Amazon Facts

In 2012, a man ordered a TV on Amazon, but got a semi-automatic assault rifle instead.

In 2011, Amazon briefly sold more e-books than print books, but the trend reversed—today they sell three times more print books than e-books.

The most powerful electric eel is found in the rivers of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, and Peru, and produces a shock of 400-650 volts.

Giant river otters still exist in three remote river systems in South America. They can grow to almost 6 feet in length, hunt in packs, and even take on caimans.

During spring tides, a tidal bore called the Pororoca rolls up the Amazon River, creating a continuous wave up to 4 meters high that can be surfed for over 12 kilometers. The phenomenon is strongest between February and March when Atlantic tides push ocean water upstream against the river's flow.

In 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke's plane broke apart at 10,000 feet over the Amazon. She fell still strapped to her seat. Broken collarbone. Maggots in her wounds. She remembered one thing her father taught her: follow water downstream. She walked for 11 days and found a lumberjack camp. She was the sole survivor of 92.

Lesly Mucutuy was 13 when her plane crashed deep in the Colombian Amazon. Her mother died four days later. Lesly kept her three younger siblings alive for 40 days - including an 11-month-old - feeding the baby formula from the wreck, then plain water. Soldiers found them 3 miles from the crash site.