1. What is a forest? A Wisconsin forest.

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1 1. What is a forest? The forest biome About 420 million years ago, during the Silurian Period, ancient plants and arthropods began to occupy the land. Over the millions of years that followed, these land colonizers developed and adapted to their new habitat. The first forests were dominated by giant horsetails, club mosses, and ferns that stood up to 40 feet tall. A Wisconsin forest. Today, forests occupy approximately one-third of Earth's land area, account for over two-thirds of the leaf area of land plants, and contain about 70% of carbon present in living things. They have been held in reverence in folklore and worshipped in ancient religions. However, forests are becoming major casualties of civilization as human populations have increased over the past several thousand years, bringing deforestation, pollution, and industrial usage problems to this important biome. Source:

2 2. Tropical Forests Tropical forest Tropical forests are characterized by the greatest diversity of species. They occur near the equator, within the area bounded by latitudes 23.5 degrees N and 23.5 degrees S. One of the major characteristics of tropical forests is their distinct seasonality: winter is absent, and only two seasons are present (rainy and dry). The length of daylight is 12 hours and varies little. From left: Olympic Peninsula rain forest, Washington; Patria River, Costa Rica; Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar; Hawaiian forest. More than one half of tropical forests have already been destroyed. Source:

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5 Gorilla Mountain Gorilla Male silverback mountain gorillas gain their distinctive silver tinge at about 13 years old, when they reach adulthood. Photograph by Michael Nichols Map Mountain Gorilla Range

6 Audio Fast Facts Type: Mammal Diet: Omnivore Average life span in the wild: 35 years Size: Standing height, 4 to 6 ft (1.2 to 1.8 m) Weight: 300 to 485 lbs (135 to 220 kg) Group name: Troop or band Protection status: Endangered Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man: There are roughly 700 mountain gorillas remaining on Earth, and nearly half live in the forests of the Virunga mountains in central Africa. These gorillas live on the green, volcanic slopes of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo areas that have seen much human violence from which the gorillas have not escaped unscathed. Many conservation initiatives are meant to aid mountain gorillas, and it is believed that their numbers may be steady or slowly increasing. Still they continue to face major threats from habitat loss and poaching. Mountain gorillas have longer hair and shorter arms than their lowland cousins. They also tend to be a bit larger than other gorillas. Gorillas can climb trees, but are usually found on the ground in communities of up to 30 individuals. These troops are organized according to fascinating social structures. Troops are led by one dominant, older adult male, often called a silverback because of the swath of silver hair that adorns his otherwise dark fur. Troops also include several other young males, some females, and their offspring. The leader organizes troop activities like eating, nesting in leaves, and moving about the group's 0.75-to-16-square-mile (2-to-40-square-kilometer) home range.

7 Those who challenge this alpha male are apt to be cowed by impressive shows of physical power. He may stand upright, throw things, make aggressive charges, and pound his huge chest while barking out powerful hoots or unleashing a frightening roar. Despite these displays and the animals' obvious physical power, gorillas are generally calm and nonaggressive unless they are disturbed. In the thick forests of central and west Africa, troops find plentiful food for their vegetarian diet. They eat roots, shoots, fruit, wild celery, and tree bark and pulp. Female gorillas give birth to one infant after a pregnancy of nearly nine months. Unlike their powerful parents, newborns are tiny weighing four pounds (two kilograms) and able only to cling to their mothers' fur. These infants ride on their mothers' backs from the age of four months through the first two or three years of their lives. Young gorillas, from three to six years old, remind human observers of children. Much of their day is spent in play, climbing trees, chasing one another, and swinging from branches. In captivity, gorillas have displayed significant intelligence and have even learned simple human sign language. Source: Source:

8 The gorilla whisperer: The woman who s spent ten years with a family of gorillas in the jungle - and learnt to speak their language By Amanda Cable PUBLISHED: 16:30 EST, 30 March 2012 UPDATED: 16:30 EST, 30 March 2012 Angelique Todd believes in love at first sight. The very first time she saw Makumba, she could hardly catch her breath. Handsome and arrogant but brave and tender in equal measure, he was exactly what she had been looking for. Little wonder then that Angelique gave up a life of middle-class tranquillity in Tunbridge Wells to be by Makumba s side in the African jungle. Now, ten years on, she reads his moods with the ease of a devoted wife knowing at a glance just what he s thinking. And last week, when he was ill, she refused to leave him until he was better. It sounds like the companionship enjoyed by a typical married couple. Angelique Todd gave up a life of middle-class tranquillity in Tunbridge Wells to be in the African jungle But Makumba is a 31-stone silverback western lowland gorilla living in the Central African Republic rainforest, while Angelique is a slightly built 43- year-old blonde with a cut-glass English accent. She watches his every facial

9 expression and interprets his calls with a fluency that s earned her the nickname The Gorilla Whisperer. To say hello, he makes a belching sound, says Angelique. I greet Makumba with that sound, and he ll reply. There s a grumble that means yum when he s enjoying food, a soft bark if he s getting cross, a rah sound if he s really angry and a hoot if he doesn t know where his females have gone. Biologist Angelique first spotted Makumba and his troop back in November 2000 when she was working as a researcher for the World Wide Fund For Nature. Since then, she s spent more time with the gorilla family than with her own and now a new documentary, My Gorilla Family, shows her extraordinary work. Makumba is a 31-stone silverback gorilla living in the Central African Republic rainforest I ll never forget the first time I saw him, recalls Angelique. I walked into a clearing and stumbled upon the gorillas. Makumba was lying down snoring gently, while his eldest son Kunga was dancing and swinging just in front of us. A mother gorilla, Malui, poked her head through the bushes, carrying Makumba s baby daughter Mio, who stared at us with wide eyes. It was a scene of domestic bliss and I thought, This is paradise.

10 Angelique, who studied zoology at university, was supposed to be in the jungle for a short-term project. When I first arrived, I thought, Gosh, I ve got six whole months here. I was living in a hut with a hole in the ground for a toilet, elephants reaching in through the window, scorpions, cockroaches and centipedes. I never thought I d spend my 30s living here, she says. It s certainly not for the faint-hearted. Angelique has had malaria 25 times, dengue fever and had a botfly lay its eggs under her skin. Despite the hardships, she couldn t forget her one sighting of Makumba. She stayed on with WWF but didn t see him again properly for another two years. When she finally did, Makumba charged her in an attempt to scare her off. He would run up to me and fling his arms out wide at the last minute. It was scary, but I knew I mustn t run. The one time he got really angry was after he bumped his head on a branch. The trackers who were with me laughed and Makumba was furious. He sat down and sulked because male gorillas are incredibly proud. As he gradually came to recognise her, Angelique got to know Makumba s whole family. Apart from his eight offspring there are three mature females. Bombe, the most forceful, is known for her fiery temper, gentle Malui is Makumba s favourite, while Mopambi is bottom of the pile. Sitting silently, never closer than 10ft away, Angelique has witnessed all the love, loss, joy and grief the gorillas have experienced over the past decade. In 2006 one of the youngsters fell from a tree and died. He was about two years old and the gorillas were distraught. They gathered round the body and tried to poke it to get it to move. They stayed around the body for a day and a half. There are things I miss terribly about life back home. I miss bacon and cheese - here, my nearest supermarket is 300 miles away. Then last November Malui gave birth to her fourth baby but it was stillborn. She was devastated. She tried to clean her baby, and hugged it to her chest for a whole day. The other gorillas tried to play with it. Makumba, who normally stays away from births, slapped a tree in anger. I think he understood her misery. But experiencing the daily rollercoaster of Makumba s life has come at tremendous personal cost. Angelique s visits back to the UK have been rare, and throughout her 30s, at a time when other zoology graduates were getting married and starting families, Angelique remained alone in Africa. Then, in 2007, she began dating Nestor, 38, an administrative assistant for WWF, and their daughter Poppy is now just over two years old. Initially,

11 Angelique stayed in the rainforest. I thought I would strap the baby to my back and walk into the jungle, she says. But I became terrified at the thought of the poisonous scorpions near her. Then there were the wild elephants who would poke their trunks into our hut and steal whatever they could. I would lie in a cold sweat thinking, What if they grab the baby? She now lives with Poppy and Nestor in a village a mile outside the rainforest. I sometimes think she should have more children to play with, but if I moved back to England I d become bored so quickly. Angelique has never shown Makumba her own offspring. Human children carry germs and even a common cold can be fatal to a gorilla, she says. Makumba is around 32 years old, and male gorillas last around 35 years. I can t leave while he s still alive. Saying goodbye would be too painful. There are things I miss terribly about life back home. I miss bacon and cheese here, my nearest supermarket is 300 miles away. But hearing Makumba s grunt of hello in the mornings makes every sacrifice worthwhile. Click hère to see a short vidéo of gorillas in the wild there s an ad at the beginning : Click hère to see a short vidéo of gorillas eating figs there s an ad at the beginning : Source:

12 Source : US:official&biw=971&bih=556&tbm=isch&tbnid=wpQzNSEtAOvRZM:&imgrefurl= =ZWgL0XmbMdcn9M&imgurl= 5-ZLqdiQLA0vi6Aw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=163&dur=131&hovh=280&hovw=180&tx=65&ty=138&sig= &page=6&t bnh=172&tbnw=111&start=82&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:82,i:280