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What are rainforests?
====Rainforests are dense, warm and have wet floors, with huge trees. They are very special places. Over half the known animals and plants in the world live in rainforests, and new ones are being discovered all the time!====



====More than two metres of rain falls in tropical rainforests every year. It is a hot, wet and steamy place with little change in weather and no seasons. As a result, the trees and plants stay green and keep growing all year round.====

**The green areas on this map show where tropical rainforests grow today.**
====Most of the world's rainforests are tropical. They grow in 'the tropics', a hot area just north and south of the equator. The equator is the imaginary line we draw around the middle of the earth. Some rainforests grow further north and south of the equator where it is cooler. These are temperate rainforests.==== ====An area of a rainforest the size of a football field is destroyed every second! They cut trees down for their wood, or to make way for farms, mines or roads. These unique and important rainforests which affect the world's environment and provide us with medicine, food and oxygen, could be lost forever.====



Inside a Rainforest
====The heat and heavy rain in a rainforest are perfect for living things. Trees grow tall and flowers blossom. The rainforest provides food and shelter for the millions of creatures that live in the rainforest.====



**These vines climb up the trees to reach the sunlight.**
====The rainforest has a difficult ecosystem in which living things and non-living things, such as sunlight. Every living thing in the rainforest depends on other plants and animals for food, shelter or support, like these vines.====

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**Rainforest Trees**
====Trees grow fast in the warm, wet rainforest. They race each other upwards to reach the sunlight. Some trees grow much taller that others. They have long, straight trunks and their branches spread out wide at the top of the tree.====



**Some treetops are as big as a school playground.**
====Huge trees, called emergents, can grow up to 70 metres tall! Their branches spread out over the forest canopy like an umbrella to get the most of the sunlight and space. They may also take advantage of the air movement at the top of the forest by developing winged seeds that can be carried by the wind.====

**Caecilian**
====The caecilian looks like an earthworm or an eel. It is also known as rubber eel and Silian worm. The caecilian burrows in the moist soil or the rainforests. This creature has jaws and two rows of teeth. It is almost blind, it feels its way with its tentacles. It feeds on insects and worms. Its enemies are birds, fish and snakes====



**Frog**
====Rainforest are full of unusual frogs. Frogs are the most common amphibians in a rainforest. Most of these frogs live in tree. Some look like dead leaves, so they can hide from other enemies. Some, like the red-eyed tree frog of Central America and Northern South America, are active at night. These frogs have red eyes and red feet. They also are bright green with blue sides and yellow stripes.====

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