TV REVIEW : Special on the Amazon’s Flooded Forests

The first new “National Geographic” special of the TV season, “Amazon, Land of the Flooded Forest” (at 8 tonight on Channels 28, 50, 15 and 24), isn’t another program about deforestation, though the subject is mentioned. This hour confines itself to the area that may hold out longest against encroaching, life-destroying civilization--the banks of the river itself, which in certain places are flooded for part of the year as far back as 30 miles inland.

The rains that fall upon the Amazon Basin are so persistent between December and May that the river and its tributaries widen deeply into the vegetation. As a result, fish and other inhabitants of the water swim where forest creatures run about during the rest of year.

Written and produced by Barbara Jampel, the documentary focuses on the wildlife and on caboclos, people who live near the river and fish it for most of their meager earnings. The Amazon’s amazing variety of fish--at least 2,000 species--includes the tambqui, which eats fruit that falls into the water, and the arowhana, which leaps high into the air to capture insects off branches.

Here, too, are two descendants of sea creatures: a river dolphin and a fresh-water stingray. In the trees, which flourish despite standing in several feet of water for months, are the white-coated, red-faced uakari monkey and that ultra-laid-back mammal, the sloth, which surprisingly can get up enough energy and nerve to swim occasionally from tree to tree.

All of these and more are captured on color film efficiently but not very compellingly. Though narrator William Shatner speaks of the “eerie beauty” of the flooded forest, we only too sporadically get a special sense of place, despite those exotic animals. The combination of by-the-book photography, editing and writing and Capt. Kirk’s rather languid tone make for an hour that’s watchable but a bit waterlogged itself.