The Amazing Rainforest By Jacob Von Winckelmann and Shannon Steele

What is a Rainforest? The rainforest is a tropical forest that rains more than regular forests. Most of the rainforest plants are used for medicine. Rainforests also have lots of animals in them. They have four layers. The Emergent layer, the Canopy, the Understory, and the Forest Floor.

Location of Rain Forests Rainforests are located in the continents North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The only two continents that don’t have rainforests are Europe and Antarctica. They cover three million square miles of the earth’s tropics.

Emergent Layer The Emergent Layer is the top layer in the rainforest. The tallest trees in the rainforest are called hardwood evergreens. They’re about 200 feet tall and the trunks are 16 feet around. Some of the animals that live here are harpy eagles, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, butterflies,and sloth.

Canopy Layer The Canopy is the second layer in the rainforest. A lot of the trees that are in the Canopy have soft, smooth, oval leaves. Some of the animals that live in the Canopy are tree porcupines, iguanas, toucans, spider monkeys, sloth, and boa constrictors.

Understory The understory is the third layer in the rain forest. The understory is between the canopy and forest floor Animals in this layer are monkeys, porcupines, parrots, jaguars, and geckos.

Forest Floor The Forest floor is the last floor in the rainforest. The animals that live there are dragonflies, army ants, anacondas, anteaters, and beetles.

Deforestation Deforestation is when people cut down living trees in the rainforest. This is how most animals become endangered. Deforestation is also bad because it may kill all of the rainforest and it takes away homes of the animals that live there. Four reasons that deforestation is caused is because of Cattle Grazing, Products, Cities and Roads, and Mining.

People of the Rain Forest There are many different kinds of people that live in the rainforest. They all live in harmony with their environment. The Mbuti, an African tribe, are skilled hunters. People of the Philippines can remember almost every plant in their rainforest.

Toucans

Harpy Eagles

Big Cats

The Trouble in the rainforest! In the rainforest of South America, the animals were worried about loosing the rainforest from people. One day, they heard a very loud noise. “ Quick everybody,” said the jaguar “it’s the people, they’ve come to cut down the rainforest! RUN!” All the animals ran as fast as they could. “ I think we’re safe,” said the tree porcupine. “Wait,” said the Harpy eagle, “ I hear more people! So all the animals ran away again. “ I don’t think they’ve come to cut down the trees. I think they came to catch us!”s said the jaguar. That night, all the animals looked for anything that would be good for fighting. By morning, all the animals had their weapons. Then, they brought their weapons into the machine they heard the day before and started beating it up. They broke the handles, the electricity, and all of the other stuff in the machine. All of a sudden, they heard the man! “Hide!” said the tree porcupine so they all hid. When the man saw his machine broken, he ran all the way out of the rainforest. And from that day on, no one ever went into the rainforest again.

Everyone can make a difference for the rainforest.