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ABOUT
RAINFORESTS
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What is a Rainforest?
Is there a difference between a rainforest and a
jungle?
Is the Amazon a jungle or a rainforest?
Where are the rainforests of the world?
Where are the rainforests in South & Central
America?
Rainforest Quick Facts
Amazon Quick Facts
SOME
QUICK FACTS found in a variety of places, simplified and organized, and
sometimes with diverse stats and certainly NOT meant to be a definitive guide:
Brazil is #1 in bio-diversity, according
to International Preservation in 1997:
- 55,000 plant species (22% of those on earth)
- 1st for mammals (524 species)
- 1st for fresh water fish
- 1st for insects
- 1st for Macaws and parrots
Peru:
- 11 eco-systems, ranging from arid deserts to snow-capped
peaks, from forest clad mountainsides to the tropical rainforests of the lowlands which
are some of the most extensive on earth and producing the 4th largest rainfall on earth
- 1st for butterflies (3532 species)
- 2nd for birds (1710 species)
- 3rd in both vertebrae species (excluding 2873 fish) and
endemic species (350)
- 4th for mammals (466 species)
- has the greatest bio-diversity and density of birds on
earth:
- 1780 species of birds
- 18.5% of all bird species on earth
- 45% of all Neotropical birds
- Manu is 1/2 the size of Switzerland; 2/3 is unexplored; 1000
species
- in the Peruvian cloud forest every 500 meters of elevation
produces a new species
Colombia:
- 1815 species of birds (out of 9000 on earth)
- more amphibians than Brazil
- #2 in plant species
- #3 in reptiles
Ecuador was added to the mega-biodiversity
list because of the variety of eco-systems and diversity due to the Galapagos
Miscellaneous and un-organized but interesting
facts:
- rain forests cover less than 6% of the earth's total land
surface
- rainforests are home for up to three-fourths of all known
species of plans and animals
- rain forests have three to four different levels:
- emergent layer (top most level; tops of the tallest trees as
tall as 150 feet)
- the canopy (tops of trees ranging 60-90 feet tall)
- the understory (trees of up to 50 feet tall; trunks of
canopy trees; new trees)
- the forest floor (branches, roots, leaves, little
vegetation, thin layer of soil)
- 1/3 of all the birds in the world live in rainforests
- In Central America, a scientist caught over 500 different
species of insects by sweeping a net through the air fewer than 2000 times
- In stead of wind, many hummingbirds, other birds, bats and
insects are the main source of spreading seeds throughout the forest floor
- Frogs in the rainforest are very bright and shiny
- A rainforest can have more ants, in weight and numbers, than
anything else
- 30 million species of plants and animals liver in the
world's rainforests
- Two thirds of the world's plants are found in the rainforest
- 30,000 types of species of epiphytes (some examples:
bromeliads, mosses, ferns, orchids, cacti)
- Thundershowers, on average, occur 200 out of 365 days a year
which creates a very humid atmosphere