Anorak loves the Jungle

Anorak Issue 2

The Jungle. It is a vibrant and intriguing place. It might look like an overgrown garden but in fact the Jungle is an important part of our planet and helps all kinds of species survive. The rain is essential for the Jungle, as without it none of the trees and animals that live there could exist.

Jungles and rain forests are friends and usually where there is one, you will find the other. The rainforest is the bigger and taller of the two but its muddy floor is an ideal place for the many plants and animals of the Jungle to grow and make their own home.

The jungle isn’t just big and green, it is also pretty clever and it grows plants with many special properties: about one quarter of medicines contain bits that started off from Jungle plants. This is one reason why scientists like to explore this habitat.

The explorers who go into the Jungle have to be pretty brave as it is a dangerous place. If you go into the Jungle it is best to wear a wide hat and long sleeved clothes to stop the bugs biting you, although it is quite likely they still will have a nibble.

Have fun in the Anorak Jungle.

Q. What is it?
The Jungle is a tropical forest with lots of trees and plants in it that are full of wildlife. The Jungle is the habitat for tonnes of animals, plants and trees. The plants there grow thick and low to the ground. They only grow in hot and moist areas so a Jungle will always be near a swamp or a river.

Q. Where is it?
It is in the Tropics, which are areas of land near or on the equator. The temperature in the Jungle is the same almost every day and it rains a lot, with over 100mm of rainfall a month.

Q. Where on the planet can it be found?
The world’s Jungles are in three main areas: South America, Africa and South East Asia. There are also smaller Jungles in the middle of America and in Australia.
The main South American countries where you will find the Jungle are: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela.

Q. Who lives there?
Scientists are still discovering new species so we can’t put a number on it yet but we know there are millions of trees, plants, animals, insects and even humans.
The largest animal in the Jungle is the forest elephant and there are also tigers, chimpanzees, slimy frogs and sloths, which sleep for up to 19 hours a day!
There are heaps of insects like beetles, caterpillars, moths and crickets and one tree in the Amazon Jungle was home to 43 different types of ant.
There are all sorts of different human tribes with strange names who live in the Jungle, like the Baaka pygmies who live in the Congo and the Yanomani tribe in the Amazon. Their biggest challenge is finding enough food so they have to collect fruits, nuts and edible leaves, and also hunt for meat and fish, which can be tricky, as they don’t have a fishing rod like your Dad does.

Q. What should you bring if you were to go on an expedition in the Jungle?
Well, there are only four things you need to survive in the Jungle – water, food, shelter and fire.
If you were to go exploring make sure you pack the following: a large rucksack, sleeping bag, a mosquito net, light and long sleeved clothing, a hat, binoculars, camera, sunglasses, a torch and of course a big bottle of…insect repellent.

Did you know…

• Jungles cover only 6% of planet earth, but they contain more than half of its animals and plants.
• The biggest tree in the Jungle is called the mahogany sapling. It can take up to 100 years to grow and will be taller than any other Jungle tree.
• The Jungle is so big that the only way the animals that live there can keep in contact is by sound. If you are in the Jungle at night time you might have to cover your ears as the noise can be deafening.
• even though Jungle leaves are green and fresh, most of them cannot be eaten. The leaves have poison in them to protect them from the hungry animals.
• The Jungle natives rub garlic on themselves to keep away the insects and snakes.

What issues does the Jungle currently face?
Fifty years ago Jungles covered 15% of the earth. Today they only cover a tiny 6%. The main issue the Jungle faces is deforestation – some of the reasons for this is that the human population is growing so much we need more and more wood to build houses and furniture.

This means a lot of the Jungle trees are being cut down for timber and so the Jungles are shrinking in size and a lot of the animals are homeless.
The Jungle trees help human beings and animals by removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and by giving out oxygen. The less trees we have the more carbon dioxide will be in the air, which is bad for the planet and causes global warming.

Help the Jungle:
www.worldwidelife.org
www.foe.org.uk
www.worldlandtrust.org