The most impassable jungle. African savannahs and jungles Is there a jungle in Africa

This material tells about the life of animals in the tropical zone. The article is illustrated with photographs of animals from tropical forests.

In the African forest.

Most of African forests are located between two tropics: the North (Tropic of Cancer) and the South (Tropic of Capricorn). In this part of the earth, all seasons are similar to each other; during the year, the average temperature and the amount of rainfall are almost constant. Therefore, almost all animals in this zone are sedentary - in fact, unlike the inhabitants of the temperate and cold climatic zones, they do not need to make seasonal migrations in search of places suitable for life.

Hippopotamus.

The name of this animal, translated from Greek, means "river horse". It weighs over three tons.

Water is the natural habitat of this huge mammal; the hippo spends most of its time in it. However, with such a thick, squat figure, swimming is not easy, so usually hippos do not go far into the water, but stay in shallow water, where they can reach the bottom with their paws. The senses - movable ears, nostrils with closable membranes, and eyes with protruding over-eyes - are located on the top of the muzzle so that the hippopotamus can almost completely submerge itself in the water, continuing to breathe air and closely monitor everyone around. In case of danger threatening him or his cubs, he becomes very aggressive and, no matter where - in the water or on land, he immediately attacks the enemy.

Mothers give birth to babies either on the shore, or more often right in the water. In the latter case, newborns, barely born, emerge to the surface so as not to suffocate. Hippos give birth during the rainy season, at which time the mother has an abundance of milk thanks to the abundant and varied food. To feed the cubs, the female gets out on land and stretches comfortably on her side.

Hippos never live alone; they gather in groups of several dozen individuals. Often, both in water and on land, adult males play with growing cubs. Moving overland. Hippos always follow the same paths they know.

Feeling in danger, the hippo emits a threatening roar, and it opens its huge mouth as wide as possible, showing the enemy unusually long lower fangs. This threatening posture usually produces the desired result.

Crocodile.

Only sometimes crocodiles can swim into the sea water; usually they settle along the banks of rivers and lakes in areas with a warm and hot climate. Crocodiles are much more comfortable and calmer in the water than on land. They swim with the help of their paws and tail; large individuals can spend about an hour under water. In the hottest hours of the day, crocodiles lie on land with their mouths wide open: due to the absence of sweat glands, they can get rid of excess heat only in this way, like dogs sticking out their tongue in the heat.

The female crocodile lays eggs in a hole specially dug on the shore, not far from the water. The cub breaks the shell with a special horn located on its head, which soon falls off.

Young crocodiles feed mainly on fish, but also on birds and insects. Only when they become adults will they be able to cope with larger mammals, which need to be caught, dragged from the shore and kept under water for some time.

Crocodile's teeth are not needed for chewing food, but only to grab prey and tear off pieces of meat from it.

Even terrifying reptiles like crocodiles have enemies - animals that hunt for crocodile eggs. The most dangerous of them is the monitor lizard, a large lizard. Having found an egg, he begins to dig the ground near him unusually quickly, distracting the female crocodile, which usually stands guard, and having stolen the egg from the nest, takes it to a place inaccessible to crocodiles and eats it.

Like many other land animals that live in water for a long time, the ears, nostrils and eyes of crocodiles are located on the top of the head, so that they remain above the water when the animal swims.

The smallest crocodile: Osborne's caiman, its length is 120 centimeters.

Chimpanzee.

Due to its intelligence and learning ability, it is the most famous of all monkeys. Although chimpanzees are excellent climbers, they spend a lot of time on the ground and even hike. But they still sleep in the trees, where they feel safer. This is one of the few animals that uses various tools: chimpanzees put a broken branch in a termite mound, and then lick insects off of it. These monkeys are practically omnivorous. Communities living in different regions often eat differently.

Chimpanzee "vocabulary" consists of various sounds, but in communication they also use facial expressions; their faces can take on a wide variety of expressions, often very human-like.

As a rule, chimpanzees have only one cub, and twins are extremely rare. The cubs spend their entire childhood literally in the arms of their mother, clinging tightly to her fur.

Chimpanzees live in fairly large societies, but not as closed as other apes, such as gorillas. On the contrary, chimpanzees often move from one group to another.

The strongest males, defending their primacy, uproot small trees and brandish this club with a menacing look.

Female chimpanzees usually have a tender friendship. Often, a mother temporarily trusts her cub to another female; sometimes such nannies take out for a walk, in addition to their own, two or three other people's cubs.

Gorilla.

Despite its frightening appearance, this large, over two meters tall monkey is very friendly; males from the same flock usually do not compete with each other, and the leader, in order to obey him, just goggle his eyes and utter a corresponding cry, striking himself with his fingers on the chest. This behavior is just a play, it is never followed by an attack. Before a real attack, the gorilla looks into the eyes of the enemy for a long time and silently. Looking directly into the eyes means a challenge not only in gorillas, but in almost all mammals, including dogs, cats and even humans.

Little gorillas stay with their mother for almost four years. When the next one is born, the mother begins to distance the elder from herself, but she never does it rudely; she kind of invites him to try his hand at adulthood.

When gorillas wake up, they go in search of food. The rest of the time they devote to rest and play. After the evening meal, a kind of bedding is arranged on the ground, on which they fall asleep.

Okapi.

These are relatives of the giraffe, its height is slightly less than two meters, and its mass is about 250 kilograms. Okapi are extremely timid animals and are distributed in a very narrow geographic zone, therefore, they have not been studied enough. It is known that they live in bushes, and their color, at first glance, is very unusual, in fact, makes them completely invisible in their natural habitat. Okapi live alone, and only mothers are not separated from their cubs for a long time.

With stripes on the back of the body and on the legs, the okapi resembles a zebra; these stripes serve them for camouflage.

Okapi resemble some types of horses, but the differences are quite noticeable; for example, males have short horns. While playing, the okapi lightly beat each other with their muzzles until the defeated one falls on the ground as a sign of the end of the game.

When the mother hears a special calling cry emitted by the cub in case of danger, she becomes very aggressive and decisively attacks any enemy.

Asian jungle.

Some species of animals that inhabit the Asian jungle, such as elephants, rhinos and leopards, are found in Africa; however, over thousands of years of evolution, the jungle dwellers have developed many traits that distinguish them from their African "brothers".

Monsoons - this is the name of the winds that periodically blow in the tropical zones of Asia. They usually bring abundant rainfall, which encourages rapid growth and renewal of vegetation.

The monsoon time is also favorable for animals: during these periods, plant food is plentiful and varied, which provides the best conditions for their growth and reproduction. Just like the forests of the Amazon, the Asian jungle is very dense and sometimes impassable.

Tapir.

The tapir is said to be a fossil animal; indeed, this species, inhabiting several remote areas one after another, has survived on earth from very ancient times, having survived several geological eras.

Black-backed tapir can walk along the bottom of the lake!

The female tapir is larger than the male. The most noticeable feature in body structure is the elongated upper lip, which forms a small and highly mobile trunk, with which tapirs can pluck leaves and tufts of grass - their common food. Black-backed tapirs live in Asia. Their color is very expressive: black and white. It might seem that these contrasting colors should make them very noticeable, but in fact, from a distance, they are very similar to an ordinary pile of stones, of which there are many around. The young, on the other hand, have a speckled skin, with small specks and stripes. In the second year of life, this color will gradually change to an even black color with a characteristic white band - a saddle-cloth.

More often tapirs eat leaves, shoots and stems of aquatic plants. They are very fond of water and swim great. They always walk along the same familiar paths, which eventually turn into well-trodden paths, ending, as a rule, in a "chute" - a convenient descent to the water.

The most fearsome enemies of tapirs are various types of felines on land and gavials in the water. Very rarely, the tapir tries to defend itself; he has practically no means to do this and always prefers to run away.

The body of the tapir is squat, legs are short, there is almost no neck. The movable trunk is a very sensitive olfactory organ. - with its help, the tapir explores the surface of the earth and surrounding objects. Vision, on the contrary, is very poorly developed. Asian cats.

In Asia, there are no felines living in groups like lions or cheetahs in Africa. All types of Asian cats are loners, each animal is in charge of its territory and does not allow strangers there. Only tigers sometimes go hunting in small groups. Representatives of the feline family live in Asia everywhere, even in areas with a climate that is not very suitable for them, such as, for example, in the Far East, where the Ussuri tiger reigns. The peculiarity of tigers living in the jungle is their hunting style. It consists in sneaking up to the victim as close as possible, remaining unnoticed, and at the last moment rush at it with one jump from a place or a short run.

The royal, or Bengal, tiger is now quite rare. Found in India and Indochina.

Leopard or black panther.

The panther also has spots characteristic of a leopard, although they are completely invisible against a black background. The black panther is a dark colored leopard.

Clouded leopard. He jumps from branch to branch no worse than a monkey. These cats are sometimes called tree tigers.

Speckled cat.

I also call her the fishing cat. In fact, she really loves to live near the water and swims well. In addition to fish and molluscs, it catches small vertebrates on land. The habits of this animal are poorly understood.

Tiger.

Tigers adapt to a wide variety of climates; they live in lowland tropical areas, but are also found in the mountains at an altitude of up to 3000 m and in very cold areas; in the latter case, a thick layer of fat, more than five centimeters, forms under the skin, preventing heat loss.

Almost all the inhabitants of the jungle are at risk of becoming prey to the tiger. Only large and warlike pachyderms, and even bulls and buffaloes with strong horns, can feel safe.

Contrary to popular belief, the tiger is not a very agile hunter; it's so heavy. That for a successful jump he needs to start the run from a distance of 10 - 15 meters; if the tiger comes closer to its prey, it runs the risk of missing.

A tiger brood usually consists of two, three or four cubs. For eight weeks, the mother feeds them exclusively with milk; then solid food is gradually added to their milk. Only six months later, the female begins to hunt, leaving the cubs for more than a day.

Tigers, like all wild animals, are afraid of humans. However, it happens that an old or sick animal, for which the usual hunting becomes too difficult, overcomes innate fear and attacks people.

Monkeys.

Among the numerous species of monkeys, there are animals that weigh no more than 70 grams, and there are also those whose weight reaches 250 kilograms. In Asian monkeys, the tail does not have a grasping function, i.e. the monkey cannot, by catching it on a branch, support its body so that its arms and legs remain free; this is typical only for monkeys living on the American continent.

Orangutan.

The most common monkey in Asia is the orangutan. This is a large monkey that spends most of its time among the branches and only sometimes descends to the ground.

Orangutan females, perhaps more than all other monkeys, care about raising their children. Mothers bite their babies' nails, bathe them in rainwater, and shout at them if they start to be capricious. The upbringing received in childhood subsequently determines the character of the adult animal.

Sucker.

This monkey owes its name to a huge ugly nose, which in males sometimes goes down to the very chin. The nipple not only climbs trees well, but also swims very well and can sit under water for a long time.

Thin lori.

A pointed muzzle and huge eyes that can see in the dark make this semi-monkey very cute. During the day, the lori hides in the branches, and at night it gets its food.

Indian pachyderms.

At first glance, the differences between Indian pachyderms and African animals are imperceptible. The behavior of both of them is also very similar: they do not stay in one place for a long time, but move rather long distances in search of suitable food, mainly young foliage. They love water and swim well, sometimes for a long time. They often rest near the water, bathing in silty mud, which is very beneficial for their skin.

Rhinoceros.

He is respected by all other animals who try to avoid meeting him. Only elephants are not afraid of them and easily put them to flight if they interfere with them. A newborn Indian rhino weighs about 65 kilograms.

Unlike the African rhino, it has only one horn, and its body is covered with thick skin shields. He usually moves slowly, but if necessary, he develops a speed of up to 40 kilometers per hour.

Elephant.

Although its skin looks rough, it is in fact very sensitive thanks to a cover of short and flexible bristles that respond to even the slightest touch.

The mother never allows the elephant calf to be absent from her. She watches the cub all the time and begins to call him as soon as she notices that he is a little behind.

The female Indian elephant bears the fetus for about 20 months!

What is the jungle? It would seem that there should be no difficulty in answering this question. “Who does not know this,” you say. "The jungle is impenetrable forests in hot countries, where there are many wild monkeys and tigers waving their long tails viciously." But it’s not that simple. The word "jungle" became widely known to Europeans only a little over a hundred years ago, when in 1894-1895. two "Jungle Books" were published, written by the little-known English writer Rudyard Kipling at the time.

Many of you know this writer very well, have read his stories about the curious baby elephant or how the alphabet was invented. But not everyone will be able to answer the question of what is told in the "Jungle Books". And yet you can bet that almost everyone, even those who have never read Kipling, knows the protagonist of these books perfectly well. How can this be? The answer is simple: when this book was translated into Russian and first published in our country, its title was
The map of the distribution of the jungle and other rainforests has been changed. Now she is known to everyone by the name of the main character - the Indian boy Mowgli, this name gave the name to the Russian translation.

Unlike another hero of popular books and films - Tarzan, Mowgli really grew up in the jungle. “But how can it be! you exclaim. “Tarzan also lived in the jungle. We ourselves have seen bright tropical flowers and variegated birds, tall trees intertwined with lianas, both in pictures and in the movies. And crocodiles and hippos! Where do they live, isn't it in the jungle? "

Alas, you will have to upset, but neither in Africa, where the incredible adventures of Tarzan and his friends took place, nor in South America, nor even in the hot New Guinea "teeming with bounty hunters", there is no jungle and never has been.

Did Kipling deceive us? In no case! This magnificent writer, the pride of English literature, was born in India and knew it very well. It is in this country that dense trees and shrubs intertwined with lianas with bamboo groves and areas covered with tall grasses are called in Hindi "jangal" or "jungle", which in Russian has turned into a more convenient "jungle" for us. However, such thickets are characteristic exclusively for South and Southeast Asia (mainly for the Indian subcontinent and Indochina).

But the popularity of Kipling's books was so great, and the word "jungle" is so beautiful and unusual, that many even well-educated people (of course, except for specialists - botanists and geographers) began to call so any rugged forests and bushes. Therefore, we are going to tell you many interesting stories about the mysterious forests of hot countries, not paying attention to the fact that only a very small part of them can rightfully be called the jungle.
By the way, the confusion with the use of terms affected not only the word "jungle": in English, all forests of hot countries, including the jungle, are usually called tropical rain forests, regardless of the fact that they are mostly located not in tropical, and in the equatorial, subequatorial and even partially in the subtropical belts.

Most of us are familiar with temperate forests and their features. We know which trees are found in conifers and which ones are found in deciduous forests, we have a good idea of ​​what the grasses and shrubs growing there look like. It would seem that "a forest is a forest in Africa", but if you find yourself in the equatorial forest of Congo or Indonesia, in the tropical forests of America or in the Indian jungle, you would see a lot of unusual and surprising.
Let's get acquainted with some of the features of these forests, with their bizarre plants and unique animals, learn about the people living there and about those scientists and travelers who have devoted their lives to their study. The secrets of the jungle have always attracted the curious; perhaps today we can safely say that most of these secrets have already been revealed; about this, as well as about what still remains a mystery, and will be discussed in our book. Let's start with the equatorial forests.

Tropical rainforest and other equatorial forest aliases

It is difficult to find a spy who has as many nicknames (sometimes even contradicting each other in meaning) as these forests have. Equatorial forests, tropical rain forests, gilea *, selva, jungle (however, you already know that this name is mistaken) and, finally, the term that you can find in school or scientific atlases - constantly humid (equatorial) forests.

* GILEY FOREST, GILEA (Greek hyle - forest) - a tropical forest mainly in the Amazon basin (South America). The giley forest is the concentration of the most ancient flora of the Earth. There is no drought in the Giley forests and there are practically no seasonal temperature changes. Giley forests are characterized by a multi-tiered nature, an incredible variety of plants (only woody about 4 thousand species), an abundance of lianas, epiphytes. Numerous valuable tree species, such as cocoa, rubber hevea, and bananas, grow in the gilli forests. In a broad sense, gilea is the name given to the equatorial forests of South America, Central Africa and the islands of Oceania (editor's note).

Even the great English scientist Alfred Wallace, who in many ways anticipated the main provisions of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, as a biologist, did not really think about why, describing the equatorial belt, he calls the forests growing there tropical. The explanation is quite simple: a century and a half ago, speaking of climatic zones, only three were usually distinguished: polar (aka cold), temperate and hot (tropical). And the tropics, especially in English-speaking countries, called the entire territory located between the parallels 23 ° 2Т s. sh. and y. sh. These parallels themselves are also often called the tropics: 23 ° 27 "N - the Tropic of Cancer, and 23 ° 27" S. sh. - the tropic of Capricorn.

We hope that this confusion will not lead to the fact that you will forget everything that you are taught in geography lessons now, in the 21st century. To prevent this from happening, we will tell you more about all types of forests.

Forests, not much different from modern rain forests, appeared on our planet about 150 million years ago. True, then there were much more conifers in them, many of which have now disappeared from the face of the Earth. Several thousand years ago, these forests covered up to 12% of the earth's surface, now their area has decreased to 6%, and it continues to decline rapidly. And 50 million years ago, even the British Isles were covered with such forests - their remains (primarily pollen) were discovered by English botanists.

In general, pollen and spores of most plants are perfectly preserved for thousands and even millions of years. By these microscopic particles, scientists have learned to recognize not only the species to which the samples they found belong, but also the age of plants, which helps to determine the age of various rocks and geological structures. This method is called spore-pollen analysis.

Currently, the equatorial forests proper have survived only in South America, Central Africa, in the Malay Archipelago, which Wallace explored 150 years ago, and on some islands in Oceania. More than half of them are concentrated within just three countries: 33% - in Brazil and 10% each in Indonesia and Congo - a state that is constantly changing its name (until recently it was Zaire).

To help you get a detailed understanding of this type of forest, we will consistently discuss their climate, waters and vegetation.
Constantly humid (equatorial) forests are confined to the equatorial climatic zone. The equatorial climate is depressingly monotonous. This is where there is truly "winter and summer - in one color"! You have probably already heard something like this in the weather reports or in the conversations of your parents: "There is a cyclone, now wait for snowfalls." Or: “The anticyclone is stagnant, the heat will intensify, and you won't get rain.” At the equator, this does not happen - hot and humid equatorial air masses dominate there all year round, never giving way to colder or drier air. The average summer and winter temperatures differ there by no more than 2-3 ° C, and the daily fluctuate little. There are no temperature records here either - although the equatorial latitudes receive the most solar heat, the thermometer rarely rises above + 30 ° С and falls below + 15 ° С. Precipitation here falls only about 2000 mm per year (in other parts of the world it can be more than 24 000 mm per year).

But a "day without rain" in equatorial latitudes is a practically unknown phenomenon. Local residents do not need forecasts of weather forecasters at all: they already know what the weather will be like tomorrow. The sky is cloudless here every morning all year round. By mid-afternoon, clouds begin to gather, invariably bursting with the infamous "afternoon showers." A strong wind rises, from powerful clouds to the accompaniment of deafening peals of thunder, streams of water fall to the ground. For "one sitting" 100-150 mm of precipitation can fall here. After 2-3 hours, the downpour ends, and a clear, quiet night sets in. The stars are shining brightly, the air is getting a little cooler, fog accumulates in the lowlands. The air humidity here is also constant - you always feel as if you were in a greenhouse on a hot summer day.

Jungle of Peru

The jungle is majestic, mesmerizing and ... cruel.

Three-fifths of Peru's territory, its eastern part (selva), is occupied by an endless humid equatorial forest. In the vast selva, two main regions are distinguished: the so-called. high selva (in Spanish la selva alta) and low selva (la selva baja). The first occupies the southern, elevated part of Selva, the second northern, low-lying, adjacent to the Amazon. The foothill areas of Vysokaya Selva (or, as it is sometimes called, La Montagna) with better drainage conditions are more favorable for the development of lands for tropical crops and livestock raising. The Ucayali and Madre de Dios river valleys with their tributaries are especially favorable for development.

The abundance of moisture and uniform warmth throughout the year contribute to the growth of lush vegetation in the selva. The species composition of the Peruvian selva (more than 20 thousand species) is very rich, especially in non-flooded areas. It is clear that in the selva live primarily arboreal animals (monkeys, sloths, etc.). There are a lot of birds here. There are relatively few predators, and some of them (jaguar, ocelot, jaguarundi) climb trees well. The main prey for the jaguar and cougar is the tapir, the wild pig bakers and the capybara, the world's largest rodent. The ancient Incas called the area of ​​the Selva "Omagua", which means "the place where fish is found."
Indeed, the Amazon itself and its tributaries are home to over a thousand species of fish. Among them is a huge pancha (arapaima), reaching 3.5 m in length and over 250 kg in weight, the largest freshwater fish in the world.
In the selva there are many poisonous snakes and the largest snake on Earth, the anaconda (in the local yakumama). There are a lot of insects. It is not without reason that they say that in a selva, under each flower, there is at least one insect.
The rivers are called "rainforest pole roads". Even the "forest" Indians and they avoid going far from the river valleys.
Such roads must be periodically cut with a machete, getting rid of fast-growing vines, otherwise they will overgrow (in one of the photos in the group's album, you can see a picture - where the Indians armed with machetes are just busy cleaning the road).
In addition to the rivers, the varadero trails in the forest, leading from one river to another through the forest, are used for movement in the selva. The economic importance of the rivers is also great. Along the Marañon, ships rise to the rapids of Pongo Manseriche, and the port and the main economic center of the Iquitos selva, located 3,672 km from the mouth of the Amazon, receive large sea vessels. Pucallpa, on Ucayali, is the second largest river port, yes, and cities proper in the Peruvian jungle.

http://www.leslietaylor.net/company/company.html (link to an interesting site about the Amazon jungle (English)

The Indians have a saying: "The gods are strong, but the jungle is much stronger and more ruthless." However, for the Indian, the selva is both shelter and food ... it is their life, their reality.

What is selva for a European spoiled by civilization? "green hell" ... At first, fascinating, and then it can drive you crazy ...

One of the travelers once said about the selva: "It is incredibly beautiful when you look at it from the outside, and depressingly cruel when you look at it from the inside."

The Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier put it even more harshly about the jungle of the rainforest: "A deaf war continued in the depths filled with thorns and hooks, where everything seemed like a huge ball of snakes."

Jacek Palkiewicz, Andrzej Kaplanek. "In Search of the Golden Eldorado":
"... Someone said that a man in a wild forest experiences two joyful minutes. The first is when he realizes that his dreams have come true and he is in the world of untouched nature, and the second is when, having endured the struggle with cruel nature, with insects, malaria and his own weakness, returns to the bosom of civilization. "

Jump without a parachute, 10 days of wandering around the selva of a 17-year-old girl, when everything ended well ( www.4ygeca.com ):

"... About half an hour after the departure of the Lansa scheduled flight from the capital of Peru, Lima, to the city of Pucallpa (Loreto department), which is half a thousand kilometers northeast of the capital, a strong turbulence began. So strong that the flight attendant strongly recommended to passengers In general, nothing special happened: air pockets in the tropics are a common phenomenon, and the passengers of a small airliner on their way to descend remained calm. , 17-year-old Juliana Kepke sat next to her mother, looked out the window and looked forward to the joy of meeting her father in Pucallpa. Outside the plane, despite the daytime, it was rather dark because of the hanging clouds. Suddenly lightning flashed very close at the same time A moment later the lightning went out, but darkness did not come again - an orange light remained: it was their plane that burned as a result of a direct lightning strike. A scream arose in the cabin, and an utter panic began. But they were not given to last long: tanks with fuel exploded, and the liner flew to pieces. Juliana had not yet had time to be properly frightened, as she found herself in the "embrace" of the cold air and felt: together with the chair, she was falling rapidly. And the feelings left her ...

The day before Christmas, that is, December 23, 1971, the people who met the liner from Lima at the Pucallpa airport did not wait for it. Biological scientist Kepke was also among those who met. In the end, the worried people were mournfully informed that the plane had apparently crashed. Searches were immediately launched, involving military, rescue teams, oil companies, and enthusiasts. The route of the liner was known very accurately, but days passed, and searches in the tropical wilds did not give any result: what could have been left from the plane and its passengers disappeared without a trace. In Peru, they began to get used to the idea that the secret of this plane crash would never be revealed. And in the first days of January, a sensational news spread around Peru: in the selva of the Huanuco department, the passenger of that very deceased plane of the "Lance" airline, Juliana Kepke, came out to people - that is how she was called. Having survived after falling from a bird's eye view, the girl wandered in the jungle alone for 10 days. It was an incredible, double miracle! Let's leave the clue to the first miracle for last and talk about the second - how a 17-year-old girl, dressed in only one light dress, managed to hold out in the selva for just 10 days. Juliana Kepke woke up hanging from a tree. The chair to which she was fastened, which was one piece with a huge duralumin sheet from the airliner, caught on a branch of a tall tree. The rain was still going on, it was pouring like a bucket. A storm roared, thunder roared, lightning flashed in the darkness, and the forest, shining in their light like myriads of lights scattered in the wet foliage of the trees, retreated back in order to embrace the girl in a frightening impenetrable dark bulk the next moment. Soon the rain stopped, a solemn, watchful silence reigned in the selva. Juliana was scared. Without closing her eyes, she hung on the tree until morning.
It was already noticeably brightening when a cacophonic chorus of howler monkeys greeted the beginning of a new day of the selva. The girl freed herself from the seat belts and carefully climbed down from the tree to the ground. So, the first miracle happened: Juliana Kepke - the only one of all the people who were in the crashed plane - survived. Alive, although not unharmed: she had a cracked collarbone, a painful lump on her head, and a large abrasion on her thigh. Selva was not completely alien to the girl: for two years she actually lived in her - at a biological station not far from Pucallpa, where her parents worked as researchers. They taught their daughters not to be afraid of the jungle, taught them to navigate in them, to find food. They enlightened her daughter about recognizing trees with edible fruits. Taught by Juliana's parents just like that, just in case, the science of survival in the selva turned out to be just the way for the girl - thanks to her, she defeated death. And Juliana Kepke, taking a stick in her hand to scare away snakes and spiders, went to look for a river in the selva. Each step was taken with great difficulty - both because of the density of the forest and because of injuries. The vines were strewn with bright fruits, but the traveler well remembered the words of her father that in the jungle everything that was beautiful, attractive in appearance - fruits, flowers, butterflies - was poisonous. About two hours later Juliana heard the indistinct murmur of water and soon came out to a small stream. From that moment on, the girl spent all 10 days of her wanderings near watercourses. In the following days Juliana suffered greatly from hunger and pain - the wound on her leg began to fester: it was the flies that had laid the testicles under her skin. The strength of the traveler was melting. More than once she heard the roar of helicopters, but, of course, she had no opportunity to attract their attention. One afternoon she suddenly found herself in a sunny meadow. The selva and the river brightened, the sand on the bank cut the eyes with whiteness. The traveler lay down to rest on the beach and was about to fall asleep when she saw little crocodiles very close. As the stung Kepke jumped to her feet and retreated from this lovely, scary place - after all, there were undoubtedly the guardians of the crocodiles nearby - adult crocodiles.

The wanderer's strength remained less and less, and the river flowed endlessly through the endless jungle. The girl wanted to die - she was almost morally broken. And suddenly - on the 10th day of wandering - Juliana came across a boat tied to a tree bent over the river. Looking around, she noticed a hut not far from the shore. It is not difficult to imagine what joy and a surge of strength she felt! Somehow the sufferer dragged herself to the hut and collapsed in exhaustion in front of the door. How long she lay like this, she does not remember. I woke up from the downpour. The girl forced herself with the last of her strength to crawl inside the hut - the door, of course, was not locked. For the first time in all 10 days and nights, she found a roof over her head. Juliana could not sleep at night. She listened to the sounds: weren't people coming to her, although she knew that they were waiting in vain - no one went to the selva at night. Then the girl fell asleep.

In the morning she felt better and began to wonder what to do. Someone had to come to the hut sooner or later - it looked quite habitable. Juliana was unable to move - neither walk nor swim. And she decided to wait. Towards the end of the day - the 11th day of Juliana Kepke's reluctant adventure - voices were heard outside, and a few minutes later two men entered the hut. First people in 11 days! They were Indian hunters. They treated the girl's wounds with some kind of infusion, preliminarily picking out the worms from them, fed them and made them sleep. The next day she was taken to the Pukalp hospital. There she met her father ... "
The third highest waterfall in the world in the selva of Peru

In December 2007, the third highest waterfall in the world was found in Peru.
According to updated data from the Peruvian National Geographic Institute (ING), the height of the newly discovered Yumbilla Falls in the Amazon region of Cuispes is 895.4 meters. The waterfall was known for a long time, but only to the residents of the local village, who did not attach much importance to it.

Scientists became interested in the waterfall only in June 2007. The first measurements showed an altitude of 870 meters. Before the "discovery" of Yumbilla, the Gocta waterfall was considered the third highest in the world. It is also located in Peru, in the province of Chachapoyas, and, according to ING, falls from a height of 771 meters. However, this figure is being questioned by many scientists.

In addition to revising the height of Yumbilya, scientists made another amendment: it was previously believed that the waterfall consists of three streams. Now there were four of them. The country's tourism ministry plans to organize two-day tours to the Yumbilya, Gosta and Chinata waterfalls (Chinata, 540 meters). (www. travel.ru)

Ecologists from Peru found a hiding tribe of Indians (October, 2007):

Peruvian ecologists have discovered an unknown Indian tribe, flying through the Amazon region in a helicopter in search of poachers chopping down forests, writes BBC News.

A group of 21 Indians - men, women and children, as well as three palm huts were photographed and filmed from the air on the banks of the Las Piedras River in the Alto Purus National Park in the southeast of the country near the border with Brazil. Among the Indians there was a woman with arrows who made aggressive movements towards the helicopter, and when the environmentalists decided to make a second run, the tribe disappeared into the jungle.

According to ecologist Ricardo Hon, officials have found other huts along the river. This is a nomadic group, he emphasizes, noting that the government has no plans to track down the tribe again. Communication with other people can be fatal for an isolated tribe, as it does not have immunity against many diseases, including common viral and respiratory infections. Thus, most of the Murunahua tribe, which came into contact with lumberjacks in the mid-90s of the last century, became extinct.

The contact was fleeting, but the impact will be significant, as this section of the Amazon region, 550 miles (760 km) west of Lima, is at the center of the struggle of indigenous rights groups and environmentalists against the poachers and oil companies operating here. geological exploration. The relentless advance of lumberjacks is forcing isolated groups, including the Mashko Piro and Yora tribes, to delve deeper into the jungle, moving towards the borders with Brazil and Bolivia.

According to researchers, the discovered group may be part of the Mashco Piro tribe, hunters and gatherers.

Similar huts were discovered in the region in the 1980s, giving rise to speculation that mashko-piros build temporary dwellings on river banks during the dry season, when it is easier to fish, and return to the jungle during the rainy season. Some 600 mashko-piro people deal with more sedentary groups, but most of them avoid contact with other people.

According to experts, about 15 isolated tribes live in Peru.
Facts about the rich life and the most important resources that the tropics share with us:

1. On the territory of 6.5 square meters, there are about 1,500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.

2. The tropics provide us with such essential resources as wood, coffee, cocoa, various medical materials, including anti-cancer drugs.

3. According to the US National Cancer Institute, 70% of plants growing in the tropics have anti-cancer properties.

***
Facts about possible dangers to rainforests, local people and living creatures living in the tropics:

1. In 1500 A.D. there were approximately 6 million natives living in the Amazon rainforest. But along with the forests, their inhabitants began to disappear. In the early 1900s, there were less than 250,000 natives living in the Amazonian forests.

2. As a result of the disappearance of the tropics, only 673 million hectares of tropical forests remain on Earth.

3. Given the rate of extinction of the tropics, 5-10% of tropical animal and plant species will disappear every decade.

4. Nearly 90% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty depend on rainforests.

5. 57% of the world's tropics are located in developing countries.

6. Every second from the face of the Earth, a piece of rainforest, equal in size to a football field, disappears. Thus, 86,400 "football fields" disappear a day, and more than 31 million a year.

Brazil and Peru will develop joint biofuel projects. (18.0.2008):

Brazil and Peru have agreed on joint projects to increase the production of biofuels, hydropower and petrochemicals, the Associated Press reports, citing a statement from the Peruvian presidential administration. The leaders of the two countries signed 10 different agreements in the field of energy at once following a meeting in the capital of Peru, Lima. As part of one of them, the Peruvian state oil company Petroperu and the Brazilian Petroleo Brasileiro SA agreed to build an oil refinery in northern Peru with a production capacity of 700 million tons of polyethylene per year.
Brazil is the world's largest supplier of biofuels, ethanol.

The Amazon was the longest
river in the world (03.07.08)

The Amazon is still the longest river in the world. This was announced by the Brazilian National Space Research Center (INPE).

Center experts have studied the waterway in the north of the South American continent using satellite data. In their calculations, they took as a basis the results of the expedition carried out last year by scientists from Brazil and Peru.

Then the researchers got to the source of the Amazon, located in the Peruvian Andes, at an altitude of 5 thousand meters. They unraveled one of the greatest geographic mysteries, finding the birthplace of a river that crosses Peru, Colombia and Brazil before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. This point is located in the mountains in the south of Peru, and not in the north of the country, as previously thought.

At the same time, scientists installed several satellite beacons, which greatly facilitated the task for experts from INPE.

Now, according to the National Center for Space Research, the length of the Amazon is 6992.06 km, while the Nile flowing in Africa is 140 km shorter (6852.15 km). This makes the South American river not only the deepest, but also the longest in the world, ITAR-TASS notes.

Until now, the Amazon has been officially recognized as the deepest river, but it has always been considered the second longest after the Nile (Egypt).

Despite the barbaric destruction of all living things, especially the felling of perennial plantations, evergreen forests still occupy about a third of the entire land area of ​​our long-suffering planet. And this list is dominated by equatorial impenetrable jungles, some territories of which still represent a huge mystery to science.

Mighty, dense Amazon

The largest forest area of ​​our blue, but in this case green planet, covering almost the entire basin of the unpredictable Amazon. According to environmentalists, up to 1/3 of the entire animal world of the planet lives here , as well as more than 40 thousand only described plant species. In addition, it is the Amazon forests that produce hutmost of the oxygen for the entire planet!

The jungle of the Amazon, despite the close interest from the world scientific community, is still extremely poorly researched . Walk through the centuries-old thickets without special skills and no less special tools (for example, a machete) - IMPOSSIBLE.

In addition, in the forests and numerous tributaries of the Amazon there are very dangerous specimens of nature, one touch of which can lead to a tragic and sometimes even fatal outcome. Electric rays, toothy piranhas, frogs whose skin emits a deadly poison, six meter high anacondas, jaguars - these are just some of the impressive list of dangerous animals that lie in wait for a gaping tourist or slow-moving biologist.

In the floodplains of small rivers, like many millennia ago, in the very heart of the jungle, they still live wild tribes that have never seen a white man. Actually, the white man has never seen them either.

However, they will definitely not experience much joy from your appearance.

Africa, and only

Rainforests on the black continent occupy a huge area - five and a half thousand square kilometers! Unlike the northern and extreme southern parts of Africa, it is in the tropical zone that optimal conditions prevail for a large army of plants and animals. The vegetation here is so dense that the rare rays of the sun can please the inhabitants of the lower tiers.

Despite the fantastic density of biomass, perennial trees and lianas tend to reach the top in order to get their dose of the by no means gentle African sun. Salient feature African jungle - practically daily heavy rains and the presence of vapors in stale air. It is so hard to breathe here that an unprepared visitor to this inhospitable world can lose consciousness out of habit.

The undergrowth and middle tier are always lively. This is the habitat of numerous primates that usually do not even pay attention to travelers. In addition to wild noisy monkeys, here you can safely watch African elephants, giraffes, and also see a hunting leopard. But The real trouble of the jungle is the giant ants , which from time to time migrate in continuous columns in search of a better food base.

Woe to an animal or a person who meets these insects on the way. The goose bumps are so strong and agile that already within 20-30 minutes of contact with the aggressors, a gnawed skeleton will remain from a person.

Wet Forests Moms Asia

Southeast Asia is almost completely covered with impenetrable wet thickets. These forests, like their African and Amazonian counterparts, are a complex ecosystem that has absorbed several tens of thousands of species of animals, plants and fungi. The main zone of their localization is the Ganges basin, the foothills of the Himalayas, as well as the plains of Indonesia.

A distinctive feature of the Asian jungle - unique fauna, represented by representatives of species not found anywhere else on the planet. Of particular interest are the numerous flying animals - monkeys, lizards, frogs and even snakes. Moving in low level flight using the webbing between the fingers in the wild multi-tiered thickets is much easier than crawling, climbing and jumping.

Plants of the wet jungle bloom according to one known schedule, because there is no change of seasons and wet summers are not replaced by dry enough autumn. Therefore, each species, family and class has adapted to cope with reproduction in just a week or two. During this time, the pistils have time to throw out a sufficient amount of pollen that can fertilize the stamens. It is noteworthy that most tropical plants manage to bloom several times a year.

The Indian jungle has been thinned out, and in some regions it has been almost completely cut down during the centuries-old economic activity of the Portuguese and British colonialists. But on the territory of Indonesia there are still impenetrable virgin forests, in which the tribes of the Papuans live.

It is not worth catching their eye, since eating a white-faced for them has been an incomparable pleasure since the days of the legendary James Cook.

About the lives of which innumerable films have been filmed for Discovery and the BBC, you will immerse yourself in the richest natural world of our planet, which has no equal in its parameters:

1. The Amazon Basin is the largest tropical rainforest in the world with an area of ​​over 6 million km2.
2. Humans settled in the Amazon Jungle at least 11,200 years ago. The Amazon Rainforest itself has existed for over 55 million years.
3. The Amazon rainforest accounts for more than half of the total remaining rainforest on our planet.
4. 20% of the Earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest, which is why it is often called the "lungs of the planet."
5. The Amazon is the deepest river in the world. It carries up to ⅕ of the flow of all rivers in the world into the Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon River and its tributaries collect water from the territories of 9 states: Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana.
6. The biodiversity of the Amazon is the highest on Earth: over 150,000 plant species, 75,000 tree species, 1,300 bird species, 3,000 fish species, 430 mammals, 370 reptiles and over 2.5 million different insects.
7. The Amazon jungle is home to a number of deadly inhabitants of the Earth: jaguars, electric eels, piranhas, poisonous snakes and spiders, and others.
8. About 80% of the food we eat comes from the rainforest - rice, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, coffee, chocolate, corn, pineapples, and more.
9. About 400-500 indigenous Indian tribes today live in the Amazon rainforest. It is believed that about 75 of these tribes have never had contact with the outside world.
10. The city of Iquitos (Peru) is the largest city in the world that does not have land connections with other cities. It is located deep in the jungle and has over 400,000 inhabitants.

Wildlife. Flora and fauna of the Amazon jungle

The forests of the Amazon are rich in a variety of trees and plants, many species of flora and fauna of the jungle are endemic - all over the world they can be found only here. At the same time, 10% of all currently known plant and animal species on the planet are found in the Amazon jungle.

Jaguars, cougars, monkeys, sloths, caimans, anacondas, copibars, turtles, river dolphins, parrots, toucans, hummingbirds and many, many other inhabitants of the jungle are part of the world heritage of mankind. In terms of the number of species of animals and plants, the Amazon jungle is far superior to the tropical forests of Africa and Asia.

The jungle is a real treasure trove of useful plants - some fruits are used for food, parts of others serve as the basis for modern medicines.

Ferns, orchids, mosses, cacti, epiphytic plants - every plant has adapted to draw all its usefulness from the humid air of the jungle. Frequent rains and high humidity led to the fact that some of the inhabitants of the jungle moved to the trees. Frogs in such conditions lay their eggs high in trees.

The Amazon River is one of the 7 natural wonders of the planet

In 2011, the Amazon was recognized as one of the seven natural wonders of the planet.

This is the deepest river in the world. The Amazon and its tributaries form a system of inland waterways with a total length of over 25 thousand kilometers. At the point where it flows into the ocean, the depth of the river reaches 100 meters.

During the dry season, the Amazon reaches a width of 11 kilometers, covering 110 thousand square kilometers with water, and triples during the rainy season, during this period the river's waters rise to 20 meters, covering an area of ​​350 thousand square kilometers and spilling over 40 kilometers. more.

There are about 3,000 species of fish in the Amazon and its tributaries, but the most famous inhabitants of these rivers are piranhas - predatory fish that can attack even large predators crossing the river.

Wild Amazon tribes

Of the more than 10 million Indians who lived in harmony with the jungle, only about 200,000 people have survived to date.

According to various sources, today 400-500 tribes live in the rainforests of the Amazon. Of these, about 75 tribes are not in contact with the outside world.

These people serve as living reminders of the fragility of ancient cultures. Indians have stood in the way of commercial exploitation of the Amazon on more than one occasion. In the past, oil production has led to aggressive and disastrous contact with isolated Indians - in the early 1980s, Shell exploration led to contact with the isolated Nahua tribe, which subsequently died within a few years of about 50% of the tribe. Wild tribes are powerless in front of modern society - against the epidemics of modern diseases, the Indians have no immune defense.

Almost all isolated Indians are nomads - they move through the forest, depending on the season, in small groups. During the rainy season, when the water level is high, tribes that do not use canoes live far from the river, deep in the forest. During the dry season, when the water level is low, they live on the river banks.

In the dry season, river turtles on river banks lay their eggs by burying them in the sand. Eggs are an important source of protein for the Indians, so this also drives them to riverbanks, as well as fishing.

In addition to turtle eggs, non-contact Indians eat a variety of meat and fish dishes, bananas, nuts, berries, roots and larvae.

Rest in the jungle of Peru. Amazon National Parks

Most of the Amazon Basin still remains unexplored and dangerous to humans; it is possible to get into the wild tropical forest only in protected areas approved by the government, and only accompanied by accredited guides.

On the territory of Peru there are 3 interesting protected areas for visiting the Amazon Jungle:

• Nature reserves in the Iquitos area
• Manu National Park
• Nature reserves in the Puerto Maldonado area

1. Iquitos

It is the largest city on Earth with no land connections to other cities. You can only get to Iquitos by water or air.

The city began to grow in the 19th century in connection with the beginning of the "rubber fever". Here, the production of rubber from natural raw materials - a tree growing in the Amazonian jungle - began. The tycoons who owned rubber factories set up opulent mansions that still give the city a unique style.

From Iquitos, you can make a lot of interesting excursions into the jungle, immerse yourself in the world of the jungle, get acquainted with the local tribes and their culture.

How to get there: There are 8-9 daily flights from Lima to Iquitos. You can view tickets on the websites of local airlines: LAN Perú, Peruvian Airlines and Star Perú. The flight takes 1 hour and 45 minutes.

2. Manu National Park. Misty Andean forests

Manu National Park is one of the largest nature reserves in the world: it covers almost 2,000,000 hectares and is located at an altitude of 300 to 4,000 meters above sea level. Due to this location and the vast territory, several different ecosystems are found in the park, which provides a great variety of plant, insect and animal species. Manu is the reserve with the largest number of biological species in the world!

Most of the park is closed to visitors, only scientists are allowed in, but even for them it is difficult to get a pass. Visitors can enter the Manu Conservation Area, but only as part of groups organized by accredited agencies. A limited number of visitors are admitted to the park daily. In this part of the park, you can observe a huge variety of landscapes, flora and fauna, river bends form lagoons with a magnificent variety of flora and fauna.

How to get there: The groups, accompanied by accredited guides, leave for the Manu Reserve from Cusco. You can get to Cusco from Lima by plane (1 hour) or by bus (24 hours).

3. Puerto Maldonado

This small town 55 kilometers from the border with Bolivia is very similar to Iquitos, but much easier to get to. In the vicinity of Puerto Maldonado, there are several national parks where you can see caimans, monkeys, capybaras and other animals, reptiles, insects and birds.

How to get there: There are direct flights to Puerto Maldonado from Cusco (the flight takes only 1 hour) and from Lima (1 hour 40 minutes).

Amazon Jungle Tours

A tour to the Amazon Jungle is an amazing adventure in which you can feel the primal forces of nature and hear the call of the wild Earth.

Stilt houses, mosquito nets over the beds, night walks with flashlights, boat trips on the turbulent river, bungee rides and much more will become unforgettable moments of your bright adventure.

Even at night, you will feel with all your senses that you are at the mercy of the wild jungle.

What is included in the tours:

• Transfer
• Accommodation in houses
• Professional English speaking guide
• Meals: all breakfasts, lunches and dinners
• Drinks and water to refill their bottles
• Excursions, active recreation programs

Not included in tours:

• Travel insurance
• Single occupancy (on request)

Comfort and safety in the jungle. Important information

Do not forget that the jungle is not an artificial park adapted for people. The Amazon forests hide many dangers that are invisible to our eyes - sharp thorns can hide under soft moss in the trees, and cute ants on your way can be poisonous.

Being close to the best guides of the jungle, you can be sure of your safety, however, you need to be vigilant and strictly adhere to the rules that will be announced to you upon arrival.

If you are planning a trip to the rainforest (Manu National Park), we recommend getting the yellow fever vaccine. We also recommend taking the usual precautions to avoid mosquito bites: use repellents and wear long sleeves and pants whenever possible.

When to go. Seasonality, climate, temperature

You can go to the Amazon Jungle in any season, each of them has its own advantages: in the rainy season you can see flowering plants that attract birds and primates descending to the water itself, in the dry season, when the water level drops, you can see migrating schools of fish, birds attracted by easy prey, caimans hunting fish.

The average temperature in the jungle throughout the year is + 30º

Monsoon season: mid-December - mid-May.

Dry season: mid-May - mid-December.

The highest water level in the river is in May, the lowest is in September.

What to take with you? Clothes, footwear, protective equipment

• Clothing: we recommend bringing with you light, quick-drying, preferably cotton clothes, including several short-sleeved T-shirts, a sweater / long sleeve sweater, several pairs of socks, a raincoat, and a bathing suit.
• Sun protection hat
• Comfortable waterproof shoes
• Flashlight and spare batteries
• Camera and spare battery
• Binoculars
• Repellent (we recommend OFF factor 35)
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• Water bottle

In the jungle, you will be given rubber boots.

Frequently asked Questions

Is it possible to enter the jungle on your own?

Some tourists dare to go unaccompanied into the jungle, but it does not always end well. You can find a guide who will agree to work individually and live with tourists for several days in a wild forest away from organized accommodation (hotels and lodges).

What is the maximum group size?

Usually there are no more than 8 people in a group. In the case when the group is large - 10-16 people, it is accompanied by one or two additional guides.

Is there an age limit for the jungle?

There is no age limit. The lodges welcome guests of all ages.

What if you didn't get vaccinated in time?

Vaccinations can be done in Lima, but you will need to wait 10 days for the vaccine to take effect before heading out into the jungle.

"Savannah" is a Portuguese word; it means “steppe with trees”. Savannah is also called woodland. I somehow prefer the second option)))
And when it comes to savannah, there is always an African savannah with sun-scorched grass and rarely standing acacias, with strolling elephants and running zebras and antelopes. Something like that:

We looked at the savannah on the world map:

And they focused their attention on the African savannah (about the savannahs of other continents, I'm going to talk in more detail a little later). This typically African landscape occupies about 30% of the entire continent.
Senka and I have already talked about the savannah of Africa more than once, and he already knows many animals, but since we traveled here for a long time across the black continent (we walked through the Sahara, but we studied Ancient Egypt), we decided to continue our acquaintance with the types of forests on our planet according to this picture:

Start topic .
... and at the same time repeat the information already known to us + supplement the knowledge with new interesting facts.
For a long time I have not made books on the method of G. Doman and am sad for the time when my son read them avidly and absorbed interesting information, practicing reading skills at the same time; but I still continue to make some kind of reading materials with various pictures to make it more interesting to read, like this:

The sections "Savannah of Africa" ​​and "Jungles of Africa" ​​of such a "book" I post here in the post, so if someone decides to repeat the lesson, then you can copy, dilute your photos or make books according to the Doman method, choosing the basic information. Now we have mini-lessons, even more repetition, so I told little, Sena had to work more: read and answer questions.
Text from our book:
Savannahs of Africa are spaces entirely covered with tall grasses and free standing trees or their groups. In rainy seasons, the grasses grow rapidly and can reach a height of 2 - 3 m and more. The trees are covered with foliage at this time.

But as soon as the drought comes, the grasses burn out, some types of trees shed their foliage and the savannah takes on a yellow color. Yellow and black, because fires often occur here during dry periods.
The dry season lasts about six months here. During this time, showers only occasionally fall.

In drought, countless herds of antelope wander, making distant journeys to places where water can be found. And they are followed by predators - cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, jackals ...

When the rains begin, the dusty yellow-black edge turns into an emerald-green park with shady trees. The air misty from the smoke of fires and dust becomes transparent and clean. The first tropical showers after a drought are impressive. It is always hot and stuffy before it starts to rain. But then a big cloud appears. Thunder is heard. And then a downpour falls on the ground.

With the onset of the rainy season, antelopes return to their former pastures.
Grain savannah is most characterized by tall elephant grass,

and from the trees here you can find an oil tree and an oil palm, a ramp, and often you can also come across a baobab. On the river valleys stretch gallery forests with many palms, reminiscent of tropical rainforests.
Grass savannas are replaced by shrub or acacia savannas. The grass here is already less high, only 1-1.5 m, and the trees are mainly represented by several types of acacias with a dense umbrella-shaped crown.

There is also a baobab, which is also called a monkey or breadfruit.

Treelike acacias are found everywhere in Africa, except for mountainous and tropical rainforests. They may look like mighty trees almost twenty meters in height, and like a low shrub, but always acacias have feathery leaves, crooked thorns or long thorns and sweet-smelling flowers that attract bees. Thorns and thorns are a means of self-defense, although one of the acacia species has a more cunning way to stay intact and uneaten. At the base of each thorn, this acacia grows an egg-shaped swelling. It dries up, and a colony of small ants settles in it. As soon as some animal encroaches on young shoots of a plant, ants pour out of this growth and attack the alien.

There are more animals in the savannah than anywhere else on earth. Why? For millions of years, only rain forests have grown in tropical Africa. Then there were changes. The climate has become drier. Large tracts of rainforest disappeared, giving way to woodlands and open spaces covered with grass. Thus, new food sources were born. The "pioneers" moved to newborn Savannah. One of the first were the giraffes that left the jungle. Many antelopes also came here. For them, the savannah was paradise - so much food!
The fauna is simply amazing with its richness and diversity! In the savannah you can see zebras and ostriches grazing nearby. In the warm water of the lakes, in their mud "baths", hippos and rhinos bask. Lions are resting in the shade of spreading acacias. The largest animals on land, elephants, pluck branches with their trunks. And in the tops of the trees monkeys are screaming. And also a huge number of species of insects, snakes, birds ...
In the savannah, you can also see towering cone-shaped termite mounds.

We read about all the animals of the savannah:
- our homemade book (or rather, Senya read it himself), but unfortunately, I did not have a file with facts about animals;
- ,
- Kipling's books and another wonderful book "Funny Animal Stories" by T. Wolfe:

We listened to the enz. Chevostika "Animals of Africa" ​​and watched "Safari with Kuzey":

Finally, my son enjoyed watching all the episodes (some more than once)! I myself really liked this cartoon (or rather, the animated series), but before Seine was not interested, but now he just absorbed all the episodes.
For the repetition of animals used .
Then I wanted to get from a distant box a model of the savannah that no one needed, which we once made with my son ... From a heap of animal figurines, I asked my son to find the inhabitants of the savanna and populate our model:

The savannah, lifeless at the very beginning, became like this:

Something was beaten, even for the "riot of colors" they added a fabric - a lake:

They played up the situations of the watering place of animals.
But for a long time (as I already wrote) Senya will not sit with toys, so I immediately wanted to start a new topic))

Jungle

On the territory of Africa, there are not only deserts and savannas, there are also tropical rain forests. Why rainfall? Certainly! Because it rains very often there! There is another name for such forests - jungle, which means "impenetrable thickets".
We know that the largest jungle exists in the Amazon Basin (Amazon Rainforest) in South America. Remembered where the jungle still exists:

I hope we will talk about all the jungles of the planet, but for now we have analyzed African ones in more detail.
Text from our book:
The heart of Africa is not black at all, it is green. And this is the jungle ...

These forests are not at all like ours, where in summer the land is shaded by foliage and snow lies in winter. Rainforests are always hot, humid and dark. The forest is so dense that it is impossible to see something in the distance, everything is obscured by bushes, vines climbing the trees, fallen tree trunks overgrown with ferns and moss. Shrubs and small trees rise above these heaps, from which individual tree giants grow over time. The branches of the lower vegetation layer are so densely intertwined that the crowns of tall trees of the upper layer are not visible through them. And these trees are huge, they are crowned with lush crowns, and their trunks-columns rest below on board-like outgrowths on the roots, a kind of props. Each such trunk rises 40 m or more. And there, at a height of 40 meters, there is a completely different world. This is the engine of all jungle life. The leaves absorb the energy of the African sun and turn it into plant food. The great apes gorillas and chimpanzees, numerous monkeys and baboons live here.

The canopy of the forest is the world of extremes, the world of the scorching sun, sultry winds, and heavy torrential rains. Drought gives way to rain, the seasons differ sharply from each other. The jungle palette is changing. The green foliage is replaced by red, yellow, light green and orange. But this is not old, but new foliage. In the jungle, spring dresses up in fall colors.
The most coveted treat given in spring by the jungle is honey. But in order to get it, you need to climb to a forty-meter height using the branches of vines, and then still withstand the onslaught of bees.

In the spring, getting food in the forest is not an easy task, but later abundance sets in.
Figs bear fruit here all year round, so it is easier to observe wild animals near these trees.

Okapi is always careful and very shy, it is very difficult to meet him and, at the slightest danger, starts to flee.
The African elephant is not afraid of dense tropical vegetation. You can also see a leopard on the branches of the trees. The jungle is full of insects and snakes. But most of all, birds love rainforests, but it is not so easy to see them here. The feathered inhabitants of tropical forests are well camouflaged and, at the slightest danger, immediately hide in the foliage.

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