Rainforest Project

Hello, my name is Fred Fred Burger. But you

can call me Fred. My incredible story begins one ordinary afternoon when I walk into my favorite fast food place. Taco Bell. I saw something new on the menu. It was a Rainforest Supreme. I thought I might try it, so, I ordered it. On the wrapper it said SAVE the rainforest!!!! The rainforest used to cover 14% of the worlds land area. Now it only covers 6%. After my first bite I saw the world spinning. I started seeing trees and plants. The temperature

started getting warmer. I was in a … RAINFOREST!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must have been knocked out for a while because when I finally came to, it was night time. That’s when I realized something. I didn’t know how to get out of the rainforest! Luckily I am a camouflage unicorn, so I blended in with the foliage.

I saw a 3-toed sloth sleeping in the understory of the forest. I went over there to wake him up. When I got over there I shook him awake. He was so startled that he fell out of the tree. I couldn’t help but laughing. When he got up I introduced myself. He laughed at my name. So I laughed at his name even though it was not funny. His name was Oscar. I asked him to tell me about himself. He told me he is an herbivore, his prey is plants. Also about some of his adaptations. He mentioned me he has long claws to help him climb and hold onto trees. He said that the climate around there was warm, dry, and humid. And that his predator was a

jaguar. A jaguar is a carnivore. And he is a herbivore, so that makes him an omnivore. That means he eats all living organisms. He said that his habitat is the understory and the forest floor. He also told me that he eats plants and leaves. Well eventually I told him that I needed his help to get out of the rainforest. He agreed to help me. So we started off on our journey.

After we had been walking for a long time we say a spider monkey swinging from tree to tree. We were both tired so we sat down and watched him for a while. Eventually he came down and joined us. And, just like Oscar he started telling us about himself. He told us that his name is jerry. He mentioned that he has a long tail to help him hold onto trees and swing. He told us that he is an herbivore and he feeds on fruit and seeds. Also his predators are raptors, jaguars and large snakes. He told us that he lives in the understory of the rainforest, but he sometimes visits the emergent layer. They almost never come to the ground. Well after a while we headed out on our journey.

So we started walking. There was awesome stuff to look at.

And while we were walking they told me stuff about the rainforest. They told me that many people don’t care about the rainforest and how it helps them, and how deforestation is happening all over the rainforest. They told me that there were 4 stories to the rainforest. I didn’t believe them because the rainforest isn’t a house. But then they told me that there was a forest floor, understory, canopy, and emergent layer. Well why they were telling me all this I realized something. I was really hungry. I was looking for something to eat. I was looking for a plant but I couldn’t find one. So I asked Oscar and Jerry to help me find one good to eat.

While we were looking they were telling me about the plants we saw. I saw this cool plant that looked like it has little purple bells on it. I asked jerry what it was called he said a foxglove. It was a producer. And that it uses

photosynthesis to make its on food. He said that the little bells were for helping for birth control. I thought “so maybe flowers actually do something besides look pretty. He told me that the flower usually grow on the forest floor in the Amazon rainforest. It’s also used for medicine in some cases, but, if you take too much of it, it can cause some killing. It is about a 4 foot tall flower with little purple bells on it (but not real bells). But he said we couldn’t eat it because if you ate it while you weren’t sick you would get sick. Also I saw a worm on it and I am really scared of worms so I ran off screaming. Oscar said “why are you scared? It’s just a decomposer.” I said “worms are scary.” Then they started laughing at me. But the laughing didn’t last long, because suddenly I heard them yell and I turned around to see why.

Then I saw a jaguar running full speed at us! I decided to try to fight back. I ran at him with my unicorn horn and stabbed him right in the face. He ran off whining.

Since the jaguar was gone we headed out on our journey, laughing and talking. Well why I was talking to

them I wasn’t looking to where I was going and ran smack dab into a tree. There was this weird vine type thingy. I asked what it was and they said it was a strangler fig. They said it looks like a vine that strangles a tree. It lives in the understory of the forest because it uses trees as a host and uses trees to get nutrients. They said it doesn’t really have a use and no animal really eats it.

Well that’s was enough of the strangler fig. So we headed out on our journey out of the rainforest. We traveled about ten miles we ran into a village. When we saw some people we asked them who they were and they told us that they were the Yanomani tribe. We asked them to tell them about their culture. They told us that they hunt with speres and that when a hunter kills an animal he doesn’t eat it. He gives it to the other people. They get around by canoeing and walking. They live in houses called shambonos. A shambono is a circular structure with an opening in the middle. They told us that they are indigenous to the Amazon rainforest. Well we said good bye to our new friends and headed back out on our journey.

Well it wasn’t long before we ran into new friends. It was the Nukak tribe. We asked them to tell us about them and they said that they travel a lot. Also they live in small groups, like nine to thirty

people. Nukak houses tend to be very light structures made of wood and palm-leaves, just enough to provide a roof to sling a hammock under. The men hunt with these cool objects called a blowgun. The Nukak eat fish, game, turtles, fruit, vegetables, nuts, insects and honey. Well after a while we said good bye to them too and headed out. Soon Jerry and Oscar said we were almost out. I couldn’t wait to get back home to my cat Mr. Fluffle. But I would never forget the wonderful adventure that I went on and all the animals and plants and people I learned about. I wouldn’t forget Oscar, Jerry, and both the tribes that we met. I hope my adventure helped you learn a little more about the rainforest. I know I sure did. Well so long until my next adventure. Hopefully there is a Grand Canyon taco coming up on the menu at Taco Bell. Try to conserve our beautiful rainforest. Well, bye

This is a land cover map. This is a climate map.

Citationshttp://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/three-toed-sloth/><http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/sloth/Sloth3printout.shtml> <http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/whlayers.html> <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Camouflage> <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/habitat> <http://www.honoluluzoo.org/spider_monkey.htm> <http://www.honoluluzoo.org/spider_monkey.htm><http://spidermonkeys.com/Predators.html> <http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/01873/ama2.htm?tql-iframe> <http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/plants/strangler.html>http://www.Dictionary.com