The forest floor is the bottom layer of the rainforest. Except for rotting vegetation which nourishes the thin tropical soil, the forest floor is almost bare. Large mammals like jaguars and African gorillas live on the forest floor. No one knows for sure how or when these original inhabitants of the rainforests got there. Today, there are less than 200,000.
Indigenous people live in small groups or tribes.
They build their homes from trees and palm leaves. They have their own spiritual beliefs. Rubber tappers also live in the rainforests of Brazil. They are not Indians but have learned to take rubber from rubber trees without killing the trees. Rainforests help control the world's climate.