Where are rainforests? Rainforests are located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn which are near the equator. This area is called the "tropics". The tropics is the 3,000 mile wide band around the equator. All rainforests are jungles but not all jungles are rainforests. A rainforest is a form of a jungle.
Amazon rainforest
The Amazon is the worlds largest tropical rainforest. It is located in South America covering 2,700,000 square miles. 65% of the Amazon is a jungle. 35% of the Amazon is made up of grassland, open country and shrubs. There are about 50,000 miles water ways that cross the Amazon but only 14,000 miles are accessible. The Amazon is home to 14,712 different species of animals. Over 60,000 different plants are native to the Amazon. 4,000 types of trees are grown in the rainforest but only about 6 are commonly know. The Amazon Rainforest gets nine feet of rain every year. 20% of the earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazon Rainforest. the Amazon Rainforest is also known as the "Lungs of our Planet." It is named after the Amazon River. The Amazon River starts in the Peruvian Andes and ends halfway through South America. It is about 4,080 miles long. The basin covers 2,722,000 miles.
The Congo
The Congo is the worlds second largest rainforest.It is home to over 10,000 animals and 600 tree species. The Congo covers 1.5 million square miles and covers over six nations- Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic,Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
The Madagascar
The Madagascar Rainforest is located in Africa. It takes up 11 million hectares. The country is 581,540 square km. Madagascar is 2% of Africa's landmass. It has 10,000 species of plants. 70-90% of animal life lives in the trees of Madagascar. Trees soar 20-200 feet above the rest of the canopy, meaning that the trees are at least 150 feet tall! There are only about 200,000 know animal species in the jungles of Madagascar. 150,000 animals are endemic. There are more than 50 types of lemurs, 36 different species of birds ,and 99% of the frog species. The population grows by 2.5% every year. The resources and ecosystem suffer everyday by this. 75% of the original forest has been removed.
Southeast Asia
The Southeast Asia is the oldest rainforest in the world. It has been around for over 70 million years. The Southeast Asia rainforest is 1,112,000 miles long and consists of 20,00 islands between Asia and Australia. It is almost the size of two Alaska's! The average temperature is between 70-90 degrees. It is always humid and hot. The rainforest stretches from India and Burma in the west to Malaysia and the islands of java and Borneo in the east. Bangladesh has the largest area of mangrove forests in the world. Rainforests in Southeast Asia have a hot and humid climate all year round. In the mainland of Asia, there is a subtropical climate with a(torrential monsoon) very heavy rain storm followed by a drier period.
The Structure of the Tree
There are four levels of a rainforest tree. The top of the tree is the emergent's. Next comes the canopy, the under story. The bottom is called the forest floor.
Emergent's: Top layer of a rainforest tree. It houses most's of the birds and insects in the rainforest.
Canopy: Is home to many different types of birds, insects, reptiles, mammals, and more. It is the upper part of a rainforest tree.
Under story: A cool environment under the leaves which is where you can find many animals.
Forest floor: Many animals live here. It is ground level.
Rainforest Fun Facts
There are two types of rainforests,the temperate and the tropical. Tropical rainforests are found close to the equator. Temperate rainforests are found along coasts of the United States.
Every second, 1 1/2 acres of land are lost every day because human are destroying and ruining them.
Every day, we are losing about 137 different types of plant, animal, and insect species.
A medicine man is somebody who believed to heal others by using supernatural powers, especially among Native American people.
Most medicine men are over the age of 70.
When a medicine man passes away, thousands of years of irreplaceable information is lost.
More than 10 million species of animals can be found in the rainforest.
One hectare of land contains over 1,500 species of plants.
The Amazon covers over a billion acres!
In the past, there were over 10 million Indians.
Today, there are only about 200,000 left.
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