Brooke A. Block 3
Introduction Step into the endlessjourney through the rainforest where you will meet some familiar and strange organisms, some being decomposers. The rainforest is a forest of trees where it rains daily. The Amazon rainforest is in South America. It is in the north, south, and western hemispheres. The latitude and longitude is 75-45 and 0-15 degrees. Someof the animals have camouflage which lets them blend in with their surroundings. You may run into the lipstick tree which has products actually used in lipstick!! You may seethe three toed sloth which moves very slowly across the canopy layer of the rainforest. You may seethe dangers of deforestation during your journey in the rainforest. You could meet some unkind carnivores and some flying herbivores. You could even meet some omnivores. The rainforest gets over 9 feet of rain every year!! That is a mind blowing number compared to what we are used to!! The climate stays around 75-80 degreesyear round!! The layers of the rainforest are -Emergent (on top) -Canopy (2nd from top) -Understory (2nd from bottom -Forest Floor (very bottom)
Amazon Rainforest Animals!!! There are many animals in the rainforest. Somefly, some crawl, someslither, and someclimb. One of the animals that climbs would be a capuchin monkey. This fluffy, tan and black, pink faced animal lives in the emergent layer of the rainforest. The capuchin monkey’s natural predators are jaguars. Also humans hunt this monkey
for meat to eat. This monkey preys on insects and small birds. It also eats fruits and leaves. It is an omnivore. All animals have to adapt to change to be able to live in conditions they are in. One of the adaptations this monkey needs to live in the rainforest is to be able to run fast and to be able to grip the trees, with help from their opposable thumbs. ď Š Another popular animal in the rainforest is a toucan. The toucan is a small, black and yellow bird with a big, colorful beak, (compared to its size.) The habitat of this bird is the canopy layer of the rainforest. Somepredators of the toucan are the harpy eagle. Also snakescan steal their eggs. The toucan is a herbivore that eats fruits, berries, and nuts. Someadaptations are their claws and beak. They use their claws to grab food off the forest floor, and their beaks to crack open nuts.
The Amazon Rainforest Plants!! Over 2/3 of the worlds plant speciesis found in the rainforest. One of these plants is the foxglove. The foxglove is a tall purple plant. It is a bell shaped flower. The individual plants are medium sized but altogether on the stem, all bunched together, the entire plant is pretty big. In the forest it lies on the forest floor. With only a few other plants. No one eats these flowers becauseif you eat them they can be poisonous. If they are treated right and carefully they can be used to treat heart problems. Another flower in the rainforest is the white trillium. It has three; white petals and you can a little green in the back. The white trillium is on the forest floor just like the foxglove is. It is rare for plants to be on the forest floor becauseit doesnot get a lot of
sunlight. If you are careful and you can treat it right, it can cure snake bites. You can chew it and it will cure it. It also cures other things so this flower is very helpful!! It is also a producer like many other plants. It gets it food by the process of photosynthesis.
Yanomami Tribe!! The yanomami tribe is a unique tribe that lives in the Amazon Rainforest. Their tribe is set up in a large circle made up of large communal houses. In these housesare up to four hundred people!! Somepeople sleep in hammocks as many others sleep on the floors of the house. Four hundred people in one home is an amazing number. Think about it. Most people in America have 4-6 people in their homes, so people in a home there is about 100times what we are used to! The culture of the yanomami tribe eats wild pigs, monkey, and deer. They all hunt for their food becausethere are definitely no grocery stores in the rainforest! ď Š They get some useful things from the rainforest. They make rubber from trees and make gloves out of them. That is pretty cool becausehere everything is make in a factory but there everything is made by hand and mostly natural resources. They are nomadic. That is the opposite of indigenous.
Kayapo Tribe The Kayapo tribe is another tribe that lives in the Amazon rainf orest. They live very similar to the Yanomami tribe but they still are little different. They live in villages dispersed along the upper coast of Trini. That
is very different from the Yanomami tribe. Another thing that is different is that they have a large cleaning center near all the houses. Somethings that are very important to the kayapo tribe are singing, chanting, and dancing. Somethings that they use from the rainforest are houses,food, and medicine from the rainforest. The rainforest is a very helpful resource for them. With an average temperature of 79 degreesit is good weather for hunting. That is good becausethey do it a lot becauseit is the only way to get food. This is a kayapo Indian.
Climate!!
The climate of the rainforest is very hot and humid! It is that way becauseof all of the rain. It is not becauseit is near the equator. The average temperature is 79 degreesFahrenheit. The average rainfall in the Amazon Rainf0rest is 80 inches!!
Physical Features The Amazon Rainforest covers 2.5 million square miles. It is covered in trees and plant life.
Saving the Rainforest!! Saving the rainforest is very important. Deforestation is taking over the rainforest. Deforestation is the clearing of a large amount of trees, or a part of the forest. Trees give us the oxygen we breathe and many more things. Cutting down trees can be very dangerous. That is why more people need to start conservation. Conservation is basically saving the rainforest. Ecotourism is the act of tourism with unlimited natural resources. Even though is seemsnot to hurt nature it can. The boats they ride in let out air pollution, so it can be harmful. Deforestation in the rainforest.
CONCLUSION!! As you can seethe rainforest is an extraordinary place. 20%of the world’s oxygen is from the rainforest. If it is cut
down it will never grow to the fullest again. Every time a tree is cut down it lowers the chance of finding the cure for cancer. The rainforest used to cover 14%of the world but now it only covers 6%. How much will be left in 15 years? Will you join the fight for the forest?
Will you stand around and watch this happen?
Sites Sources -www.srl.caltech.edu -www.amersol.edu.pe -www.allaboutwildlife.com -www.amazon-rainforest.org -www.nationalgeographic.com -www.tamu.edu -www.library.thinkquest.org
-www.illinoiswildflowers.info -www.buzzle.com -www.blueplanetbiomes.org -www.indian-cultures.com -www.everycluture.com THANK YOU SOURCES FOODWEB!!!!