1. INTERACTIVE
RAINFOREST

2. The Four Layers of a Rainforest
Emergent Layer
Canopy
Play Movie
*First, watch a movie about the layers of the Rainforest.
*Then, click on a layer at the right to see more!
Understory
*When you’re done exploring, test your skills Here!
Forest Floor

3. The Emergent Layer
Emergent trees are spaced very widely apart and are 100 to 240 feet tall. They have umbrella shaped canopies that grow above all the other trees. These tall trees have straight, smooth trunks with few branches. Click on the animals to learn more!

4. The Canopy
The canopy has 60 to 130 foot trees. So, light is easily available at the top of this layer. Most of the rainforest's animals live here. Many of these animals don’t have to go down to the floor because they can find their food here. Monkeys, sloths, toucans, snakes, lizards, and many other animals live here.

5. The Understory
This layer is made up of the trunks of canopy trees, shrubs, and plants. There is little air movement down here because it is crowded with plants! Animals in the understory are insects, snakes, lizards, and small mammals. Some larger animals, like jaguars, spend a lot of time on branches here looking for prey. The cocoa tree can be found in this layer!

6. The Forest Floor
Less than 2% of sunlight reaches the forest floor. A lot of litter falls to the floor and is quickly broken down by decomposers like termites, earthworms and fungi. The largest animals in the rainforest generally live here, including gorillas, jaguars and anteaters.

7. Scarlet Macaw
Scarlet Macaws lives both in the emergent layer and canopy. They eat seeds, nuts, flowers, and even unripe fruit that other animals avoid. They can fly up to 35mph and usually travel in pairs or small groups. This bird is an endangered species because rainforests are being destroyed, and because people have captured them for pets.
Emergent Layer

8. Spotted Cuscus
These guys eat fruits and small lizards. Their long, strong tail helps them climb up to the highest layer in the rainforest. They are slow like sloths, have red, orange or yellow eyes, and grow only to be as big as a house cat. The cuscus is part of the possum family, and like the possum, is nocturnal.
Emergent Layer

9. Leafcutter Ant
As the name says, leafcutter ants cut off leaves of plants, and use them in their nests. These ants do not even eat these leaves, they eat fungus which is made when the leaves die. Leafcutter ants are so strong that they can carry up to 20 times their own weight. That amount of weight is like one human carrying a whole tone by their selves! These ants live in huge groups of 3-8 million ants called “colonies.”
Forest Floor

10. Poison Dart Frog
At about 1 1/2 inches they can be green, red, orange, yellow, blue, or black, or any combination of these colors. Their skin contains toxins that are bad tasting, making them an unlikely meal for most animals. If these poisons got into the bloodstream of another animal, it could cause: convulsions, paralysis, and even death. Poison-dart frogs do have one known predator, the snake Leimadophis epinephelus, which is immune to their poisons.
Emergent Layer

11. Butterflies and other Rainforest Insects
This Long-Horned Grasshopper has leaf-like wings that help it blend in while it eats real leaves.
The Blue Morpho
Morphos taste with sensors on their legs, and they taste-smell the air with their antennas. Morpho adults eat and sleep on the forest floor and in the understory, but they fly through all layers of the rainforest.
Stick insects, like this one, grow to look like sticks, leaves, and plant stems! Because they blend in so well, it is often hard to find them crawling around the plants of the forest floor!
Forest Floor
Emergent Layer

12. Iguana
The iguana can be found in all areas of the rainforest, but mainly in the canopy. It is an excellent swimmer and will plunge into water when it feels threatened. The iguana lays eggs to reproduce and their young generally forage on the forest floor eating invertebrates such as insects, worms and snail.
Canopy

13. Spider Monkey
Spider monkeys grow up to two feet, not including their tail. This long tail is used like a hand to grab onto branches. They climb and swing in both the canopy and emergent layers. These monkeys got their name because when they hand from trees, it looks like the have many arms/legs just like a spider! They travel in small groups, and eat fruits, nuts, and seeds. Spider monkeys have even been seen shaking vines to make their predators fall off!
Canopy

14. Howler Monkey
Howlers live in family troops made up of a father, three or four mothers, young males and females, and babies. Their howl can be heard up to three miles away! They eat lots of fruits and leaves, which they get their main source of water from. Monkeys use a lot of energy to digest, so that is why they lounge around in trees.
Emergent Layer

15. Red Eye Tree Frog
This little frog (2-3 inches) is neon green with bits of color all over. It’s legs are blue and their feet are red or orange. Their toes act like suction cups for climbing! These tree frogs eat small insects, moths, grasshoppers, and sometimes even smaller frogs! When they sleep, they blend in because their big red eyes are closed and they are just green, However, when they pop open their big, red eyes, they scare their predators away!
Understory

16. Gecko
Geckos are the only lizards that make noise. They got their name because the noise they make is a tiny squeaking that sounds like “gecko.” They have big eyes and great vision. If a gecko is caught by its tail, it can release its tail and grow another one back! These lizards are good climbers because of their sticky, Velcro-like feet that lets them attach to whatever they climb. Because of these feet, they climb back and forth from the forest floor to the understory.
Understory

17. Boa Constrictor
Boa Constrictors live in the understory, canopy, and on the forest floor! They smell with their tongues and hear through the vibrations on the ground. Most boas are between 6.5 and 13 feet in length. They will wait for days near their prey's home, waiting for the perfect time to attack it. They eat rats, lizards, and other small mammals. After eating a large meal, Boa’s can go for weeks without eating!
Canopy

18. Gorilla
Gorillas spend much of their time eating! They consume large amounts of stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Their arms are longer than their legs, and often used to help them “knuckle-walk.” Gorillas are very smart and some have been taught to communicate with humans. They live in groups of 6-7 gorillas called “bands.” Although gorillas are very large, they rarely threaten other animals. In the wild, Gorillas live to about age 35 but in captivity they can live to be about 50 years old!
Forest Floor

19. Armadillo
The armadillo’s arms, head, body, legs, and tail are all protected by the hard, bony, plates. They will spend most of their time burrowing underground and because of this, their sense of smell is much better than their hearing or vision. Armadillos eat insects, bird’s eggs, roots, and some fruits. In one meal they will eat up to 40,000 ants! Like many animals of the rainforest, the armadillos is loosing it’s habitat because of rainforest destruction.
Forest Floor

20. Kinkajou
The kinkajou is related to the raccoon. They have red-ish brown or tan fur with a very long tail. These animals eat almost anything from flowers and fruits to birds and small mammals. They even have a long, thin tongue they use to get honey from bee hives! Their claws help the kinkajou reach and eat fruit. They communicate with other kinkajous by their scent and grunting sounds. Like many animals of the rainforest, the kinkajou’s tail helps it climb and hold on!
Understory

21. Jaguar
Like the Scarlet Macaw, Jaguars are also endangered because they are losing their home, and being hunted by humans. Unlike the house cats we know, Jaguars are actually very good swimmers. They eat birds, reptiles, eggs, alligators, and other small mammals. They stay lower in the rainforest so they can prey on other animals on the ground.
Understory

22. Anteater
Anteaters have very small mouths, long, thin tongues, and a very long snout. They actually have very bad vision, but they sense of smell is great. Anteaters eat only insects, usually ants and termites but sometimes other insects, too. They catch the bugs by flicking their tongue in and out of their mouths which they can do as fast as 160 times per minute!
Forest Floor

23. Test your rainforest knowledge using your math skills!
Click on a quiz below
Find The Difference
Multiplication and Division

24. 104 96 94 400 The Amazon Rainforest gets 100 feet of rain each year!
If New Hampshire gets 4 feet of rain each year, how many more feet does the rainforest get compared to New Hampshire?
104 96 94
400

25. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 2-A 3-N
4-O 5-R
7-T 8-U 9-Y
6-S
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution
Letter substitution

26. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 2-A 3-N
4-O 5-R 6-S
8-U 9-Y
7-T
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution
Letter substitution S

27. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 2-A 3-N
4-O 6-S
7-T 8-U 9-Y
5-R
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution 7
Letter substitution S T

28. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 3-N
4-O 5-R 6-S
7-T 8-U 9-Y
2-A
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution 7 5
Letter substitution S T R

29. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 2-A 3-N
4-O 5-R 6-S
8-U 9-Y
7-T
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution 7 5 2
Letter substitution S T R A

30. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 3-N
4-O 5-R 6-S
7-T 8-U 9-Y
2-A
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution 7 5 2
Letter substitution S T R A

31. Scientists divide the rainforest into zones based on the living environment. What is another name for “zone?”
Letter Code:
1-D 2-A 3-N
4-O 5-R 6-S
7-T 8-U 9-Y
12 ÷ 2
7 x 1
15 ÷ 3
2 x 1 21
÷ 3 6 ÷3
Math solution 7 5 2
Letter substitution S T R A
Back to Quizzes

32. The rainforest gets 96 more inches of rain than New Hampshire!
To find the difference, subtract:
Amazon Rainfall:
100 -
New Hampshire Rainfall: 4
_______ 96
The rainforest gets 96 more inches of rain than New Hampshire!
Back to Quizzes

33. References
Rainforest Alliance: Species Profiles.
Cadbury: Spotted Cuscus.
Earth’s Birthday Org: Rainforest Exploration: Kids.
Teach-nology. Rainforest: Spider Monkey.
Enchanted Learning: Boa Constrictor, Scarlet Macaws, Gorillas, Jaguar, Anteaters, Geckos, Kinkajou
Wellington Zoo. Primate Fact sheet: Spider Monkey.
Nashville Zoo. Red-Eyed Tree Frog.