100 Facts Rainforests – Bitesized Facts & Awesome Images to Support KS2 Learning

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was the worst fire season since 2019, when that year’s El Niño brought a prolonged dry season and fires so severe, they sent billowing smoke across Malaysia and Singapore. It's safe to say you will find many interesting and diverse creatures lurking the forest floor, or moving from tree to tree. Although rainforests cover less than 3 percent of the planet, these ecological powerhouses are critical to nearly every aspect of the planet’s health—including our very ability to breathe. The tallest trees spread their branches and leaves blocking the light from the trees below, and creating a canopy over the forest.

Rainforests help keep our climate stable; without rainforests, the planet gets warmer and sea levels rise. Where can you find an antelope the size of a rabbit, a snake that can fly, or a spider that eats birds? The temperate rainforest is less sunny and gets less rainfall than its cousin — the tropical rainforest. A beam of sunlight makes its way through the leaves and lights up the brightly colored wings of a macaw. Fact 12: Over 2000 types of plants that you find in the rainforest can be used to help aide in cancer treatment because they have anti-cancer properties.

The bad news is that saving rainforests will be a challenge as it means humanity will need to shift away from business-as-usual practices by developing new policies and economic measures to creative incentives for preserving forests as healthy and productive ecosystems. These communities have often lived in harmony with the rainforest for generations, and they have developed a deep knowledge and understanding of the rainforest ecosystem. Fact 26: Trees in tropical rainforests are so dense that it takes approximately 10 minutes for the rainfall to reach the ground from the canopy.

The forest floor receives very little light and is teeming with insects and decomposing plants and animals. Trees in the emergent layer can grow as tall as skyscrapers (between 40 m and 80 m) and have thin trunks. Even though their population was larger in the past, today, there is fewer than one person per every 1. The rainforest is a hub of activity, with millions of different interactions happening between plants and animals every day.Policymakers and companies are increasingly valuing rainforests for the services they afford, setting aside large blocks of forests in protected areas and setting up new financial mechanisms that compensate communities, state and local governments, and countries for conserving forests. This is why it is important now more than ever to action to preserve this amazing forest and all that it has to offer.

Other countries that have large areas of rainforest include Bolivia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Guyana, India, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo, Suriname, and Venezuela. Fact 16: There were around 6 million square miles of rainforest in the beginning, but now because of deforestation, there is only less than half of that still found in the world. The only living animals you could be sure to see are the millions of insects creeping and crawling around in every layer of the rainforest. There is plenty of food and water, there is shade from the heat, and plenty of shelter from the rain. Just four square miles of forest contain 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds, and 150 butterfly species.Thus, it’s not surprising that rainforests are home to many of the most famous snakes, such as the green anaconda. The rainforest is so thick with plants and greenery that it can take up to 10 minutes for a drop of water to travel from the top layer of a tree to the forest floor! Sometimes they need to travel 200 feet, equal to an average human walking about 6 miles with 5,000 lbs.