Amazon Rainforest

By: Kristen Deberry

Block 2

4/12/11

Introduction

Have you ever traveled deep into the Amazon Rainforest? Lost, looking for a way out? Well I have! I am

about to tell you about the wonderful and not so wonderful things and adventures I had in the Amazon

Rainforest.

“Why do I have to read this book? It doesn’t even make sense, like the Amazon Rainforest’s 0-15 Latitude South and 45-75 Latitude West. It is located in South America and is in the South-West and North-West Hemisphere. Why would the Amazon Rainforest be located in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana? These names don’t even make since!” Destiny is doing a project on the Amazon Rainforest, so she is reading this book. “I am so tired, but I have to read this book to better understand this project!” Soon Destiny is so tired that she falls asleep with the book on her chest.

“Where am I?” Destiny has woken up in the middle of a much foliated place. She is yelling, trying to get somebody’s attention. She doesn’t know that there is nobody around hearing her cry of terror.

Destiny was looking around, up and down, left and right, all she saw were trees. She saw a bird in the trees but it was camouflaging itself, so she couldn’t see it that well. She walked closer to the tree and started to climb it. What is she doing? She began to see different layers of the trees. The first layer she climbed into was

actually just the forest floor. It was at the bottom and it was very dark so she couldn’t see much, but she could see ferns, moss, snakes, beetles, and could hear the frogs. Then she climbed up into a very dense layer, it was about the middle of the tree and it is called the understory. It was also dark, but not as dark, but again she could see sloths and jaguars and vines and shrubs and within all those vines she saw her favorite, the liana.

Her favorite plant the liana was a vine, with thick woody stems with various sizes and shapes. She looked down and could see that it began on the forest floor but had grown up to the understory, it looked like it was still growing she said it could grow up into the canopy. She researched these and it said they don’t need anything except photosynthesis. She also said they are used to make baskets rope and wicker furniture.

When she was climbing faster she began to come to the top part of the middle section and could see light, but it had very layered branches. She could see monkeys and birds, parrots and tree frogs! She saw one beautiful plant that she had saw in the book right before she fell asleep.

The plant she saw was called bromeliads. Bromeliads are related to the pineapple family. Their thick, waxy leaves form a bowl shape in the center for catching rain water. The center is usually pink and then on the tips they are green. It lives in the canopy and when it dies its leaves turn black. They are producers so they make their own food they don’t have to catch things like other plants. They actually use this plant for food, protection, fiber, and ceremonies and are still used like this today. The Spanish Warriors used them as pineapple. It became so popular that it became adapted into art and sculpture. The bromeliads are flora to the rainforest in Spring.

After she stops and admires the plant some more, she moves on to the very top layer of the tree, the emergent layer. It receives the most sunlight and holds the trees tops and monkeys, bats, and birds. She looks out from the top of the tree, to see more and more trees a couple lakes and then empty space. “Why would there be any open space in the rainforest?” She ponders this question and climbs down to find the closest river she can find.

As she was walking through the forest, she saw someone in the trees. “Hello?! Is anybody there?!” A person stated climbing down the tree, and walked over to me. “Hello!” “Hi, can you please take me to the river?” He said sure I can, but instead of taking me straight to the river, he took me to his tribe first. They told me how they were about to move, so they are called nomadic.

They said their tribe name was the Tikuna tribe and they only have 25,000 people left in their tribe, today. They also showed me around their property, they have land that is separated so each family can grow crops of their own. Their houses were built with the wood from the forest and the leaves of the palm trees. They also told me about their culture like, traditionally, when a young girl reaches puberty she is placed in a hut by herself where she stays two or three years with only her mother being allowed to visit. At the end of this period the father throws a huge party. The girl is given a drink that makes her slightly drunk or numb and the father pulls all of the hair out of her head one strand at a time. It is said that if she can bear this, she can stand the pain of childbirth. Afterwards there is much dancing and celebration. They make masks to celebrate. This is what they told me, and when they were done showing me around they fed me meat of a hog and some potatoes from the rainforest, which made them omnivores. Then one of the mothers took me to the closet river.

When I was at the river, the mother asked me if I would be okay alone. I told her I would be fine, so she left. I was walking along the river when I saw something jump out of the water. “What is that?” It looked pink. It got closer and it looked like a dolphin. Wait, I think I have

seen this on the internet before… Oh, it is a pink river

dolphin! They are about, 9 feet and weigh about 200 pounds! Instead of a fin, like a dolphin, they have a hump on their back. Their habitats are tributaries and main rivers of the Orinoco River systems of South America. They tend to gather at confluences of rivers. The dolphin is a fauna to the river and rainforest. Crocodiles and humans eat them, but they stay in packs so they fight together. The dolphin preys on, fish, crabs, turtles, and other crustaceans. The pink dolphin is a beautiful mammal that has adapted in many ways to be able to survive over time. It has adapted its backbone, which is now a hump to be able to swim upside down under water. The pink dolphin has tiny hairs that help them get the tidbits of the river bottoms. It has also adapted itself to travel and hunt by using echolocation. The dolphin is also a carnivore. When I get done admiring the pink river dolphin, I keep walking, and guess what? I saw something else jump out of the water! This time it wasn’t a dolphin, it was a giant river

otter! The otter is 6 feet long, has webbed feet, water resistant fur, and a nose and ears that close when underwater. It only lives in the river and creeks of the Amazon, Orinoco, and the La Plata river systems. Their predators are humans because they pollute water and there are poachers. This single organism eats fish and turtles. They have adapted by their webbed feet to swim, tail to also help them steer while they are swimming, and their fur to keep them warm in the cold water. I went back to walking and saw some algae on top of the water and thought back to the animals I saw and said when the animals die this algae probably acts as a decomposer when they die.

I was almost into another tribe’s village, but before I came to that there was an empty space. I looked out into and it was empty, no trees, no rivers, no birds, nothing. Deforestation is one of the worst things that destroys the forest. It is so huge that the atmosphere of the planet would change dramatically if it were destroyed. It takes in so much carbon dioxide that it is currently the largest

factor in preventing global warming. However with more and more of the Amazon being destroyed by deforestation this may change. This could be solved with conservation. The government and the European government is sending money to help save the Rainforest and save tress. Ecotourism is when tourist comes through but don’t do any damage to natural resources and leave minimal impact on the environment.

I was almost to the tribe when I finally realized that the climate was really humid. It was very hot and it had rained while I was with the Tikuna tribe. They said the average temperature was 77 degrees and the average rainfall was 150 centimeters. As I reached the tribe I

came upon an old lady and she led me to her family. I looked around and saw a lot of things that I had at home. They told me they had traded with some tourist that came by and some local factories. The things they give to us are natural rubber, Brazilian nuts, guarana, acia, many minerals like iron, manganese, uranium, bauxite, copper, gypsum, lignite, nickel and gold can be found in the Amazon rainforest region, diamonds and other less valuable gems are mined in the rain forest, craftwork, wood and medicinal plants. They carve out the centers of trees to create canoes and the workers who take down trees have created paved roads for the big trucks to drive on. The tribe I was talking to was the Yanomami tribe. Today their total population stands at around 32,000. At over 9.6 million hectares, the Yanomami territory in Brazil is twice the size of Switzerland. In Venezuela, the Yanomami live in the 8.2 million hectare Alto Orinoco – Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve. Together, these areas form the largest forested indigenous territory in the world. Village sizes vary, but usually contain between 50 and 400 people. In this largely communal system, the entire village lives under a common roof called the shabono. Shabonos have a characteristic oval shape, with open grounds in the center measuring an average of 100 yards. The shabono shelter constitutes the perimeter of the village, if it has not been fortified with palisades.

They use the trees for canoes and lots of the wildlife for food. They don't have the need of clothes because it is so hot and humid. They get all their food from the rainforest. They sometimes eat monkeys, pig, birds, and fish. The daily life of the Yanomamo consists mostly of gardening, which is done within the early hours of the morning. Right after dawn the men go into the gardens to clear, brush, transplant plantain cuttings, burn off dead timber and fell in the large trees, they also plant new crops usually of cotton, maize, sweet potato, or cassava depending on the season they are on. During the day they also hunt, especially the men, collect wild foods, collect firewood and fetch water, these last two usually done by the women, but during the day the Yanomamo also take time for themselves and gossip a little and make the material possessions they need such as baskets, hammocks, bows and arrows and colorful pigments with which they color paint their bodies with. They are indigenous to the Amazon rainforest. One of the little girls was holding a little bunny and one of the things she told me about it was that it was a herbivore. With all this fun I was having I still forgot that I was in the rainforest. I asked one of the villagers if they knew how to get home? They gave me a drink of something and that’s all I remember. The next thing I knew I was back at home on my bed with the book on my chest. I take back

calling this book stupid and I can’t wait to do my Rainforest Project!

Conclusion

Do you want your kids to be able to see the Amazon Rainforest when they grow up? Do you want them to be alive? If we don’t start saving the rainforest then it will

disappear within 14 years! The rainforest produces 20% of our oxygen and if we don’t start to save it then we will

be in serious trouble. Please start now!

Resources

http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/plants/bromeliads.html http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/plants/lianas.html http://www.discover-peru.org/peru-geography-amazon-river-ecosystem/ http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/amazon-pink-river-dolphin.html http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giant-river-otter/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Otter#Threats http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/otters/adaptations.htm http://www.isptr-pard.org/dolphin.html http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_eats_a_river_dolphin http://www.amersol.edu.pe/ms/7th/7block/jungle_research/new_cards/14/report14a.html http://www.bromeliadplant.info/ http://cgee.hamline.edu/rivers/Resources/river_profiles/Amazon.html http://www.amazon-rainforest.org/amazon-products.html http://www.effects-of-deforestation.com/amazon-rainforest-deforestation.php http://www.rainforestconservation.org/rainforest-primer/rainforest-primer-table-of-contents/d-history-of-human-interactions-with-tropical-rainforests/3-examples-of-rainforests-seriously-altered-by-human-activities http://dictionary.reference.com http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami>  http://ginamicheli.tripod.com/ http://indian-cultures.com/Cultures/ticuna.html> http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Ticuna-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html