The Amazon is the world ' s second longest river . only the Nile , in Africa , is longer . If you measure a river by the volume of water that flows along it , however , the Amazon is the world leader . About 20 per cent of all the water that the world ' s rivers pour into the oceans comes from the Amazon . It collects water from about 40 per cent of South America ' s land area along over 1000 tributaries , 17 of which are over 1600 kilometers long . From Iquitos in Peru all the way across Brazil to the Atlantic , the Amazon is between six and ten kilometers wide . It is even wider when it is flooded . The first European found the Amazon because he was 200 miles out to sea and noticed that he was sailing in fresh water . He turned toward shore and found the Amazon river . Later ships would anchor in the outflow of the Amazon to kill all the marine life attached to their hulls before hauling the ships out to clean them ( salt water organisms can ' t live in fresh water ) . The Amazon River is 6280 km long and its source is located in Calillona , Peru . The Mouth is located in North Eastern Brazil . It is in this fertile Amazon basin where the worlds largest number of species live . It has the highest level of species diversity on the entire planet . It is here that our quest to find the Giant Sloth begins . In the past , stories have been handed down from generation to generation of a giant forest walker , with enormous claws and brute strength to topple trees . A horrible smell was also often associated with this animal . Many tribes considered him a God , a guardian of the forest . Recent genetic samples taken by the Cincinnati Bigfoot Research Group have come to be found as unknown , and most closely related to the sloth family . Further physical evidence has led us to believe that these Giant creatures , which existed as little as 8 , 000 years ago , may still be alive today . Before you scoff , keep in mind there are many new species of mammal found in the last decade , some very large . A new species of camel in Mongolia in the last year , and a new species of elephant two years ago in Asia . It is possible . Our area of focus will be between the Rio Negro and Jau Rivers , bordered by the Amazon