The Tropical rainforests
Have you ever wondered about the tropical rainforests?
Tropical rainforests are near the equator. The largest tropical rainforests are in Africa and along the Amazon river in South America. You can also find the rainforests in Central America, Australia, several islands of the Pacific, the Caribbean, India, Vietnam, Philippines, Madagascar and in small areas of the Florida Everglades.
What is a rainforest?
A rainforest can be described as a tall, dense jungle with a constant temperature and very high rainfall.
The ecosystem of the tropical rainforests is considered as the oldest living ecosystem. They are so amazing as they cover only 6% of the earth’s surface but they contain more than ½ of the world’s plant and animal species.
What is an Ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms and nonliving components that are interconnected to each other. The nonliving components are air, water, soil etc. The living components can be divided into producers, consumers and decomposers.
Producers are things that makes its own food. Plants, flowers and trees are examples of producers. Some producers in the rainforest are orchids, mosses, monster flowers, firs, spruces, pines, lianas, pitcher plants, bromeliads etc.
Then there are consumers. Consumers can be divided into primary consumers and secondary consumers. The primary consumers are the prey and the secondary consumers are the predators.
Some of the primary consumer/ the prey you can find in the rainforest are: Deer, Macaws, Cassowaries, Coconut Crabs, Crabs, Butterflies, Okapi, Crab Spiders, Weevils, Katydids, Leaf Cutter Ants, Flying Foxes, Woolly Monkeys, Salamanders, Tree frogs, Poisonous Tree Frogs, Parrots, Insects and Sloths.
Some of the secondary consumers/ the predators you can find in the rainforest are:
Tigers, Basilisk lizards, Hawks, Coral snakes, Boa constrictors, Cobras, Pythons Harpy eagles, Bald eagles, Anacondas,Jaguars, Leopards and Vipers.
The decomposers in a tropical rainforest are Fungi and Bacteria.
There are a lot more animals in the rainforest then the ones I have listed so if you want to learn more then go to TrueFlix or get Lush Tropical Paradise from the Heathcote library.
FACTS:
-Can you believe that 15 percent of the world’s tropical rainforests are disappearing each year!
-Tropical rainforests cover up about 7 percent of the earth’s surface.
-Did you know that tropical rainforests have more kinds of trees than anywhere in the world?