page_title: Rainforest
section_title: Plants and animals
hierarchical_section_title: Rainforest / Plants and animals
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of a trail of Eciton burchellii army ants. Taken on Barro Colorado Island Panama
context_page_description: A rainforest is a forest that receives heavy rainfall. The most notable rainforests are in the tropics or subtropics, mostly in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The biggest rainforest is the Amazon rainforest, which is mostly in Brazil. Forests like this have extraordinary biodiversity. Biologists say over half of all plant and animal species live in the rainforest. Also more than 1/4 of all medicines come from here. Even though they only cover 6% of the Earth's land area they are still an important source of oxygen.
  The rainforest gets an average of 50 to 250 inches of rain through the year. It is warm all year round rarely getting above 34°C or getting below 20 °C. It has an average humidity of 77 to 88%. Tropical rainforests occur in three major geographical areas around the world.
  Parts of South and Central America – the Amazon River basin, and Costa Rica.
  Africa – Congo River basin, with a small area in West Africa; also eastern Madagascar.
  South Asia and Australasia – west coast of India, Assam, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Queensland, Australia.
  A less-used term is temperate rainforest.
context_section_description: One type of plant in the rainforest does not need soil.  These plants are called epiphytes, or air plants.  Air plants live on the branches of trees in the canopy or understory, with their roots out in the air. In the humid rainforest, they collect water from the rain that falls on them.
  One kind of air plant is a flower called an orchid. There are thousands of different kinds of orchids in the rainforest. Some air plants store water in pools in and around their roots. These pools can become homes for frogs and salamanders. Frogs usually need to lay their eggs in ponds, but some rainforest tree frogs lay their eggs in the pools in air plants. That way, the frogs never have to go down to the ground.Some plants are made for medicine for humans.
  Millions of kinds of insects live in the rainforest. It never gets cold enough to kill them. There are bees, butterflies, termites, beetles, and many kinds of flies. There are ants everywhere. One kind of ant is the army ant. Army ants do not have nests. They march out in a line every day to hunt for other insects, which they eat. At night they hook themselves together to form a living nest around their queen and larvae, or baby ants.
  Snakes live in the trees and on the forest floor. They eat frogs, eggs, birds, insects, and small animals. Some of the snakes, like the fer-de-lance of Latin America, are poisonous, but others are not. One large non-poisonous snake is the anaconda of South America. It is one of the largest snakes in the world. It kills its prey by wrapping itself around the animal and squeezing it until it cannot breathe.
  Monkeys are a very common animal in the rainforest. Most live their lives up in the canopy and the understory. They have long arms to swing from branch to branch, and some use their tails to hold onto the trees while they eat. They are fast and agile, jumping easily from tree to tree for food. Different monkeys eat different things. They can eat nuts, flowers, roots, and frogs. Their hoots and howls are heard throughout the rainforest, even when they cannot be seen among the trees.
  Many colorful birds also live among the canopy of the rain forest, and there are also animals that live on the forest floor. The tapir is a forest animal that looks like a large pig. It is actually related to the horse and the rhinoceros. They live in South American and Asian rain forests, eating leaves, twigs, and fruit. Tapirs are among the animals hunted by the big cats of the rain forest. Jaguars, leopards, and tigers are the largest predators of rain forests. These cats have beautiful fur coats that have been hunted for the fur trade for years. The spotted coats of the jaguar and leopards were especially popular for fur coats. Today most countries are trying to protect their big cats, but many are still hunted illegally.
  These are only a few of the animals and plants in the rainforest. About half of all of the different kinds, or species, of plants and animals in the entire world live in rain forests. Many of the plants and animals, especially insects, do not even have scientific names, because they have never been classified by a biologist.
caption: Marching army ants
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