Rainforest People and Animals
by Devin, Mathew and Cameron.

PEOPLE OF THE RAINFOREST
Many of the Rainforest areas of the world support large numbers of indigenous people. The Amazon Basin, South-East Asia and African Rainforests are home to many people who rely on the Rainforest for their everyday lives. These Tribal people are threatened by deforestation and represent unique cultures which are under threat world-wide. They rely on the forests for their entire livelihood. They derive from it their food; the building materials for their houses; the wood for their agricultural implements; the herbs for their traditional medicines; the fibres and dyes for their clothes; and the materials for their traditional religious and cultural artifacts.

RAINFOREST ANIMALS
Rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on Earth because of the enormous numbers of animal species present. Most of this animal diversity is made up of insects, but many other invertebrate groups are also represented. A large Rainforest region like the Amazon Basin may have more than 10 million animal species. Life based in tropical trees has led the evolution of several peculiar adaptations.

In American Rainforests, various mammal groups such as many of the monkeys and some of the porcupines have prehensile tails. Borneo alone has more than 30 species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians that can glide from one tree to another. Many animal groups, especially insects and birds pollinate Rainforest trees. Wind is not an effective pollinator for most plant species in this relatively closed environment. The insects receive food from nectar and other substances and in return they pollinate the next flowers they see. After fruit is formed, Rainforest plants rely on animals to disperse their seeds. The many different species of animals in the Rainforest often have complex life cycles. Because of the forest structure, many animals are characteristically associated with either the soil litter layer, the ground surface atop the soil litter, the undergrowth, the upper canopy or the emergent layer. Many species spend their entire lives in only one of these areas. Beetles, spiders, butterflies, centipedes, scorpions and other insects and arthropods reach their greatest species diversity in the Tropics.

Animals live at every level of a Rainforest. Some like the monkeys, live their entire lives in the Canopy, swinging from tree to tree. Snakes slither along branches in search of frogs and birds. The Orang-utang is found in the jungles of Indonesia and South-East Asia. They are an endangered species as people are clearing the forests to make way for farming. They are also killed for money and sold to humans.





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