Walking Through the Amazon Rainforest

By McKenzie Myers

Introduction……….pg 1

Physical Features and Climate……….pgs 2-4

Layers……….pgs 5-6

Plants……….pgs 7-8

Animals……….pgs 9-11

Tribes……….pgs 12-15

Saving the Rainforest……….pg 16

Works Cited……….pgs 17-19

The rainforest is the oldest living ecosystem on Earth. It is normally thought of as a forest with

large amounts of yearly rainfall. The Amazon rainforest is located in the southern

hemisphere, and on the continent of South America. It covers parts of nine different

countries; Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French

Guiana. The Amazon rainforest is full of life – from leaping jaguars on the forest floor to swinging

monkeys in the treetops to even the laziest sloth sleeping while it hangs upside down! Let’s learn

about the Amazon!

The climate of the Amazon rainforest is wet, humid, and hot. A climate is the expected weather patterns

and temperature expected over a long period of time. The average temperature is 79o Fahrenheit. It gets lots of rain – from 80 to 300 inches a year! The

Amazon has lots of water, and a large river called the Amazon River. There are lots of fish and

mammals such as river dolphins living there.

There are also many trees as well as

water. Trees cover the rainforest. Many animals live in the trees of the Amazon, even other plants

host on trees of the Amazon rainforest.

Description: Land coverage of the Amazon. Latitude-longitude is

0 degrees, 15 degrees south, 45 degrees west, 75 degrees west.

Description: A map describing the climate of South America.

There are 4 main layers of the rainforest: forest floor, understory, canopy, and

emergent.

Forest floor

This is the floor of the rainforest. It is very dark and humid. Not much sunlight

makes it all the way down here. Small vegetation with large leaves grow so they can

catch the little sunlight there is left over. Not many animals live here, but there are a few

like poison dart frogs and big cats that run around down here.

Understory

Small trees grow here. It is still kind of dark and humid, but not as bad. Lots of insects live here, but

not much else.

Canopy

This is the main layer of the rainforest. This is a habitat for many organisms, living things, because it

gets lots of sunlight and water. Trees here range from 100 to 150 feet in height.

Emergent

This is the very highest layer. Few organisms live here compared to the canopy. Trees here are normally 200 feet and higher.

So now you know all the layers and what’s in each! Good! You understand how the rainforest is divvied

up.

There are many plants in the Amazon rainforest, not just in numbers, but in species. The Amazon is said to be home to over 2/3 of the entire world’s plant species! This explains all the dense foliage. Foliage is dense leaves or plant life. Producers, organisms that use photosynthesis to make their

own food, are plants. There are also decomposers. Decomposers are organisms that break down other dead organisms. Two

examples of the plants in the Amazon are the kapok tree and the strangler fig. The kapok tree grows in the emergent layer of the rainforest because it is from 150 to 200 feet high. Its trunk grows 9 to 10 feet in diameter. The top slopes like an umbrella, making it appear like so. Monkeys and toucans are some examples of animals that eat the fruit the tree grows. Some of its uses to people are for furniture wood, making dugout canoes, and the seeds, leaves, bark and resin are used to treat asthma and other diseases. The strangler fig is

a large canopy tree growing up to 148 feet in height, using its strange limbs to seize and “strangle” another tree, eventually killing it, hence the name. It bears large delicious fruit. This fruit is preyed on by many animals, including toucans, monkeys, pigeons, parrots, hornbills, fruit-eating bats… Up to 70% of the critters in the rainforest depend on this tree! Some uses of this tree are food for people and animals, and it is also a home for many rainforest animals.Below is a picture of a strangler fig’s limbs

strangling another tree. The picture to the top right is a picture of a kapok tree above the canopy. The picture on the previous page is an Amazonian orchid.

The Amazon is home to countless species of animals; so many that we are still finding new ones every day! Some animals use camouflage, like the three-toed sloth. Camouflage is when animals try to blend in with the environment. I will give you two examples of animals in the Amazon.

Golden Lion Tamarin

One of the animals found in this rainforest is called a golden lion tamarin. These are monkey-like creatures with mostly orangish-gold fur. It got its name from that and the fact that there is a strange mane-like arrangement of fur around its head. They live their entire lives in their habitat, the place it lives, which is the canopy of the rainforest, as they find all they need to thrive there. That includes prey, which consists of fruit and some flowers, insects, spiders, lizards, snails, bird eggs and nestlings, and a few species of frogs. Prey is an organism hunted by

food. The golden lion tamarin is an omnivore, meaning it eats both animals and plants. Since the creature is so small, it has several predators, organisms that hunt it for food, including hawks, raptors, big cats, and large snakes. As a matter of fact, most tamarins grow between 1.3 and 1.5 pounds and 11 inches long, with a tail 2 inches longer than its body. Its adaptations are a long tail it can swing with, and its long hands and fingers. An adaptation is a feature an animal has to make life easier. These long fingers help it to dig bugs out of crevices and trees. The picture on the previous page was of a golden lion tamarin.

Poison Dart Frog

Another animal found in the rain forest is a poison dart frog, which lives mostly on the forest floor. Its colors and patterns vary on the species, and they normally grow to be around 1 1/2 to 2 inches. They like to hang out on leaves and stems of plants. It preys on small insects, so it is a carnivore, more specifically, an insectivore. A carnivore is an organism that eats only meat. (Also, insectivores eat only insects.) The only known predator of a poison dart frog is a large snake, called liophis epinephelus. The reason it only has one known predator is revealed in their two main adaptations.

They are their bright colors, which tell predators that they do not taste good and are poisonous, and their toxic slime-like substance on the skin. Natives in the Amazon use this poison to put on arrows and shoot at animals to eat for food. The dart frogs also have another adaptation - the suction cups on the ends of their toes. These make climbing much easier. To the right is a picture of a strawberry poison dart frog sitting on a leaf. The picture on the previous page is of a golden lion tamarin. Below is a food web with major predators and prey of the Amazon.

Yanomami

The Yanomami tribe is indigenous to the Amazon rainforest. Indigenous means living in an area. They are nomadic because of so many threats. Nomadic means as resources move or become scarce, the

people will move, too. They live in an area of 9.6 million hectares in

Brazil, and this area is twice the

size of Switzerland! In Venezuela

the tribe lives in the 8.2 million hectare Alto Orinoco – Casiquiare Biosphere

Reserve. They are some of the most well-known tribal people. The Yanomami believe strongly in

democracy. They reach decisions by letting everyone have a say in a long discussion called

consensus.They live in strange circular houses called yanos or

shabonos that can house up to as many as 400 people. In the center they have feasts, games and

celebrations. Each family has a hearth where their food is prepared. They sleep on hammocks near a burning fire at night (yes, they keep it on). It does not take these people long to work and satisfy their needs. Men hunt, though meat is only 10% of their

diet. They will never eat the meat they kill themselves, but will share it among other people. In turn they are given meat

from another hunter. Women farm and tend to

about 60 crops, which make up 80 to 90% of their diet. Women will

also collect insect larvae, shellfish, and nuts. Both men and women fish. There is a lot of

time left over for fun and games or leisure. The Yanomami have a very rich culture. A culture is

a way of life. The Yanomami tribe members decorate their faces with sticks and paint, as seen in

the pictures. The Yanomami say that every rock, tree, and creature has a spirit. Shamans protect people from bad spirits. They claim to be able to

see them. This is part of their beliefs.

The Yanomami have learned to use many plants, about 500, in the Amazon as medicines, to build,

and to eat.The Yanomami are threatened by mining and

ranching. The Yanomami wear strings around their waists, but otherwise they run around in the nude.

The Yanomami are an ancient people and are recognized for that.

Machiguenga

The Machiguenga tribe is also indigenous to the Amazon. Nomadic means as

resources move or become scarce, the people will move, too.

These people have no influence from modern society whatsoever. They hunt with arrows. Men

and their sons may go on a hunt that lasts days and still return empty-handed. Sometimes the people

will eat bugs. They hunt animals like monkeys in the

rainforest. They are hunter- scavengers. Storytelling is a huge part of their culture because

they have no written language. An hour and a half is dedicated daily for the children to learning to read and write Spanish in a one-room school. These

children are taught to protect the forest. They tend to have many pets, because if a baby’s mother is

killed in a hunt, the people will take the baby animal and feed it like it was fed in the wild and raise it until adulthood. These animals are like dogs. Children play with them and they are trusted not to act in a hostile way. One animal raised is a tapir. These tapirs will grow to be 400 pounds when they are grown, enormous beasts, though not carnivorous. Parrots are fed from the

mouth by children because their mothers fed the parrots that way. They also use plants to make medicine, but they are still susceptible to

diseases brought in from the outside world. They wear homemade tunics called a cushmas with a V-

neck for men and a straight neck for women. Literacy rates are from 30 to 60%. The average

woman marries at age 16 and has 8 to 10 pregnancies, but the infant mortality rate here is

high. Huts are made from palm poles and palm tree branches are used to make roofs. Each extended

family group is governed by a “headman”. They are

called animists in religion and they believe in several evil spirits.

The Amazon rainforest is wonderful, right? I have shown you that. But the rainforest is in trouble. Loggers and cattle ranchers chop down trees to make money or space for their ranches. This is called deforestation. A way we can protect the rainforest is ecotourism. Ecotourism is environmentally safe tourism. It is important to conserve rainforests because they give us a lot of food and flavoring, like cocoa and fruit, as well as oxygen, and many other important resources we may lose if we don’t conserve rainforests. To conserve something means to take care of or look after it.

Conclusion

The Amazon is not just pretty to look at or fun to study. It is worth 20% of the world’s oxygen, and

rainforests in general give us 80% of all our oxygen. This is true even though the world coverage of

rainforests has decreased from 14% to 6%. We may lose the Amazon in 40 years, and it will take the oxygen and 2,000 cancer-fighting plants with it. Are

you ready to lose the Amazon?

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

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/ photos/

http://www.aos.org/AM/Template.cfm? Section=Culture_Sheets&CONTENTID=3698&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm

  http://www.staugorchidsociety.org/culturepests-

pests.htm 

http://www.dictionary.com 

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

  http://www.ahsd25.k12.il.us/curriculum/africa/

rfpeople.htm 

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

  http://jpgmag.com/photos/2939279

  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

commons/b/b6/Strangler_fig_kerala.jpg 

http://travel.mongabay.com/topics/new/ceiba %20or%20kapok%20tree1.html

  http://www.ehow.com/facts_5594292_strangler-

fig-tree.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_peoples  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Rainforest  

www.blueplanetbiomes.org/ amazon .htm  

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/ What_is_the_average_rainfall_in_the_Amazon_Basin

  http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/

yanomami 

http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiguenga_people

  http://

www.rainforesteducation.com/life/forestfloor3.htm

Special Thanks To:

Kelly Webb Andrew Contafio Sarah Oxendine Amy Elzey