By: A Former Student

Description The Tropical Rainforest is located near the equator. The Tropical Rainforest once covered 16% of the earth but now only covers 6%. We are loosing 80 acres per minuet. It has 4 stories. The first story is the Emergent, where the tallest trees are with only birds and insects. The second story is the canopy, which are the high branches that almost form a solid floor for small mammals, birds, insects, and the actionable reptile or amphibian. The third story is the understory that is the lower branches where only insects inhabit. And the 4th story is the forest floor where most animals live.

Climate The Rainforest is usually about 20-25° Celsius. It usually has about 200 inches of rain per year. In the Canopy, leaves are shaped so that water will drip off. The Rainforest produces 40% of all earths oxygen.

Plants There are 2500 species of vine and many more species of flower plants and trees. One fourth of all medicines come from the rainforests. Most of the trees can only be told apart by there leaves or flowers. 137 plant species are becoming extinct per day in rainforests alone. Once the trees are destroyed, the soil is horrible.

Animals There are millions of insects including the paralyzing tick which can paralyze the entire body within an hour, the Owl butterfly that has wings that look like the head of an owl, and the spiny yellow caterpillar that has toxin on its spines. Some mammals include the wooly monkey thats fur can stick to bark, the ocelot which is a small jaguar with different spots and fur, the black and white colubus monkey which a very small and fast black and white monkey. Some reptiles include the day gecko which is one of the only diurnal geckos, the leaf chameleon that is only one inch long, and the green buss viper that has many spines on its back that are poisonous.

More Animals Some amphibians include the poison arrow frog that is the size of an adults thumb nail and is classified as the worlds most deadly animal because it has enough poison to kill 1000 people, the golden panama frog that has no eardrums and communicates with its hands and is endangered because people believe it to be a good luck charm, and the tomato frog that releases glue like toxins to protect itself.

Interesting Facts In six square kilometer, there can be up to 1500 flowers species, 750 tree species, 400 bird species, 150 butterfly species, 100 reptile species, 60 amphibians, and species of insects. The poison arrow frog got its name because Indian tribes would put there poison on there arrows and darts. Another use of the frog was to capture it and kill it with an arrow in there hunting rituals. One half of all animal species on Earth live in the rainforest. One half of all animal species on Earth live in the rainforest. If we lose the rainforests, we will be unable to cure leukemia and other cancers and sicknesses. If we lose the rainforests, we will be unable to cure leukemia and other cancers and sicknesses.