ADVENTURE THROUGH THE RAINFOREST
April 8
2011
Steve went through the rainforest and got lost with a reporter can they get the tribe to help them? Or are they stuck?
Dallas M
ADVENTURE THROUGHTHE RAINFOREST
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A reporter named bob and his talking monkey named Steve were dropped off in the Amazon to do a report on the things in the rainforest. A RAINFORESTis a dense, tall, tropical forest with high annual rainfall. As they were walking through the rainforest they ran across an orchid. A plant that usually has three petals but differ in size and color. There is over 20,000different species of orchids. They are used for fertilizer, food flavoring, and perfume. The orchid is a PRODUCERan organism that usessunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make its own food. The orchids are eaten by slugs. Then Steve started talking to a squirrel monkey. It is eaten by eagles and other birds becauseit’s only 3 pounds. The squirrel monkey eats bird eggs and insects. The squirrel monkey is a consumer an organism that eats other organisms for energy. They walked through the rainforest talking to the news station about the things they were seeing. Then they saw a blue and yellow macaw. The macaw eats nuts and berries. They fly in flocks of 100 to look for food. They make their nest in hollow trees next to rivers and swamps. The macaw is a consumer but also an
HERBIVOREan organism that only eats plants or producers. They walked through the rainforest and Steve was jumping through the layers of the rainforest. First he fell through the emergent layer. It is the highest layer of the rainforest. Animals like eagles and other birds live up there. Plants grow better up there becauseof all the sunlight. Next was the canopy. It forms a roof over the other layers. Snakesand frogs live there. Then he jumped through the understory layer. It is towards the middle. Plants grow taller trying to reach the top where the sunlight is. Jaguars and leopards live there. Next is the forest floor. No plants live there becausethere is no sunlight. Anteaters live there. Then they found a vine. Steve tried to touch it but bob stopped him. That’s a liana it’s poisonous. He was confused and just started chewing on an old can. He told him that they grow up to 3,000ft. He was still confused. He told him that they wrap around the trunks of trees to grow so they could get sunlight. When they get to the top they spread out sometimes knocking over lots of trees. Steve just went back to chewing on the can. Lots of the animals in the rainforest have ADAPTATIONSor the things that help them adapt to the environment. Like the squirrel monkey has a tail to climb. Another thing an animal might use is CAMOUFLAGEor when the animal matches its background so predators won’t see them. Producers use PHOTOSYNTHESISwhen they use water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide to survive. Besidesproducers and consumers there is DECOMPOSERSor a organism that breaks down dead organisms to get energy. Steve wasn’t
listening while bob talked to himself. Also like the macaw is an herbivore there is also a CARNIVOREor organisms that eat meat. There are also OMNIVORESor organisms that eat both meat and plants. There is a food web that shows the predator/prey relationships. A PREDETOR is the hunter and eats other organisms. The PREYis the one being hunted and being eaten. Steve was lying on the ground becausehe was so confused. The news station was also bored. You heard me say organism a lot. an ORGANISMis every living thing. Organisms also have HABITATSor the place a animal lives.
Then bob started talking about the geography. The Amazon is located in lots of countries bob said. It is located in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. It is in the north, south and western hemispheres. It is of course in South America and the latitude and longitude points are 45w-75w 0-15s. The climate is warm, humid, and rainy. CLIMATE is the weather patterns over a period of time. The average temperature is 79’f and
the average rainfall is 40 to 80ft. the climate zone is tropical wet dry.
Then they ran into one of the tribes. They found the Yanomami. They are influenced by western culture. CULTUREis someone’s or a group’s way of life. They usually live on good farming grounds. There is about 25,000Yanomami. The whole time bob was translating for Steve even though he wasn’t listening. They use things in the rainforest for food, shelter, medicines and other things. They told bob they cremate their loved ones and crush their bones and drink it so they will stay with them forever. They left after that and Steve wanted some gummy bears. As they were walking bob told Steve about deforestation. DEFORESTATIONis when people cut down trees to make products. He told him that we are losing the rainforest and that is why we are here. Then bob got boring again. Most tribes are nomadic. NOMADICis a tribe that moves around from different farming grounds usually about every five years. Have you ever heard of foliage? FOLIAGEis leaves. Then they met the second tribe called the Ticuna. Steve was really hungry now.
“The ticuna is an interesting tribe” bob said. When the children reach a certain age they pull their hair out as a symbol of washing their sins away. They also say if the girls can handle this they can handle childbirth. They have tried hard to protect their culture from western influence. There is over 70 villages that the ticuna live in. They get medicines and food from the rainforest. Once they were done they started to walk away. Then bob said “Steve hand me the map “. Then Steve burped loudly. No!! Bob yelled now we’re lost! Maybe we can tell the studio. They got on the computer. He pulled it up “it says the news station left us about a hour ago!” “We we’re really that boring?” “ How are we going to get home?” then Steve kept on saying “ hungry ,hungry!!! Gummy bears!! gummy bears!!!” they were completely lost and the ticuna translator had left. They went back anyway to look for help. Then Steve seesa dancing ice cream cone and runs. NO!!!!! bob yells. But they got lucky becausethey ran right into to ticuna tribe. Then Steve started speaking their language. They then found the problem and set up a rescue plan. At that time the news station finally woke up after bob talked for about two hours. They realized they had not heard from them in a while so they went looking for them. They found them with the tribe trying to get somebody’s attention. When they got home Steve finally understood. We need to protect the rainforest and keep it from being destroyed.
SITE SOURCES http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami/wayoflife http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar612740&st=yanomami http://indian-cultures.com/Cultures/yanomamo.html
http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/w ww/what.html