Up Close: Into the Jungle
| October 27, 2016
What goes on in the jungles of the world? A lot of course. But nobody not even the scientists who study them knows the whole story because jungles are distant hard-to-get-to regions and are difficult to explore because of dangerous plants and animals. Little by little though hundreds of species of plants and animals are being discovered not to mention new materials cures to diseases and thousands of other neat things. Welcome to a new world full of life.
How Big? How big is a jungle or rainforest? It varies a lot. The smallest is the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve about 25 acres in the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The Amazon rainforest in South America on the other hand is so big — over 2 million square miles — that if it were a country it would be the ninth biggest in the world.
Emergent Layer This is the topmost part of the jungle or rainforest where the tallest trees up to 240 feet high tower above the canopy and everything else. Eagles butterflies bats and some high-flying monkeys live up here.
Canopy The roof of the jungle where the tops or crowns of trees come together in a dense layer. Most of the plants are here but because it’s so high above the ground much of it remains unexplored. Imagine a canopy 100 to 200 feet high stretching over thousands of square miles like a whole other “continent of life” suspended in the air!
Exploring the Canopy It wasn’t until the 1980s that scientists invented ways to reach the canopy like firing ropes into the trees using crossbows and building cranes and walkways anchored on the forest floor. They also used balloons and airships to get a look at things from the outside.
Understory This is the layer between the canopy and the jungle floor. Dark and dangerous. The canopy above blocks out 95 percent of sunlight making the area underneath so dark you might need a flashlight in the daytime. Watch out for snakes lizards jaguars and leopards.
Species You won’t even know the names of all the animals here as many new species are discovered every year. Between 1999 and 2009 for example more than 1 200 new species of plants and animals were seen for the first time in the Amazon. That’s about a new species every three days!
Spiders In 2016 scientists discovered eight new whip spiders in the Amazon. Actually they’re a cross between a scorpion and a spider. No poisonous fangs like a scorpion and they don’t make silk like a spider. The “whip” comes from the long whip-like front legs which give them a spidery look.
Oops! We could not locate your form.
