Introduction

What is the rainforest? The rainforest is habitat to a great deal of animal species in the world. If you explore the rainforest you may discover a plant that can cure cancer. The rainforest is under attack by humans who want to cut down trees for money and to plant crops, raise cattle and other herbivores and dig mines. If we allow others to keep on killing the trees, they may kill important animals, too. Some people think that forest will grow back and think it will still support them. Every 15 minutes an animal and/or plant species dies!! That’s not cool we need to save the rainforest! The rainforest helps the planet breathe, because it’s sort of like the lungs of the earth, breathing in carbon dioxide, and breathing out oxygen like a living organism.

Animals

Poison Dart Frogs!!!!!The poison dart frog is a both a prey and a predator. Its bright colors are lousy camouflage, but serve as a warning. Some animals don’t know the frog is extremely poisonous. When the animal eats the frog, it gets dizzy and sick, then dies from the poison in its skin. The poison dart frog is carnivore because it eats bugs and small new born crickets.

Also human tribes use the frogs’ poison by rubbing an arrow on their backs. Then they throw or shoot the arrow at a monkey or another victim. Then they get a good meal.YUM!!!!

Animals

The macawThe macaw is an indigenous bird that is very beautiful. They can be blue and yellow and green or red, and yellow, blue and green. They are like flying rainbows in the rainforest among the foliage. The macaw eats nuts, fruits and small bugs, so they are omnivores. Also the macaw is very smart. It has a small brain but has learned new tricks from humans. Some tribes have macaws for pets. They are helpful to give comfort to people, such as when you are upset they can amuse you with child-like behavior, they make you look up in bad situation because they are like children. When a grown up has children they will protect their children, the same is true with this bird’s owner. They will protect the macaw from deforestation.

Stop!!!

The rainforest is being cut down every day and every fifteen minutes a species is lost forever. People think

about the rainforest as a thing that can reproduce anything in a blink of an eye. When cows eat all the

plants, they cut more forest down. When you cut trees, the trees fall and hit animals and other trees and kill them. Also, when mining: what are they going to do with the yucky water and dirt? It is not good for the

plants and animals. We need to help stop the destruction of the forest by supporting

conservation!!!!

Plants

The strangler fig has adapted to grow in the crowded rainforest. This plant’s habitat is in rainforest where there is a lot of competition for sunlight. Then plant drops its seeds, and the tiny shoots begin to climb up the trunks of other trees to get to the sunlight and cause photosynthesis. Eventually, after layering over it its host with roots and limbs, it strangles out the sunlight and kills the other tree. The dead tree rots away with the work of decomposers, and leaves behind a beautiful but deadly strangler fig’s lacy design. Strangler figs also tear apart man-made temples and buildings, returning them to a natural state of rainforest.

Orchid

The orchid is the second largest family of plants. There are over 26,000 varieties. My mom keeps one in her bathroom. Vanilla is a member of the orchid family. We use its seed pods to flavor things, which makes it a producer. Yum! Orchids like habitats and climate that are 65-75 degrees, and lots of humidity. They need a 10 degree difference between day and night to thrive. The orchids that are sold in North Carolina need to have their roots exposed, and need careful watering care so they don’t rot. We water ours with three ice cubes per week, every Saturday. It is like having a little visitor from the rainforest in our house every day!

Tribes in the Amazon rainforest: YanomamiThe Yanomami are nomadic, when

they abandon one tribal living space and move to another, carrying with them everything they own. They learn and

hand down knowledge by talking about their lives and then ask questions about each other’s lives and

experiences. Some tribes buy things from

travelers or scientists that visit the Rainforest and they trade for

things like guns. Most Yanomami follow the old traditions then trade for things

they don’t know how to use. The Yanomami have one person out of a hundred that have a gun. Some new

ideas are used by following roads and

meeting new people. The tribe lives near the middle of the rainforest so when we cut trees down and burn the forest they don’t get moved or get hurt by us. Some people in the tribes are wise to stay away from the falling trees. This tribe has been following the same beliefs for over a 100

years!!

Tribe 2: The XinguThe Xingu people live in the heart of Brazil. The tribe has celebrations that go to every house and sometimes it takes days to do this. Hoka, Hoka is a sort of wresting that you try to flip your opponent on his back. In some places pollution is so bad that some tribes can’t fish anymore because of fish are poisoned. Boys put poles in the ground in the middle of a downfall of rain to play football so they can get the poles in due to the wet

earth. Parties are important to their culture and it’s a big deal to look your best. The Xingu people want to stop building of dams because the river is one of their food sources and they go to town to protest against the dams. Once, a man working against them fell backwards and into the cameras and knives, which made everyone confused- he got cut in confusion. When it was over, their protest didn’t work. They still had a dam made. I hope there won’t be more dams, for their sake. They might build 12 dams. Over a 1000 came against the dams… but they are still primitive people without rights, so they lost!!

The layers of the rainforest are the Emergent layer, Canopy, Understory, Undergrowth. As the picture shows, the

layers get bigger as they go up. The animals that live in the undergrowth are bugs, big cats, some monkeys, sloths, fish, reptiles and some snakes. In the understory layer there are animals like birds, snakes, cats, bugs, sloths. In the Canopy there are birds, snakes, monkeys, sloths and tree frogs. In the emergent layer there are hawks, monkeys, birds that eat bugs and fruits and other birds of prey.

South America is hot and humid.

This is a map showing where the Amazon rainforest is and daily there are plans to kill trees!

Resourceshttp://www.tigerhomes.org/animal/people-amazon-rainforest.cfm

http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/rainforest.htm

http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/what.html

http://www.rainforestanimals.net/

http://kids.mongabay.com/

http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/rforest/index.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=strangler+fig&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

http://www.google.com/search?q=orchid&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1