Welcome to the Rainforest!

Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine you wake up surrounded by enormous trees so tall you cannot see the sky. The air is hot and sticky. Water drips from giant leaves above you. Strange birds and insects make sounds you have never heard before. Where on Earth could you be? Today you are going to find out!

A biome is a large area of the world with a particular climate, plants, and animals that all live together. The rainforest biome is one of the most exciting biomes on Earth. Rainforests grow in places that are very hot and receive a huge amount of rain — at least 2,000 millimetres every year. That is about ten times more rain than many cities in the UK get! Most tropical rainforests sit near the Equator, an imaginary line around the middle of the Earth. The Amazon Rainforest in South America is the world's largest tropical rainforest. Other big rainforests are found in Central Africa and South-East Asia. The rainforest has four main layers, like floors in a tall building: • The emergent layer — the very tops of the tallest trees, reaching up to 60 metres high. Eagles and large birds live here. • The canopy — a thick roof of leaves and branches roughly 30 metres up. Most rainforest animals, like monkeys and toucans, live here. • The understorey — a shady, cooler layer below the canopy. Frogs, snakes, and small birds live here. • The forest floor — the dark ground level. Very little sunlight reaches here. Insects and large animals like jaguars roam this layer. Because the climate is warm and wet all year round, rainforests are bursting with life. They are home to more than half of all the plant and animal species on Earth, even though they cover only about 6% of the land surface.