People hurry to harvest their cassava before the river inundates their garden plots. They refurbish floating corrals and begin the tedious job of cutting grass and foliage to feed their cattle. They make floating gardens. Some take a riverboat downstream to find seasonal work in the closest city, Tef . The water continues its rise.
People living in floating houses check the ropes that tether their dwellings to trees.
Those with houses perched on stilts worry that the water will rise above their floorboards, and that they will have to lay down palm leaves to keep their feet dry, piling them higher and higher as the water rises, sometimes to the point where they have to crouch to walk around. It is hard to imagine another place in the world like Mamirau . Many species are found here and nowhere else, such as the white uacari monkey and the blackish squirrel monkey, both endangered species. Brazilian biologist Jos M rcio Ayres to the area in 1983 to carry out his doctoral studies. He was the first person to make a scientific description of this monkey since the middle of the last century.