Help the Rainforest

In this blog, we've showed you lots of things about how to survive and identify the rainforest, but you need to know how to protect this wonder of life. At http://www.worldlandtrust.org/, you can buy and donate land in the rainforest and it will be protected. I have done this twice, and let me tell you it is a really good christmas present. You can also protect land in other biomes besides the rainforest such as Savannah, temperate forest, and lots more. It's a really good program. So try buying some!

Milk Frog

Hello readers. I am here to tell you about the newest creature I've heard of called the milk frog. The milk frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix) is nocturnal and can live to be up to 25 years old, and it's only 8 cm long. The female can lay around 2,000 eggs, and hatch in as little as a day. It's diet is insects, spiders, invertebrates, and any amphibian it can swallow. This frog may look cute but the reason it is called the milk frog is because it leaks out a milky substance of poison when threatened. Ick.

The Garlic Vine

This is Ajos Sacha (the garlic vine). It is native to the Amazon. The reason that it tastes like garlic is that it has the same sulfur compounds as the regular garlic. it has been used as both a spice, and a medicine. It has been used as a pregnancy tonic, anti-arthritic, antihistimine, anti-inflammitory, anti-microbial, anti-spasmatic, muscle relaxer, and pain reliver. It is also widly cultivated. So for all you gardeners, listen up.

Recycle Recycle Recycle!

One of the biggest problems in the rain forest is deforestation. Deforestation is chopping down trees from the rain forest. The trees are often used to make the paper. Deforestation causes many many animals to lose their homes, and will also make the forest grow smaller and smaller. There is one simple way to decrease deforestation. It is recycling paper. That way after you are done using the paper, it will just be used again some day. If your home and/or school doesn't have any recycling bins, try to get one. Recycling will stop the amount of deforestation because we'll have enough recycled paper to lower the need for more deforestation. The Amazon needs your help.

Recycle!

Fun Facts

The Amazon rainforest is located in 8 countries: Brazil, which has about 60% of the rainforest in it, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. There are 20-40 million species inhabiting it, and there are about 7,500,000,000,000 trees in the Amazon (7.5 trillion), or at least used to be. Every day a part of the rainforest the size of a baseball field is being demolished, and some scientists predict the rainforest will be gone by 2030. Last but not least, the size of the rainforest is astonishing. It is estimated to be an incredible 1.2 billion acres or 7 million square kilometers!

Capybaras

Get ready for the strangest yet most interesting animal yet...

The capybara!

Capybaras are rodents; the largest rodents in the world actually. They are about four feet long, two feet tall, and can sometimes weigh around 150 pounds! That is the size of some dogs! These animals are active in day and night. They are also excellent swimmers. This species can be underwater for a few minutes without coming up for air and can sleep in the water if they have to. The capybaras just have to stick their nose out of the water when dozing off. The diet they eat is mostly grass, and I mean a lot of grass. An adult capybara can eat as much as six to eight pounds of grass! The mating season of the capybara is almost any time, and a female capybara can have up to six babies a year. Sadly, farmers hunt down these animals for their meat and hyde, because it helps protect some of their plants. Indians hunt them down to use their teeth as ornaments, and capybara sightings are less often now. Lets hope just like other animals, plants, and the rain forest itself won't come to extinction. The capybara is definitely too unique to lose.

Some Rainforest Photos

The landscape of the Amazon is a fascinating scene. This post is just to admire the natural beauty of the rainforest. Enjoy!

Giant Anteater

The giant anteater is a very interesting animal. It has a long snout that it's tongue can go 2 feet out of. The distinct animal is covered in straw-like fur. These animals also have backwards claws to dig into ant and termite nests. You could call it giant because the creature is 4 to 6 feet long and can weigh up to 85 pounds. The anteater's body temperature is always low unless it eats, so it eats 1000 ants each feeding. It eats about 30,000 ants each day! It is the only anteater out of the 3 in the amazon that spends it's entire life on the forest floor. It is very slow like a sloth. Just like all the other rain forest animals, the anteater is a splendid animal

Clues to the Past

Deep in the amazon, in 2004, scientists found the first clue that dinosaurs may have lived in the rain forests of South America. the amazonsaurus maranhensis! It is a plant eater that is in the diplodocus family, that weighs 10 tons and is 10 meters long. Finding a fossil of a dinosaur in the amazon is a big deal because the rain forest is so humid that most fossils decay. There is no conclusion that dinosaurs lived there in the past yet, because the scientists had too little evidence for them to decide. Another piece of evidence was a dinosaur tooth found in the amazon, but it still wasn't enough information. The amazonsaurus gave ideas for another theory too. The fossil the paleontologists found was similar to one found in Africa giving more information that South America and Africa were once connected. So, did dinosaurs once live in the rain forest?

You decide.

Edible Trees Of The Jungle

THE CHONTA TREE

YOU CAN EAT THE SHOOT

THE ORCHID TREE

YOU CAN EAT THE PODS ( VANILLA)

THE HOG PLUM TREE

YOU CAN EAT THE SHOOT.

THE POKENOBOY TREE

YOU CAN EAT THE FRUIT

THE JIPPI JAPPA PALM

YOU CAN EAT THE SHOOT AND THE FLOWER

THE WAREE PALM

YOU CAN EAT THE FRUIT,HEART,NUTS, SHOOT, AND FLOWER.

THE COHUNE PALM

YOU CAN EAT THE NUTS,FRUIT, AND HEART.