orellana Province. It was decreed on 26 July 1979 as part of the creation of the national protected areas system based on the recommendations of the FAO report on the "National Strategy on the Conservation of Outstanding Wild Areas of Ecuador".
Tarapoa is located in the province of Sucumbíos in Ecuador. It is the seat of the canton of Cuyabeno.
Aguarico Canton is a canton of Ecuador, located in the Orellana Province. Its capital is the town of Nuevo Rocafuerte. Its population at the 2010 census was 4,658 INEC 2010.
Cuyabeno Canton is a canton of Ecuador, located in the Sucumbíos Province. Its capital is the town of Tarapoa. Its population at the 2001 census was 6,643.
