Rainforest Animals
Explore animals of the tropical rainforest, the most species-rich habitat on Earth, learning that the forest has layers (canopy, understory, forest floor) with different animals at each level: toucans and monkeys in the canopy, jaguars and frogs on the floor, and that rainforests are found near the equator
What a learner can do afterwards
- Names at least 4 rainforest animals from different layers
- Describes the rainforest as having layers (canopy, understory, forest floor)
- Explains that rainforests are near the equator and are hot and wet
- Recognises that rainforests have more species than almost any other habitat
1 · Read
Rainforests grow near the equator, the imaginary line that circles the middle of the Earth. The sun is strong there all year, so the air stays hot and wet. That warmth and rain help more kinds of plants and animals live there than in almost any other place on Earth.
A rainforest has layers, like floors in a very tall building. The canopy is the leafy roof at the top. The understory is the shady middle. The forest floor is the dark ground below. Each layer is home to different animals.
High in the canopy, a toucan uses its huge beak to reach fruit while monkeys swing from branch to branch. Down on the shady forest floor, a jaguar prowls quietly and a poison frog hops over damp leaves. Each animal fits its own layer.
When you spot a rainforest animal, ask which layer it lives in: the canopy, the understory, or the forest floor. That is one reason rainforests hold so many species: there is room for animals at every level.
Rainforests sit near the hot, wet equator and have layers, canopy, understory, and forest floor, each packed with its own animals, which is why rainforests have more species than almost anywhere else.
More to read
Tropical rainforest biomes
A rainforest is warm and rainy all year. The trees grow so tall and close that their tops form a leafy roof called the canopy. Monkeys, toucans, and sloths live up there in the sun. Down below sit shady layers, and on the dark forest floor jaguars pad past frogs and ants.
Each layer is like a separate street in one tall town. Different animals live on each street because light, food, and hiding spots change with height. More kinds of animals live here than in almost any other home on Earth.
Key points: Terrestrial biomes
A biome is a huge region with its own weather and wildlife. Deserts are dry, tundras are frozen, and rainforests are hot and wet. The rainforest biome sits near the equator, the warm belt around the middle of Earth. Rain falls there almost every day.
Because it is always warm and wet, plants never stop growing. All that green feeds monkeys, parrots, insects, and big cats. One biome can hold millions of kinds of life.
Can Planting Trees Fix Climate Change? (Plants & Biomes): Crash Course Botany #14
Trees are rainforest builders. Their leaves catch sun, their roots drink rain, and their trunks lift whole worlds of animals into the sky. When trees fall or are cut down, the animals that lived in them lose their homes.
People plant trees to heal damaged land. Young trees pull a gas called carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. New forests can shelter animals again, but old rainforests took ages to grow. Keeping them standing matters most.
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2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Optional connections
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.