Photo of the Day 327

Researchers, Anavilhanas Reserve, Brazil, 1982

Photograph by James P. Blair

Researchers from the National Institute for Amazonian Studies (INPA) use nets to collect specimens of pacu, a fish that eats fruits and nuts, on the Rio Negro in Amazonas state, Brazil. INPA scientists, financed by the World Wildlife Fund, monitor flora and fauna on plots of untouched rain forest in large areas where the trees have been cut and burned to establish cattle reserves.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Nature's Dwindling Treasures," January 1983, National Geographic magazine)