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
The lesson
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.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 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.