Hi kids! Are you looking for some of the interesting rainforest facts for kids? Yes, then don’t worry because you don’t have to hang around anymore. We’ll discover some of the hidden truths pertaining to the rainforests. To start with, do you know why they are called rainforests? Well, simply because they have maximum quantity of rainfall as compare to the ordinary ones and the presence of huge thick trees make it unique. Every rainforest is filled with compact trees, flowers and plants that make it possible to change the climatic conditions. But the darkest side of rainforests is that they are fading away at a staggering rate. Out of the two kinds of rainforests, Tropical rainforests are close to the equator and are also known as ‘Jewels of the Earth’. There are four layers of tropical rainforest and the lowest layer takes in as less as 2% of the daylight. Besides, rainforest facts for kids are exciting to know also because they give off as well as take in a lot of carbon dioxide which is beneficial for the environment.
Rainforest Facts For Kids
As is obvious from its name, rainforest takes in a huge spell of rain in a year. That’s why it is different from usual forest.
Rainforests are of two kinds; tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest.
The biggest rainforest in the world is called Amazon Rainforest.
Nearly forty to seventy five percent of all species are native to rainforests.
There was a time when the land of earth used to have around 14% of rainforests but not anymore as it has reduced by 8% over the years. Besides, these lingering rainforests would not be able to survive for more than 40 years, according to some biologists. What one of the woeful rainforest facts for kids!
Even now billions of species (animals and plants) are undiscovered in the rainforests.
After each second, nearly 65,340 square feet (equal to the area of a football field) of rainforest is destroyed. That’s why you need to be familiar with some of the rainforest facts for kids so that you may spread awareness among other people about the significance of rainforests for the planet.
All the species are dropping off at the rate of 50,000 species every year. If the rainforests continue fall off at this alarming rate, it may result in the extinction of almost 50% of all the species (animals, plants and other organisms) by the end of next 100 years. One of the pitiful rainforest facts for kids!
Currently 200,000 Indians are living in the Amazon Rainforest while 500 years before there had been 10,000,000 isolated tribes.
Amazon Rainforest is so huge in size that if it were a state, it would have been the 9th biggest country as a whole.
The turnover of global oxygen is 28% from the rainforests.
Since the Amazon Rainforest is incessantly reprocessing oxygen from carbon dioxide so it serves the purpose of ‘Lungs’ for the earth.
A lion’s share (almost 80%) of the vegetables and fruits comes from rainforests.
In previous times, rainforests used to have 3,000 species of fruits. But since Indians consumed most of these fruits, so today there are only 200 fruits available.
Tropical rainforests are known as the largest drugstore in the world because almost quarter of the remedies was unearthed from this region. It’s definitely one of the rarely known rainforest facts for kids.
The plant life in rainforest is full of alkaloids (metabolites) and these alkaloids are not only useful in safeguarding vegetation from bugs and diseases, but they are equally helpful for healing purposes.
There are 3,000 species of plants in the world that are extremely effective for dealing with cancer cells and seventy percent of these are located in the rainforest.
One of the medicines known as Vincristine was produced from the rainforest (plant name as periwinkle). It is the most effective and strong drug against cancer cells. So knowing about rainforest facts for kids is good from medical standpoint as well.
According to some environmentalists, if we manage to keep the rainforests safe from extermination it will be economically more profitable than to destroy them.
There are many rare species flowers in the rainforests of Australia so much so that you’ll not find 80% of these flowers in other parts of the world.
In the South American rainforests, there are over 2,000 butterflies.
Rainforests serve as the most important means of preparing drugs and so out of every four ingredients of medicine; one ingredient comes from the plants of rainforest.
The Central African forests contain over 8,000 plant species.
Every day the massive plants of bamboo in rainforests shoot up by nine inches.
There are tens of thousands of trees scattered all over the rainforest and their topmost layer is so thick that in case of shower, the drop of water touches the ground after ten minutes.
In the South American tropical rainforests, sloth creeps so lazily that algae begin to produce on its body.
Madagascar has been deprived of about 2/3rd of its rainforests from the time when human beings started to settle on the earth.
A Quick Guide To Rainforest Facts For Kids
Rainfall per year: 68 to 78 inches
Layers of Tropical Rainforest: Emergent, Canopy, Understory, Forest Floor
Size of Biggest Trees in the Canopy Layer: 30m to 45m
Percentage of West African Rainforest Demolished: 90%
Rainforest Facts Info-graphic
Courtesy of Oak Furniture UK
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