There are two types of rainforests: tropical and temperate. Tropical and temperate rainforests share certain characteristics. For example, most trees flare at the base. Vegetation is dense, tall and very green. Both types of rainforests are rich in plant and animal species, although the diversity is greater in the tropical rainforest.
Both tropical and temperate rainforests are very lush and wet. The tropical rainforest has downpours at the rate of two inches an hour adding up to some 400 inches of rain per year. It rains a lot in the temperate rainforest too. It rains about 100 inches per year. And even more moisture comes from the coastal fog that hovers among the trees.
There are many types of food eaten in the rainforests. Fish is a main type of food for the people living there. The way they are caught is by crushing the poisonous plant roots and by washing them out using water. When the fish come up above the water for some air, the people fishing catch them and take it back. A decent catch could last an average family for about 2 weeks.
The weather there is always warm and it rains there a lot too. The average day-time temperature there is between 30-32º C and in the night it’s about 20º C.
Hundreds of years ago, many Indians, or indigenous peoples, lived in the Amazon. Many of them lived along rivers, where canoes made transportation easy. Many of these indigenous people died from diseases brought to South America by European explorers and colonists. Others died after being enslaved. Today, there are fewer indigenous people in the Amazon than there were 500 years ago. But other people also live in the Amazon now.
The mesitzos mostly live there now. Most of the people living in South America today have both European and indigenous ancestors. Until recently, however, few of them lived in the Amazon. They preferred to live in established cities along the coasts and in the Andes Mountains.
But in the past few decades, more and more mestizos have moved to the Amazon. They were having trouble finding work in their hometowns and saw opportunity in the Amazon. Many went looking for agricultural land. Others took jobs in oil fields or other industry.
Many of the trees in the rainforest are being cut down for objects being made out of wood. Wood gets made into things like paper products, furniture, buildings, pencils, rayon fabric, photographic film, and even food additives. They are home to millions of types of animals, plants, insects-and even people. When old growth forests get logged to make wood products for us to use, many animal species lose their home, or habitat.
