victoria street graphic design, san clemente, ca ...… · like veins in a leaf, ... bangladesh...

Resources Acknowledgements

Editorial Assistance by Alice Casbara

Designed by Jeff Girard, Victoria Street Graphic Design, San Clemente, CA

Illustrated by Phil Roberts All illustrations © 1997 Phil Roberts. All rights reserved.

Notice: This publication may be reproduced by the classroom teacherfor classroom use only. This publication may not be reproduced forstorage in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by anymeans—electronic, mechanical, recording—without the prior permis-sion of the publisher. Reproduction of these materials for commercialresale is strictly prohibited,

Amazon © 1997. All rights reserved.Printed in USA

T E A C H E R G U I D E

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T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E

Amazon is an Ogden Entertainment film by Kieth Merrill. Distributed by MacGillivray Freeman Films.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Introduction

2 CHAPTER 1 Great Speaker, River Sea: The Mighty AmazonACTIVITY: Top Ten Longest, Top Ten

Largest: Famous Rivers of the World

4 CHAPTER 2 The Amazon Forest: Where Life OverflowsACTIVITY:Where in the World are

Tropical Rainforests?Create a Rainforest In a Soda Bottle

6 CHAPTER 3 The Rainforest Is Closer Than You ThinkACTIVITY: Explore the Grocery,

Discover the RainforestRainforest Recipes

8 CHAPTER 4 Kingdom of the AntsACTIVITY: Happy Trails

SignificANT AchievementsDown and Dirty: Up Close with Ants

10 CHAPTER 5 The World’s Most Beautiful RoofACTIVITY: Swingin’ in the Rain

Microhabitats

12 CHAPTER 6 In the Jungle, The Indian Knows EverythingACTIVITY:Words from the Forest

No Waste

14 CHAPTER 7 Conservation Hero:The Shaman’s ApprenticeACTIVITY:What Shamans Know

Could Save Your Life

16 CHAPTER 8 Discover EarthACTIVITY: In Your Own Backyard

Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live

19 GLOSSARY, RESOURCES, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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To learn about the vast South American rain-forest, we must first learn about the heartthat gives life to the forest. It is the mightiest

river in the world. Its name is AMAZON.The Amazon River is born high in the Andes

Mountains. It begins as a cold trickle of water, nowider than a mouse. As rain falls and snow melts,other streams from far away flow to meet it. Theriver grows larger, louder, faster. Indians call it“great speaker.”It rushes over forest cliffs and makesthunderous waterfalls. Sun strikes the mist and a

double rainbow appears!The river twists, turns,flattens and widens. Insome places it seems likea big, quiet sea. Indianscall it “river sea.” Thisvast, flowing water net-work is one of thebiggest and most myste-rious wildlife homes onour planet!

Waters of the AmazonRiver and its tributaries contain 5,000 differentspecies of fish, with perhaps 2,000 more awaitingdiscovery. Look closely in these waters, and youmight see some tiny, familiar friends. Many fishcommonly found in home aquariums are SouthAmerican freshwater species. Electric eels, secretivestingrays, sharks, and razor-toothed piranhas alsoswim here. Long-nosed pink river dolphins clickand clack and squeak, using echolocation, like thefish-eating bats above them, to find food and avoidobstacles. Gentle giants, the Amazonian manatees,graze on underwater plants and communicatewith each other by muzzle-to-muzzle touchingand chirps. Giant river otters, one of the mostendangered mammals in the world, frolic and play,but become deadly serious when it’s time to eat.All this , and yet only ripples and the odd splashmade by a jumping fish give any clue to theabundance of life beneath the water surface.

But the Amazon is much more than just oneriver. Like veins in a leaf, hundreds of streams joinlarger ones until they reach the mighty Amazon.The entire area, known as the Amazon basin, ismore than ten times the size of France!

Amazon River: Facts and Figuresn From source to sea (the Atlantic Ocean), the

Amazon River flows for 4,000 miles.n It carries more water than any other river in the

world.n The volume of water coming out of the Amazon

is enough to fill a million bathtubs in less thana minute!

n The Amazon has more than a thousand majortributaries: ten of these are more than 620miles in length.

n The river discharges into the Atlantic in a flowso powerful that it dilutes the ocean water for100 miles.

n It is estimated that it would take 9,000 trainspulling 30 ten-ton trucks every day to carry thesame amount of sediment as the waters of theAmazon carry with it.

n The Amazon basin covers almost half the landof South America, including much of Brazil andparts of Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,and Bolivia.

A C T I V I T Y : C H A P T E R 1

Top Ten Longest, Top Ten Largest:Famous Rivers of the WorldPurpose: Students will become familiar withsome of the great rivers of the world, their loca-tion, and relative sizes. Collectively, these riversrepresent the world’s water resources, as theycarry virtually all the water that is available forpeople and wildlife.

“Longest” refers to the river’s length in miles.“Largest” refers to the total amount of water carriedby the river. For example, the Amazon is the largestriver in the world, but the Nile is the longest.

Materials: Maps of the world20 - 81⁄ 2" x 11" pieces of cardboard.

Procedure:

1 Make 10 cards, each listing the name of one ofthe 10 longest rivers, the country or continentwhere it is found, and the length in miles.

2 Pass the cards out and have students work inpairs to find their river on a world map.

Great Speaker, River Sea: The Mighty Amazon

K E Y I D E A S

1 The Amazon River begins high in theAndes Mountains and empties into theAtlantic Ocean.

2 The water network formed by the Amazonand its tributaries is one of the biggestwildlife homes on our planet.

3 The Amazon is much more than one river.The total region drained by the Amazon andits tributaries is called the Amazon Basin.It is more than ten times the size of France.

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3 Have 10 students holding the cards come to thefront of the room, and arrange themselves toshow the ten longest rivers in order of length.

4 Repeat the activity with the top ten largestrivers.

Table 1:

The Longest Rivers of the World

RIVER LOCATION LENGTH

Nile Northeast Africa 4,132 miles

Amazon South America 4,000 miles

Yangtze China 3,915 miles

Huang He China 2,903 miles

Congo Africa 2,900 miles

Missouri United States 2,714 miles

Lena Russia 2,600 miles

Niger Africa 2,600 miles

Yenisei Russia 2,566 miles

Parana Argentina 2,450 miles

Table 2:

The Largest Rivers in the WorldRIVER LOCATION AVERAGE

DISCHARGE

Amazon South America 6,350,000 ft3/sec

Congo Africa 1,400,000 ft3/sec

Yangtze China 1,200,000 ft3/sec

Parana Argentina 777,000 ft3/sec

Orinoco Venezuela 706,000 ft3/sec

Brahmaputra Tibet, India, 706,000 ft3/secBangladesh

Ganges India 670,000 ft3/sec

Yenisei Russia 670,000 ft3/sec

Mississippi United States 645,000 ft3/sec

Lena Russia 547,000 ft3/sec

Discussion:What is the longest river in your state?What is the largest?Rivers have played very important roles in the courseof history. Why are rivers crucial to the survival ofpeople and wildlife?

The Major Rivers of the World

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“The land is one great wild, untidy luxurianthothouse made by nature for herself.”

—CHARLES DARWIN

As the Amazon River flows to the sea, it also rises to the sky, becoming clouds. Everyday itrains, bringing life to the forest. In every

available space, something grows; ferns, vines,mosses, shrubs, orchids and fungi, tiny trees andforest giants that are home to hundreds moreclingers, creepers and climbers. The forest is so wetthat the trees themselves rain. It smells like life. This

is the tropical rainforest.Warmth

(from the tropical sun)+

Wetness (from equatorial rains )

=Rainforest

Tropical rainforests forma broken, green bandaround the equator,between the Tropic ofCancer and the Tropic ofCapricorn. By definition,they receive more than80 inches of rain a year,with some areas regularly

getting more than 200 inches and a few getting morethan 400! The average temperature is around 77 F.

Moist, hot conditions over millions of yearshave created the perfect conditions for the explo-sion of life; and indeed the tropical forests of theworld represent the greatest show of plant andanimal diversity on Earth! Though they cover lessthan 7% of earth’s land surface, scientists thinkthey may hold more than 50% of all species.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest expanse oftropical rainforest, nearly as large as the continentalUnited States. Together, the river and forest arehome to over one million species; more than arefound any place else on Earth. Although it isfamous, the Amazon forest probably has moreunexplored territory than any area in the world.Most of the forest grows on dry land, called terrafirma rainforest. The other main type is calledigapo. This is forest near the rivers that is floodedduring the wet season. The trees here do not

grow as tall.Living Lavishly On Next to NothingIn the past, people believed the Amazon rainforestwas situated on fertile soil because plants grew sowell. Now we know that most Amazon soils arevery poor. Instead of nutrients from the soil, theterra firma forest depends on rain and rottingvegetation to provide the food needed. As plantsdie, they feed other plants. Everything is recycledand in balance.

A Fragile ComplexityIn this complex ecosystem, the survival of onespecies is directly tied to the survival of many others.Solving this ecological puzzle can be overwhelming,especially with hundreds of new pieces uncoveredeach year. Each species plays a slightly differentpart, and each katydid, treefrog, bat, parrot andmonkey, contributes a splash of beauty andexcitement to this intense and dramatic world.


Where in the World Are TropicalRainforests?Purpose: Students will locate the equator, theTropic of Cancer, and the Tropic of Capricorn on aglobe. Students will name the continents thatsupport tropical rainforests.

Materials:

n Inflatable globe

Procedure:

1 Place the palm of your hand on the widest partof the globe. (over the equator)

2 Now spin the globe . 3 Your open hand will pass over all of the tropical

rainforests of the world.

Discussion:Which contintents support tropical rain-forests? South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, NorthAmerica—on the North American continent,thereare rainforests in Central America, Hawaii, PuertoRico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands).Why do rainforests grow in these places?

The Amazon Forest: Where Life Overflows

K E Y I D E A S

1 Tropical rainforests form a broken greenband around the equator. They receive atleast 80 inches of rain per year, and theaverage temperature is around 77 F.

2 Tropical rainforests cover less than 7% ofearth’s land surface, but may hold morethan 50% of all species.

3 The Amazon rainforest is the largestexpanse of tropical rainforest in the world.

4 Contrary to earlier beliefs, tropical rainforestsoils are very poor.

5 Tropical rainforests are complex ecosystemswhere the survival of one species is directlytied to the survival of many others.


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Create A Rainforest In a Soda BottlePurpose: To demonstrate on a small scale thewater and nutrient cycle of the tropical rainforest

Materials:

n Two-liter plastic soda bottle n Scissors, n Plastic wrap n Graveln Charcoal (sold for use in fish tank filters) n Two small tropical plants such as a fittonia, philodendron, prayer plant, artillery plant, etc. n Potting soil

Procedure:

1 Take the label off the bottle and remove theblack bottom, rinse the bottle

2 Cut the top off the bottle where it begins tocurve.

3 Line the detached bottom with plastic wrap

that has been folded several times.4 Spread about one-inch of gravel over the plastic

wrap. Spread a thin layer of charcoal over thegravel and fill with potting soil.

5 Dig a little hole in the soil for each of your plants.Place them in the holes and press lightly.

6 Water the plants with about one-third cup ofwater. Invert and place the plastic cover overthe plants forming a dome.

7 Place the terrarium in a spot that will receivealot of light, but not direct sunlight.

8 Watch your rainforest to see the water releasedfrom the plants form droplets on the inside ofthe dome. These will rain down on the plantsand continuously water them. (You might haveto add a small amout of water to the soil everyfew weeks.)

Discussion:Which


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To most people, tropical rainforests seem likefaraway places that we might dream of visiting.In fact, plant pieces of the mysterious rain-

forest puzzle play important roles in our daily livesthat we either are not aware of or take for granted.Open your closets, medicine cabinets, garages,refrigerators and pantries. Visit a florist, a hospital,a bakery, a theatre, a hardware store, candy store—not to mention a grocery store, and you will quicklyrealize that rainforests are closer than you think!

Jungle ProduceEvery year the averageAmerican consumesmore than 25 pounds ofbananas, and today thereare few places in theworld where it is notpossible to buy a banana.Introduced to Europein1882, bananas werethe first rainforest fruitdiscovered by westernersand were originallyavailable by prescriptiononly. “Florida” oranges

originally came from the rainforest, as did lemons,limes, and grapefruits. Tomato, potato, pineappleand papaya, cashews, coffee, cloves and corn, allhave wild roots in tropical rainforests or othertropical habitats near rainforests. A recent tour at theBrooklyn Botanical Gardens entitled, “Ten PlantsThat Shook the World,” included six history-changingplants that originated in the tropics. (sugarcane,corn, bamboo, rubber, quinine, and pepper). Countthe number of tropical fruits for sale at your localgrocery store. It is only a fraction of the 3,000 typesof fruits that grow in the world’s tropical rainforests!

While you’re thanking the rainforest forfavorite foods, thank it for life-changing, life-savingmedicines, woods, fibers, canes and oils, gums,resins, dyes and houseplants.

Just A Blip On the Screen of PossibilitiesDescribing the plants of a tropical rainforest is alittle like trying to describe the people of New YorkCity or Los Angeles. The plants are every bit as

diverse as the people of these two large cities. Inspite of decades of exploration and exploitation,scientists have only thoroughly examined about1% of the hundreds of thousands of rainforestplants. Besides being good for people, new jungleproducts could be good for the jungle too; if theyare properly managed. In many ways, some ofwhich we don’t even understand yet, all of ushave a stake in the welfare of tropical rainforestsand of the people, wildlife, and plants that thrivein them.


Explore the Grocery, Discover the Rainforest!Purpose: Learners will discover that the local gro-cery store would be a very different place withouttropical rainforests.

Materials:n List of fruits, vegetables, spices, flavorings, nuts

and other food products from tropical rainforests and habitats near tropical rainforests.

avocado banana grapefruitguava lemon limemango orange papayapassion fruit pepper pineappleplantain potato sweet potatotangerine tomato yam

allspice black pepper cardamomcayenne (red pepper) chili pepperchocolate or cocoa cinnamoncloves ginger macenutmeg paprika turmericvanilla

Brazil nuts cashew nuts coconutcoffee corn macadamia nutspeanuts rice sesame seedssugar tapioca tea

Procedure:

1 Take a class trip to a local grocery store. 2 Divide the students into groups and have them

explore the store for forests products in their

3 The Rainforest Is Closer Than You Think!

K E Y I D E A S

1 Rainforest plants play important roles inour daily lives.

2 Many food plants that the world nowdepends on grow wild in tropical rain-forests

3 n addition to foods, rainforests are home toplants important for medicines, fibers, oilsand other valuable products.

4 Only about 1% of rainforest plants havebeen studied for their potential usefulnessto people

5 We all have a stake in the welfare of tropicalrainforests.

raw form or as ingredients in processed foods. 3 Assign one group fruits and vegetables, another

group spices and flavorings, and a third groupnuts and other miscellaneous products.

4 If a trip is not possible, students can search forthese products with their parents at home orduring family trips to the grocery store.

5 Have students choose a favorite food for fur-ther research. In what part of the world did itoriginate? (tropical America, tropical Asia, trop-ical Africa). How is the plant used by nativepeople? Is it grown comercially or still harvest-ed from the rainforest?

Discussion:Which


Rainforest RecipesPurpose: Taste some rainforest foods and createrainforest recipes

Materials:

n Selected rainforests foods

Procedure:

1 Purchase some of the products on the list. 2 Taste them in class, and have students work

together to create original rainforest recipes toshare with parents or younger students.

3 (for example: tropical rainforest citrus salad,chocolate-banana pudding, avodado sun sand-wiches, rice surprise (with corn, tomatoes,peanuts and pepper).

Discussion:Which


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4“If human beings were not so impressed bysize alone, they would consider an ant morewonderful than a rhinoceros.”

—E.O. WILSON

As human beings, we live in a sensory world ofsight and sound. We are attracted to and impressed by the big and loud, the bold and

beautiful. When we imagine tropical rainforests, wesummon images of large, colorful parrots, noisymonkeys, enormous snakes and crocodiles, andthe big land predators; tigers in tropical Asia and

jaguars in the Amazon.But although they arebeautiful and interesting,these animals arerelatively rare in jungles.

The truly dominantcreatures of the tropicsseized control of a largepart of the terrestrialenvironment long beforethe first primates, letalone the first humanbeings, walked the earth.The tropical rainforest isreally the Kingdom ofthe Ants!

There are about 10,000known species of ants inthe world, and scientiststhink that there may betwo or three times that

many. And while to us they might seem like littlespecs scurrying around on a pointless mission,there is alot of diversity among this group of socialinsects. The world’s smallest ant forms a colonythat could easily fit inside the brain case of theworld’s largest ant. Professor E.O. Wilson, theworld’s leading myrmecologist, calls ants “the littlethings that run the world.” He estimates that atany given moment there are about 10 15, or amillion billion, ants in the world!

In the Amazon rainforest the ants alone havemore than four times the biomass of all of the landvertebrates combined - amphibians, reptiles, birds,and mammals. One millimeter above the ground,where ants exist, things are very different than they

seem to people looking down from a thousandtimes that distance. Instead of a world of sight andsound, ants live in a chemical world. They traveland communicate largely by taste and smell.

In Amazonia, where there are lots of plantsand lots of creatures to eat them, the chief herbi-vores are the famous and fascinating leaf-cutterants. Their actions remove about 15% of leafproduction. It is a common and comical sight tolook down and see hundreds of dime-size greenleaf-banners marching along in the jaws of thetiny leaf-cutters as they rush back to their nest.The work capacity of leafcutters so impressedE.O. Wilson, that he converted into human termsthe speed at which they run and the weight theycarry during their leaf-transporting trips.

“If one of these ants were a six-foot-tall person, itwould be running along those odor trails at a paceof about 3:45 minutes to the mile. That’s about thecurrent world record. At the end of the trail it wouldpick up a load of 300 pounds or more—after runningroughly the distance of a marathon—and carry ithome at the slightly slower pace of four minutes tothe mile. Upon reaching the nest, it would run downthrough the galleries and chambers of the nest for adistance of up to one mile before depositing its leafload.”

The leafcutter ant kingdom (really a queendom)is a society of females. Like all ants, leafcutters aredaughters of the same mother queen. The queenis a huge ant, about half the size of your thumb.She can live for ten, maybe even 20 years, andduring her lifetime she gives birth to about 150million daughters! Each daughter will grow into asoldier or a worker depending on her size, andeach will play some role in the maintenance ofthe colony.

The leaf-cutter ants do not eat the leavesthey gather—it is much more complicated thanthat. They actually turn the fresh vegetation intomushrooms! Here’s how it works:

1 The largest workers gather leaves and bringthem to the nest.

2 There they are turned over to a class of slightlysmaller workers, which cut the leaves intopieces about a millimeter across.

Kingdom of Ants

K E Y I D E A S

1 Large animals are relatively rare in jungles.2 The truly dominant creatures of the tropicsare ants.

3 In the Amazon forest ants have more thanfour times the biomass of all the landvertebrates combined.

4 People live in a world of sight and sound.Ants live in a chemical world of taste andsmell.

5 The chief herbivores of Amazonia are theleafcutter ants.

6 The leafcutter colony is a society of females;a large mother queen and her millions ofdaughters.

7 Leafcutter ants grow their own food inunderground fungus gardens.

8 The fungus and the leafcutters are completelydependent on each other. This relationshipis an example of symbiosis.


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3 These pieces are taken over by still smallerworkers which chew them into pulp andfertilize with deposits of rich fecal fluid.

4 Other ants apply the leaf paste over a base ofdried leaves in new chambers.

5 Another group hauls in bits of fungus fromolder chambers and plants it in the leaf paste.

6 Meanwhile, a caste of tiny workers cleans andweeds the garden, and then harvests the fruitsof the fungus for the entire colony to eat.

The fungus and the leafcutters are completelydependent on each other. The ants eat only thefungus, and the fungus grows nowhere else but inthe ant gardens. This story is just one of thousandsof symbiotic relationships that form the intricateweb of interdependency in a rainforest ecosystem.

Ants are very important to the cycles of life.They make and turn the soil, speed up the processof decay, pollinate, prey on other insects, and arefood for a great number of larger animals. A healthyforest is home to many hardworking ants.


Happy TrailsIf you’ve seen one ant...you’ve seen something veryunusual! Ants are social insects that cooperate ingathering food, defending their nest, and raisingbaby ants. In order for this huge ant family toaccomplish their tasks, they must communicate.Ants and other insects talk to each other usingchemicals.

When an ant finds food she leaves a chemicaltrail on the ground to lead her and her hungrysisters back to the food. This chemical trail con-tains important ant information.

Purpose: Students will locate an ant colony, or anactive trail of ants. They will observe the “scouts”that arrive first at the food, and the streams offollowers that use the scout’s chemical trail.

Materials:

n Four pieces of flat cardboard n Honeyn Two or three active colonies of ants that you’ve

found outside

Procedure:

1 Place a large spoonful of honey a few feet awayfrom your ants on a hard surface (like a side-walk).

2 Surround the honey with the cardboard pieces.Arrange them so that the ants must pass over apiece of cardboard to get to the honey.

3 Once you have at least 40 ants on the path,pick up the piece of cardboard and turn itaround so the path has been reversed 180 0.

4 Wear gloves - remember some ants can bite!5 Be careful of little lives. Don’t hurt the ants.6 Write down your observations.

Discussion:Which


SignificANT Achievementsn An ant can lift fifty times its own weight. If

people could lift like that, we could each lift acar!

n Ants have been around since before thedinosaurs.

n One species of ant can live up to 14 days sub-merged in water.

n Scientists found 43 different species of ants liv-ing in one tree in Peru.

n Some kinds of mound-building ants makenests that are seven feet tall. These nests canlast hundreds of years.

Procedure:

1 Find out some more ant facts2 Draw a cartoon to illustrate an amazing ant fact.


Down and Dirty: Up Close With Ants (Look for Donald Stokes book, A Guide toObserving Insect Lives)

Procedure:

1 Get a hand lens and you can observe antscleaning themselves, gathering food, greetingmembers of their colony, or fighting ants fromother colonies. It’s fun!


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From an airplane, the rainforest canopy lookslike vast fields of bulging broccoli. From theforest floor, it looks like a twisted maze of

branches, vines and streamers. Both views aremisleading. To the millions of plants and animalsthat live out their entire lives in the roof of therainforest, the canopy is a sunny paradise with roomto scamper across well-traveled branch paths, oreven to fly, glide or leap.

The Canopy Takes a Lot of Heat (Wind and Rain Too!)The canopy is the power -house of the rainforest,where more than 90% ofphotosynthesis takesplace and, in the fullestsense, life begins. Windand pounding rain causedead leaves and branchesto rain down constantlyfrom the canopy. On thefloor, they decompose,and are sucked up asnutrients by tree roots,and then returned to thecanopy to continue thecycle of life. The brightlylit, noisy world of the rain-forest canopy, some 100feet or more above the

floor, is in alot of ways an undiscovered continent.

Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone BeforeThough it teems with life—ants, plants, monkeysand macaws, the canopy was off limits to peopleuntil recently. It still remains largely unexplored,but a new generation of scientists is trying a varietyof wildly imaginative tactics to get up close andpersonal with life in the treetops. They can’t stayaway! Fifty percent (maybe more) of all rainforestspecies live in the canopy. Determined women andmen have constructed platforms, nailed ladders totrees, built walkways suspended across crowns,and used mountain-climbing equipment—all inan effort to unlock the ecological secrets of thecanopy. They’ve found a poisonous caterpillar that

looks like Cousin It, and giant weevils that carryminiature gardens of mosses and lichens on theirbacks. Amid hundreds of individual plant andanimals discoveries, the most important discoveryis that life on our glorious planet is even morediverse and more plentiful than anyone imagined!

A Rottin Place to LiveAs photosynthesis is the dominant natural processis the canopy, the forest floor is a dark house ofdecomposition. Here, the work of nature is carriedout by termites, ants, fungi, bacteria and millipedes—the “cleaning crew” of the forest. These organismsbreak down dead plants and animals into nutrients—and they work fast! Decomposition is so quickin the tropics, that the forest floor is pretty empty.Can you see how these two layers of life—thecanopy and the forest floor—are connected?

“To know the forest, we must study it in allaspects, as birds soaring above its roof, asearth-bound bipeds creeping slowly over itsroots.”

—ALEXANDER SKUTCH


Swingin’ In the RainAnimals also have special adaptations for living inthe treetops. Monkeys and other primates haveprehensile tails, opposable thumbs, tremendousupper-body strength, and large, forward-facingeyes for judging distance.

Purpose: Students will choose a rainforest pri-mate to “profile” and learn the life history of theiranimal.

Materials:

n Books about primates, n copies of Profile Of A Primate pagen markers and crayons.

Procedure:

1 Pass out copies of profile page on page 19.2 Students can work alone or in pairs to record

information about their rainforest primate.

5 The World’s Most Beautiful Roof

K E Y I D E A S

1 The canopy is the powerhouse of the rain-forest where 90% of photosynthesis takesplace.

2 Scientists have only recently begun to studythe canopy. In many ways it is still anunexplored continent.

3 Fifty percent of rainforest animals live inthe canopy.

4 Through discovery of thousands of newspecies in the canopy, scientists have learnedthat life on Earth is even more diverse thanpreviously imagined.

5 In contrast to the canopy, the forest floor isa dark place where decomposition is thedominant process.

6 The canopy and floor are connectedthrough the nutrient cycle


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Microhabitats In the canopy, life is piled on top of life. A singlelarge branch, in addition to its own leaves, can behost to hundreds of epiphytes (ferns, orchids,mosses and bromeliads). Epiphytes are plants thatdo not need to root on the ground, but can growon other plants. In addition to creating beautifulhanging gardens, epiphytes provide habitat forcountless tiny canopy creatures.

Purpose: Look at a cutaway of a bromeliad andidentify some animals that call it home. Observethe ways in which a bromeliad is adapted tocapture and hold water.

Materials:

n Copies of bromeliad cutaway drawing n Crayons and markersn A bromeliad plant from a local plant nurseryn Eyedropper

Procedure:

1 Pass out copies of Bromeliad Microhabitat2 Students match the numbers on the drawing

with the description of each animal.3 Drop water on the ends of bromeliad leaves.

What does the water do? (leaves work likewater slides—water rolls down to center ofplant)

4 Pour a cup of water in the center of thebromeliad. What happens? (the center of thebromeliad holds water).

5 How are bromeliads adapted to capture andhold water?

Bromeliad Microhabitats—— Frog tadpoles wriggle in the pool. Somefrogs lay their eggs here. Others carry newlyhatched tadpoles on their backs and drop themoff to complete their development.—— A red-eyed treefrog looks around for insectsto eat.—— Lying in wait, a daddy longlegs will pounceon mosquitoes and other small insects.—— A slug inches up the side of a leaf. Theyneed bromeliad water to keep their body moist.—— Swimming in the tiny pool, a crab searchesfor mosquito larvae.—— Mosquito eggs drift at the water surface. Justbelow the surface, hatched mosquito larvae hangupside-down in the water.


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6F

or thousands of years, Indians have lived in therainforests. Some live in areas so deep and farinto the forest that they have not yet been

contacted by the outside world. Some live on landsthat have been exploited by goldminers and otherswho have come to take parts of the forest. In manyways, contact with outsiders has been devastatingfor rainforest Indians. Thousands have died; eitherfrom direct killing or from introduced diseases forwhich Indians have no natural immunity. Over 90Indian tribes have become extinct in Brazil alone

since 1900. We have all heard

the expression “extinctionis forever.” This saying isusually heard in conver-sations about endangeredanimals or plants. But theextinction of uniquegroups of people is justas final.

“The beauty and genius of a work of art maybe reconceived though its first material expressionbe destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet againinspire the composer; but when the last individualof a race of living things breathes no more, anotherHeaven and another Earth must pass before sucha one can be again.”

In the South American country of Suriname,there is a saying, Na boesi, ingi sabe ala sani. “Inthe Jungle, the Indian knows everything.” Peoplefrom developed countries have sometimes lookedupon Indians and their cultures as primitive,simple and crude. Many have tried to change theway Indians live their lives. But when it comes toliving in the rainforest—the Indians know best.

Indians thrive in the rainforest because oftheir astonishing familiarity with this environment.They know which trees make the best canoes andwhich ones are good for burning or making blow-guns or arrows or shelters. They know the plantsthat yield food, dyes, resins, oils, fibers for weavingand medicines for healing. They grow crops inthe rainforest by using ancient slash-and-burnagriculture. The Indians cut the trees in a smallarea, allow them to dry, then clear the “slash” byburning it. At first, the ash left by the fire makes

a nutrient-rich bed for crops. They grow yams,sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, cocoyams,cassava, and about fifty other crops. The field losesits fertility within a few years, and it is eventuallyabandoned and allowed to return to jungle.Because Indian populations are low, and becausethey let their fields lie fallow for a long time aftercultivation, they can practice slash-and-burnagriculture without permanently destroying theland. Their use of the forest is sustainable.

Indians hunt and fish, but they learned longago that if they take more from the forest thanthey need to live, the forest will kill them slowlybut surely. The Indians recognize the forest animalslong before they see them, by their footprints,their calls, even their smells. To Indians, the forestis grocery store, drugstore, hardware store, and toystore. As one Peruvian Indian said, “We respectthe forest; we make it produce for us.”

Ailton Krenak is the National Coordinator ofthe Union of Indian Nations. He comes from thesmall tribe of Krenak Indians of Brazil. He hassaid to the world;

“If we can build in the heart of the peopleof the city a beautiful forest made of friend-ship, music and celebration, then we canpacify their spirit so they can live with thepeople of the forest. This is our message...”

We have already benefited tremendouslyfrom the knowledge of Indians. As ethnobotanistMark Plotkin has said, “Virtually every usefulmedicinal or agricultural plant that has come tous from the rainforest was first learned fromindigenous people.” The forest Indians have alotmore to teach. Will the rest of the world be smartenough to learn from them?

In The Jungle, The Indian Knows Everything

K E Y I D E A S

1 Indians have lived in the rainforest forthousands of years.

2 Contact with outsiders has often beendevastating for Indians.

3 In the jungle, the Indian knows everything.4 Indians live in harmony with the forest byusing the resources sustainably.


Words From the ForestBecause they live in small, sometimes isolatedgroups, Indians have developed many uniquelanguages.

You can learn some words spoken byAmazonian Indians.

In the Language of the Tirio Indians:

HELLO ku-day-mah-nahGOODBYE ko-ko-ro-pahFOREST ih-tuh-tuhJAGUAR ky-kwe

In the Language of the Yanomami Indians:

FRIEND sho-e

In the Language of the Wayana Indians:

A-OKAY! e-pok!


No WasteIndians make multiple-use of the plants and

animals around them. The fruit of a plant mightbe eaten, and the leaves of that same plant usedas medicine. A deer is eaten, and the leg bone isfashioned into a flute.

Palms are probably the best example ofmultiusefulness in the Amazon rainforest.

Directions: Circle the ways in which Indians useparts of palm plants from the forest.

as food as a source of fibers

for fuel for oil

for waxes as medicines

to make toys to build shelters

as backpacks as drinking cups

as bird calls as weapons

to make hammocks for fishing line

for fishing hooks to make hair combs

to make musical instruments

(You should have circled all of these!)


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Indians of AmazoniaDirections: Find the names of 12 Amazonian Indian tribes hidden in the puzzle below.

ApalaiBororoHuaoraniJivaro KampaKayapoKrenakMaruboTirioWaiwaiWayanaYanomami


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7D

eep in the jungle of South America, Mark Plotkin found himself face-to-face with a jaguar—the largest and most feared predator

of the Amazon rainforest. It entered his hut andsilently moved toward him, looking directly into hiseyes. Suddenly he woke up, trembling and coveredin sweat. He was alone. Had this been a dream orreality? The next morning he sent a message tothe shaman of the Indian village. “I have seen thejaguar,” he said. The shaman smiled, “That wasme.” Mark still doesn’t know why he had thisdream, but it is just one of the incredible experi-

ences he has had sincehe began working in thejungles of SouthAmerica.

Dr. Mark Plotkin is anethnobotanist; a scientistwho studies the waysthat indigenous peopleuse plants as medicine.If you’ve never heard ofan ethnobotanist, it’sprobably because thisfield of study has onlyhad a name for aboutfifty years—a very shorttime in the history ofscience. Dr. Plotkin andother ethnobotanistsuse a combination ofanthropology, (the studyof people and their cul-tures), and botany, (the

study of plants), to learn how indigenous peopleuse plants for healing and other purposes. Mark’sstudies have taken him to some very interestingplaces like Argentina, Colombia, Suriname, Brazil,and Madagascar. Traveling can be hard worksometimes, but Mark really enjoys meeting andworking with people from all over the world.

Dr. Plotkin has been fascinated by naturesince he was a young boy growing up in NewOrleans. He liked going into the swamps to lookfor snakes, lizards and turtles, and his mother andfather encouraged his interests. He went to collegeto study biology, but didn’t think he was cut out

to be confined to a laboratory. Mark moved toMassachusetts to work at the famous Museumof Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.He signed up for a class taught by Richard EvanSchultes, who is known as the “father of ethno-botany.” Mark entered the classroom and every-where he looked he saw maps of the Amazon,Indian clothing, bows, arrows, blowguns, strangetropical fruits, and beautiful carvings and weavings.Then Professor Schultes turned out the lights andbegan to show pictures of a strange and wonderfulworld. Mark was mesmerized by slides of witchdoctors, hunters, princesses, Indian children, andpictures of plants that the Indians used for food,medicines and fibers. From that moment on, Markwas hooked! Hooked on plants, hooked on Indians,and hooked on the Amazon. An ethnobotanistwas born!

Mark first traveled to the rainforests of SouthAmerica in 1979. He went to learn about medicinalplants, but soon learned something that he foundsad and shocking. The Indians’ priceless knowledgeof medicinal plants, developed over thousands ofyears, was in danger of being lost because noyounger Indians were voluntering to becomeapprentices to the tribal shamans. Mark asked theshamans if he could become their student, and inexchange he would write down what he wastaught and preserve this knowledge. The shamansagreed, and Mark began to live with and learn fromthe Indians. He followed the shamans throughthe forest that they knew so well, learned theirlanguage, and wrote down all they taught him.Then he made a book, as he had promised, andgave it to the Indians. The ancient knowledge wassaved! But this is not the end of the story. Otherwonderful changes were taking place while Markwas studying with the Indians.

Because Mark respects the Indians and theirculture, they also respect him. He became goodfriends with many of the young Indians; they callhim “yah-ko” which means brother. Mark helpedthe Indians see the importance of preserving theirculture and their knowledge of medicinal plants.He worked with them to set up the Shaman’sApprentice Program. Now the shamans are teachersto their own young people, and they are once

Conservation Hero: The Shaman’s Apprentice

K E Y I D E A S

1 Ethnobotanists have found that tribalknowledge of medicinal plants is in dangerof being lost if no younger Indians learnfrom the shamans.

2 Mark Plotkin became an apprentice to theshamans and wrote down what he learnedso the knowledge would be preserved.

3 The Shaman’s Apprentice Program encour-ages partnerships between shamans andyounger members of Indian tribes for thepurpose of passing information to the nextgeneration.

4 Preserving rainforests and Indian cutureswill benefit the entire world.

5 Many of our medicines already come fromrainforest plants and ethnobotanists feelthat many more are awaiting discovery.

7 The Ethnobiology and Conservation Team(ECT) is dedicated to biodiversity conservation.


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again passing on their priceless botanical knowledgeto the next generation. The idea worked so well,that other Indian tribes in Central and SouthAmerica have begun similar programs!

Preserving rainforests and Indian cultureswill benefit the entire world. We already use manymedicines that come from rainforest plants, andMark thinks there are still many “wonder drugs”waiting to be found. In 1994 Dr. Plotkin andCosta Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigalfounded an organization called The Ethnobiologyand Conservation Team (ECT). Mark and Lilianahave dedicated their lives to biodiversity conser-vation. They believe in the sacredness of life andfeel that no species should be driven to extinctionthrough ignorance or greed.

Mark Plotkin is a scientist, an author, ateacher, and a conservationist. But he is muchmore than these words can describe. He is a personwhose values and dedication to conservation arereally making a difference in this world wheresometimes it seems like there is no good news.His work has been, and continues to be, animportant contribution to world conservation.

Good News for Kids!Dr. Plotkin wrote a popular book about hisexperiences called Tales of A Shaman’s Apprentice.He recently wrote a book just for kids entitled,The Shaman’s Apprentice. Look for it next year inyour local book stores. Visit The Ethnobiology andConservation Team on the World Wide Web at:www.ethnobotany.org


What Shamans Know Could Save Your LifePurpose: Students will learn that many importantmedicines are derived from tropical plants.

Materials:

n List of medicines derived from tropical plants,encyclopedias, books about medicinal plants(Medicines From the Earth and Seeds of Changeby Henry Hobhouse are good sources).

Procedure: Study the list of medicines derivedfrom rainforest plants and their uses. Why arethese medicines important? Invite a pharmacistto visit your class. Talk about how medicines aremade and tested.

Though discovery and testing of drugs takesyears of painstaking work, scientists have plentyof reason for optimism: More than one-third ofthe current 121 prescription drugs derived fromplants have their origins in the rainforest. Here’s apartial list:

DRUG PLANT USE

Atropine Belladonna asthma

Cocaine Coca anesthetics

D-tubocurarine Chondodendron skeletal tomentosum muscle

relaxant

Diosgenin Mexican yam birth control

Papain Papaya chronic diarrhea

Picrotoxin Seeds of the convulsionsLevant berry

Pilocarpine Pilocarpus glaucoma

Quinine Cinchona malaria

Reserpine Snakeroot hypertension

Vinblastine Rosy Hodgkin’sPeriwinkle disease

Vincristine Rosy AcutePeriwinkle Leukemia

Have you ever dreamed of traveling to an unexplored planet; of encountering bizarre animals and plants never before seen by

human eyes? Well, pinch yourself, wake up, andget started! You live on the unexplored planet—it’s Planet Earth!

Life Adds UpFor years, scientists believed that there were

about 2 million species on earth. But that lownumber is history! Since scientists began focusingon the tropics, and particularly the canopy of the

tropical rainforest, wehave learned that wehave no idea how manyspecies there are. Tenmillion is a low estimate,and some say the numbercould reach 100 million!These new estimatesare largely due to thediscovery of thousandsof insect species, but twonew bird species are

discovered each year, and scientists occasionallycome across unknown monkeys, rodents, andhoofed-animals too. Remember, eleven species ofwhales were discovered in this century!

Biodiversity is the word commonly used todescribe the amazing variety of life found onour planet. It’s a short way of saying “biologicaldiversity,” and it includes everything from bluewhales to bacteria, fungi, plants; every livingthing. But it’s more than just species. Biodiversityalso includes the different ecosystems—like rain-forests, wetlands, deserts, grasslands, and coralreefs. And it also includes the variety withinspecies—the genes that make each individual ina species different from the rest.

The great German zoologist Karl von Frishdedicated his life to the study of honeybees. Hesaid the honeybee is like a magic well: the more youdraw from it, the more there is to draw. A personcan choose any species, study it for a lifetime, andstill leave unanswered questions. But as amazingas individual species are, the truly mind-bogglingaspect of our planet is that each species is part of

a multi-million-piece jigsaw puzzle. All of thisglorious life is connected, and humans—that’sright, each one of us—is connected to the puzzlein ways we are just beginning to understand.

Never before has earth had so many species—so much biodiversity. And yet having justdiscovered that we are living in a biological treasurehouse, we find that it is in the process of beingdemolished. We are losing species at a rate notseen since the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, 65million years ago. Some scientists think that up toone half of all species will disappear in the next40 years. Why?

Habitat Is HomeHabitats are the places animals live and get

the food, water, shelter, and space they need tosurvive.

Destruction of habitat is the main reason weare losing biodiversity. Other important reasonsinclude:

Introduced (or exotic) SpeciesPollutionHuman Population GrowthOver-Consumption of natural resources.

We have alot of difficult problems to face ifwe want to turn the tide of biodiversity loss. Onething is for sure, it will take the efforts of eachand every one of us. Dr. E.O. Wilson, one of theworld’s leading experts on biodiversity says, “Therest of life is the cradle in which the humanspecies evolved. It is very much to our advantageto maintain the cradle.”

Bio-Bits: n A single tree in a rainforest can be home to

more than 1000 species of insects. n In an area of Amazonia the size of a suburban

lawn, one could find 300 species of trees.n One-fourth of all prescription drugs used today

were originally derived from plants. Only 5% ofall plants have been studied for medicinal use.

n For every 100 pounds of people, there are 1,000pounds of termites.

n More than half the Earth’s species are believed

8 Discover Earth

K E Y I D E A S

1 We live on a largely unexplored planet.2 Biodiversity is the word commonly used todescribe the variety of life found on ourplanet.

3 All life is interconnected in ways we arejust beginning to understand.

4 Biodiversity is disappearing because ofhabitat loss, introduced species, pollution,human population growth, and over-con-sumption of natural resources.

to live in the tropical rainforest. Fewer than1,500 scientists worldwide are trained to identi-fy tropical organisms.

n To survive, a single harpy eagle requires 39square miles of rainforest. An eyelash mitespends its entire life in a person’s eyelashes.

n 99% of all species (excluding plants) are smallerthan a bumblebee.


In Your Own BackyardPurpose:You don’t have to travel far to see a greatdeal of biodiversity. If you were to watch anyorganism in your backyard, you would discovernew things that nobody knows about.

Procedure: Have students start a “living things”journal and keep a daily record of the livingthings they observe as well as their observationsof the interdependence of life.


Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live

The average American’s energy use is roughlyequivalent to that of:n 2 Japanesen 6 Mexicansn 12 Chinesen 33 Indiansn 147 Bangladeshisn 281 Tanzanians

orn 422 Ethiopians

Since over-consumption of natural resourcesis one of the reasons for biodiversity loss, startthinking of some ways that you can conservewater, electricity, gas, paper—everything—atschool and at home.

.


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Profile of a PrimateMake a drawing of your primate here.

Common Name

Scientific Name

Habitat

Diet

Adaptations for living in the canopy

Gestation Number of Young Lifespan (if known)

Conservation Status (endangered, threatened etc.) Other Interesting Information

Vocabulary

Andes Great mountain system that forms thewestern fringe of South America extendingthrough the countries of Colombia, Venezuela,ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina

tributary A stream that flows into a largerstream or body of water

sediment Matter deposited by wind or waterecholocation The use of reflected sound fom an

emitter (such as a bat or dolphin) to locateobjects

Amazon Basin The region drained by theAmazon River and its tributaries

equator An imaginary circle around the earthequally distant at all points from the North Poleand the South Pole: it divides the earth’s surfaceinto the Northern Hemisphere and theSouthern Hemisphere.

ecosystem A system made up of a community ofanimals, plants, and bacteria and its interrelatedphysical and chemical environment.

diversityVariety of lifewesterner (in this context) A person from America

or western Europefiber Any substance which may be separated into

threads or threadlike structures to be woven orspun. (Fibers are extremely important to thesurvival of humankind. Rope, baskets, clothing,paper, furniture and fishnets are just a fewitems made of plant fibers).

exploitation The act of utilizing or turning toone’s own use

social insects Insects that live together incolonies

myrmecologist A scientist who studies antsbiomass The total mass or amount of living

organisms in a particular area or volumeherbivore Plant-eating animalsymbiosis The living together of two different

organisms in close association, especially wherethis is advantageous to both

interdependency Mutual dependencecanopy The layer of the forest formed by the

crowns of tall trees.photosysthesis The process by which green

plants make fooddecomposition The process by which dead

plants and animals are broken down into sim-pler elements (to rot, to decay).

immunity Resistance to a disease. The power toresist infection.

developed country Usually a largely urban andindustrialized nation with high levels of incomeand education.

slash-and-burn agriculture Cutting downtrees and then burning them to clear land foragriculture.

fallow Left uncultivated or unplanted.sustainable agriculture Agriculture that can be

maintained for many years through the efficientand wise use of resources.

shaman A tribal healer and/or doctor who hasgreat knowledge of the medicinal qualities ofnative plants

ethnobotanist A scientist who studies the waysthat people use plants.

indigenous Occurring naturally in a certain area.Indigenous people is most often used to meanthe tribal peoples, such as Indians.

anthropology The study of people and theircultures

botany The study of plantsmedicinal Plants plants that contain chemicals

with curative propertiesapprentice A person who works for another in

order to learn a tradeculture The sum total of ways of living built up

by a group of human beings and transmittedfrom one generation to another

biodiversity The variety of life on Earth.ecosystem All the living and non-living things that

interact in a particular place in the environment.genes The coded information in organisms’ cells

that makes species and individuals unique andthat is transmitted from one generation to thenext.

victoria street graphic design, san clemente, ca ...… · like veins in a leaf, ... bangladesh...

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