Wild jungle and its inhabitants. African jungle

longest neck

At the very beginning of our century, in the jungles of Africa, they found a "living fossil" okapi - relatives of the giraffe, which was considered extinct long ago. Okapi is no bigger than a donkey. And he has a short neck. And it eats, like a giraffe, grass and leaves. The common ancestor of the giraffe and the okapi was similar to a short-necked short man. But over time, some of these animals moved to the open expanses of the savannah, where it was possible to “graze” enough only on the tops of trees. Therefore, animals with a long neck survived. Gradually, the giraffe grew such a long neck that it became completely different from its distant ancestor. And the okapi remained a copy of his great-grandfather.

Gorillas are the largest great apes also live in Africa. The gorilla in the jungle has almost no enemies, except for people, of course. Most of the day, gorillas are on the ground, not in trees like other monkeys. Gorillas are vegetarians. They eat leaves, fruits, tree bark. But in zoos, gorillas very quickly get used to other foods, they begin to eat meat and fish, drink milk.

Cat relatives

Our domestic cat has 37 relatives. These are forest and reed cats, lynxes and manuls, servals and ocelots, snow leopards and leopards, jaguars and cougars, snow leopards, panthers and cheetahs, tigers, lions and other wild cats. Cats are the most dexterous predators. All wild cats hunt in approximately the same way: they sneak up on their prey, then freeze in anticipation. And having chosen a convenient moment, they overtake their victim with one throw. However, our domestic cat hunts mice in the same way as the African leopard hunts antelopes.

SAVANNA AND JUNGLE OF AFRICA

Many obviously remember the movie called The Serengeti Must Not Die. It was a film about the animal world of Africa, and it was shot by the world-famous scientist, naturalist writer from Germany, Bernhard Grzimek. He went around the screens of many countries of the world and was greeted with enthusiasm everywhere. The film captivated from the first minutes. A person, as it were, plunged into the atmosphere of the wild, pristine nature of Africa.

How we then dreamed of visiting this continent. With what interest they listened to those zoologists who were lucky enough to see the amazing fauna of the savannahs and jungles. Later, we still managed to make a trip to Africa.

AT LAKE MANYARA

The motley and colorful town of Arusha in Northern Tanzania attracts visitors with a bright, exotic bazaar, sun-drenched streets, a picturesque “river” of walkers and an abundance of bizarre ebony products, masks, drums in the windows of small shops.

But for us, Arusha is the "capital" of the famous national parks of Tanzania. It is from here that the path begins to the world-famous parks of the African continent - Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti.

Leaving our welcoming hotel in New Arusha after breakfast, we board a minibus and the highway takes us southwest. We pass small villages, agricultural lands, pastures with herds of cattle. Like statues, slender Maasai shepherds stand by the roadside, leaning on their spears, and follow our car with their eyes.

After a hundred kilometers, a giant natural "wall" appears on the horizon - a ledge of the Great African Rift, or Rift Valley.

A few million years ago, a fissure, bordered by active volcanoes, ran along the vast stretch of the African continent. Most of them have long gone out, but even now, not far from here, the Lengai volcano, which the locals call the "Mountain of God", does not sleep yet.

The rift fault in East Africa has two branches - western and eastern. We approach its eastern branch. Here it is formed by the sloping subsidence of the earth's crust, so there is only one wall that grows before our eyes as the road winding between the hills brings us closer to the overgrown thick green forest volcanic cliff.

Almost under the wall we drive into the small picturesque village of Mto-wa-Mbu (in Swahili - “mosquito stream”). A short walk through the village bazaar, filled with local products and utensils made from cane, cattail, bark and tree fruits, and continue on our way. Where the winding ascent of the road begins up to the ledge, we turn left and soon we find ourselves in front of the entrance to national park Manyara - on the threshold of a dense, tall forest.

Manyara National Park (Lake Manyara) was organized in 1960. It is small in area - 8550 hectares. It is located on the western shore of Lake Manyara, lying in a depression at the foot of a rift cliff. The territory of the park stretches in a narrow ribbon between the shore of the lake and the cliff.

Having examined a small museum at the entrance to the park, we hurry under the canopy of a dense forest, very reminiscent of a real tropical rainforest.

A mixed and different-sized forest stand is formed by sycamore, tamarind, sausage tree, palm trees. Dense undergrowth and herbage make the forest impenetrable. Unlike the rainforest, there are probably very few epiphytes on the trunks and branches of the trees.

To what does such a moist forest owe its appearance in this comparatively dry climate of the savannah zone? Undoubtedly, the fact that many streams and rivers run down from the volcanic lava slope, abundantly feeding the soil with moisture throughout the year. Soil conditions appear to be very similar to those found in tropical rainforests. But since the air in the dry season is poor in moisture, epiphytes fail to populate the trunks and branches of trees.

The first large animals that we notice immediately after entering the park are a family of baboons. They are clearly waiting for visitors, hoping for random handouts from the car window. But this is strictly prohibited, any attempt to feed an animal in national park punishable by a hefty fine. Animals in the national park must remain wild, otherwise there will be a zoo with semi-tamed animals. And yet, in relation to baboons, this rule, apparently, is sometimes violated, and now they patiently wait until the next “violator” is among the passing ones. True, baboons were the only animals that showed interest in us and tried to "get in touch." By the way, such communication, according to the guide accompanying us, is not safe. Seeing a man leaning out of the window with a gift in his hands, baboons often cling to their "benefactor" and can inflict serious wounds.

Order and organization reign in the herd of baboons. The male, the leader of the herd, - huge, fanged, with a lush mane - is a full owner and quickly puts in place any member of the herd who has shown disobedience. Baboons spend most of their time on the ground, wandering around the territory occupied by the herd, collecting food in the form of small invertebrates - insects and their larvae, spiders, mollusks. They also destroy the nests of birds, eating chicks, eggs, feast on fruits, leaves and roots of various plants. They climb trees during rest and night sleep, as well as for hanging fruits.

Looking at these monkeys, one can easily be convinced that in order to turn a monkey into a man, it is not at all enough for her to descend to earth.

In the depths of the tropical forest, among dense thickets, the dark backs of elephants are visible. They pull the branches of trees with their trunks and tear off the foliage, pinching and dragging the branch between the trunk and fangs. Near the road, in a small clearing, helmet-bearing guinea fowl graze - large chicken birds with bright spotty-blue plumage. On their heads they have a horny outgrowth in the form of an ancient Roman helmet.

High in the branches, fussily hiding, noticing the approaching car, black-faced monkeys. These graceful long-tailed monkeys, unlike baboons, spend most of their time in the trees.

The road crosses another river and approaches a cliff. From here it can be seen that the steep slope, almost inaccessible to humans, is covered with huge boulders, overgrown with dense thorny bushes. And only in some places, like lone giants, huge, thick-set baobabs rise.

But what is it? On such a seemingly impregnable slope, we notice ... a herd of elephants! They slowly climb up, pushing through thickets and bypassing huge boulders. It turns out that elephants can be skilled climbers.

Soon we again move away from the cliff and leave for an open place where streams flowing down the slope form a vast swamp overgrown with reeds and cattails.

Already from afar, on the outskirts of the swamp, we notice a black mass of obese bodies: several hundred buffalo are resting in the wet silt. Phlegmatic animals are busy chewing cud. Little egrets scurry about on their backs and in front of their noses, pecking at flies and other insects.

At our approach, several buffaloes rise to their feet, and a flock of herons soar into the air. But most of the herd continues to lie quietly, apparently, the animals understand that no one here will dare to disturb them.

The area is getting drier again. Before us opens a sparse forest of phoenix palms and yellow-bark acacia. Most of the palm trees look like green, lush bushes - the main trunk has not yet raised the crown above the ground. Yellow-bark acacias rise above them, stretching their branches high and giving a rarefied shade. This acacia is also called the "yellow fever tree": in the last century it was thought that it was a source of malaria. On one of the trees, at the very top, one can see a bulky nest of a white-backed vulture.

Groups of zebras graze in open areas. Flocks of graceful impala antelopes keep to bushes. Right next to the road, a couple of giraffes pull their long necks, pulling out acacia leaves.

A lone elephant grazes here - all this literally fits in one frame in the camera lens. Such an abundance and variety of animals is due to the richness of vegetation and a constant source of water. Not without reason, in the first half of this century, the coast of Lake Manyara attracted big game hunters.

You have to approach the elephant with caution - this is perhaps one of the few animals in Africa, in the presence of which you do not feel safe even in a car. A buffalo and a rhinoceros, attacking a car, can only slightly crush the body, and an elephant ... If this giant is angry, he can turn the car over and get to the passengers. The driver stops not far from the elephant, resting in the shade of an acacia, and prudently does not turn off the engine. As soon as the sleepy little eyes of the beast lit up with irritation and he took a few steps in our direction, the driver quickly turned on the speed, and we left the giant alone.

On the bank of the river, the guide drew our attention to the half-eaten corpse of a zebra. "There must be a leopard around somewhere," he said. And rightly so, in the fork of an acacia, four meters above the ground, we saw a magnificent spotted cat resting after a hearty breakfast. Noticing our approach, the leopard casually turned his head in our direction and turned away again.

Interrupting our delight from everything he saw, the guide promises to find the most unusual attraction of Lake Manyara Park - "lions hanging from trees."

After a few kilometers of the way, we find ourselves in a sparse tree-shrub savannah with graceful silhouettes of umbrella acacias along the entire horizon. This is where you need to look for "tree" lions. Soon we manage to notice a tree, on the branches of which yellow spots are visible from afar.

Riding closer, and then very close under the tree, we are surprised to look at a whole family of lions, who are resting in the lower part of the crown on thick horizontal branches, their paws hanging lifelessly on both sides of the branch, the animals are dozing, exhausted by the midday heat.

Closest to us is a large lioness. Its thick belly, stuffed with food, outweighs on one side, and its head hangs on the other.

Hearing the noise of the engine, she lazily opens one eye, points her round ears in our direction, but then again plunges into drowsiness.

Slightly higher are the young lions, whose spotted pattern on their thighs has not yet come off. They are two or three years old. And on the thinnest branch, a young lion cub was attached, all in spots - from ears to the tips of its paws. He can’t sleep, and he studies us with a gaze of straw-yellow eyes.

What makes these lords of the savanna climb trees? Perhaps, in the crowns of acacias, lions are saved from the heat of the day, since the surface layer of air warms up more strongly, and among the branches a breeze blows at least a little. In the bush during the day, tsetse flies and other bloodsuckers are more bothersome.

Probably, the abundance of elephants and buffaloes in this area makes the lions sleep in the trees, so as not to fall under the hooves of a disturbed herd of buffaloes or under the pillar-like legs of giants. Or do lions just climb trees because they like it?

During one day's route, we had to meet families of lions more than once. Their abundance in this park is easily explained by the variety and availability of food. There are plenty of buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests and other prey. It is estimated that the population density of lions in Lake Manyara National Park is quite high - three lions for every two square miles.

Having left for the shore of the lake, we observed the most diverse birds on the mudflats and shallow water surface: Nile geese, hammer-headed herons, pelicans, various waders. Only in the territory of the park 380 species of birds are registered - only half of our entire, domestic avifauna.

The way back lies through the same gate through which we entered the park. There is no through path. Further south, the cliff comes close to the lake. This is a great convenience for organizing the protection of the park.

Climbing the winding serpentine to the top of the cliff, we cast a "bird's eye" look at the lush forest thickets, green patches of swamps and a mosaic of shrub savannah. From here you can no longer see the animals. And only the imagination completes the wonderful pictures of untouched nature - down there, under the cliff, on the shores of Lake Manyara.

IN NGORONGORO CRATER

To the west of the Great Rift of Africa stretches a volcanic plateau, raised to a height of more than 2000 meters, with individual peaks up to 3000 meters above sea level.

Having risen to the plateau, we keep our way to the north-west, gradually rising higher and higher, through small villages, fields and pastures. The morning rays of the sun warm the red-brown soil that has cooled overnight. Ahead on the horizon - a continuous veil of clouds covering a steep wooded slope. We know that there, beyond the clouds, we will meet with a natural miracle - the Ngorongoro Crater.

The giant crater and its surroundings constitute a special reserve, allocated in 1959 from the Serengeti National Park. The peculiarity of the regime of this territory as a reserve is that several Masai villages have been preserved here. These nomadic pastoralists are, by agreement, allowed to live in a protected area that has historically belonged to them. The Masai do not hunt and thus do not cause direct damage to the local fauna.

The total area of ​​the Ngorongoro protected area is more than 828 thousand hectares and, in addition to the crater itself, covers vast expanses of the volcanic plateau with grassy savannahs in the east and large extinct volcanoes of Olmoti, Oldeani, Empakai in the west.

The eastern slopes of Ngorongoro are covered with dense and humid tropical forest. Even now, at the height of the dry season, the humidity remains high here, as the air brought from the east air masses, cooling during the night at this height, envelop the steep slope with a veil of white fog. In the morning, the boundary of the clouds surprisingly exactly coincides with the lower boundary of the humid mountain forest.

Having hardly plunged into the damp whiteness of the fog, we find ourselves in front of the entrance to the reserve. Shivering from the morning cold, we are met by security workers. They check our right to visit Ngorongoro, move the barrier aside and wave affably after us.

Looking back: how original is the architecture of the entry cordon! On both sides of the road there are, as it were, two halves of a log house sawn in half, connected by a barrier.

Soon the road rushes up, screwing into the fog in an intricate serpentine. The driver has to reduce speed to a minimum: each turn becomes visible only in front of the car's hood.

While climbing the wooded slope, the morning sun, along with the breeze, quickly disperses the night fog. It breaks into separate clouds that crawl along the slope, clinging to the tops of trees, hiding in hollows, but then break away from the ground and go up.

The forest, still saturated with night moisture, becomes visible - multi-tiered, with dense undergrowth, low large-leaved crotons, flat-topped thirty-meter albizia, slender mast-shaped cassipureas that raise thick hats of leaves on straight silvery trunks above the greenery of the bushes. Tree branches high above the ground are hung with picturesque patches of epiphytic mosses and bunches of orchids.

Closer to the crest of the crater, the mountain forest is increasingly interspersed with rich grassy lawns. On one of them, a dozen zebras and several domestic cows graze peacefully together. Directly above us, along the edge of the forest, a huge elephant slowly wanders. In a vast clearing below, about 40 buffaloes scattered along the slope, and several waterbucks keep close to them.

Finally, the serpentine brings us to the crest of the crater. Leaving the car, we freeze in amazement before the opened panorama. A giant bowl of the crater, slightly shrouded around the edges in morning mist, lies at our feet! A slope overgrown with dense shrubs breaks off steeply, deep below - a flat bottom of a greenish-gray color with several dark green spots of forest islands and a whitish surface of the lake. And into the distance, the wall of the crater goes in an arc along the horizon, and the opposite edge is barely visible in the grayish haze.

It is hard to imagine that this entire bowl with a diameter of about 20 kilometers and a depth of 600 meters was once the mouth of a fire-breathing volcano. However, this was the case five to seven million years ago, when the conical volcano Ngorongoro collapsed, forming a rounded caldera filled with flaming lava. As it gradually cooled, it formed the flat bottom of the Ngorongoro. And low hills on a horizontal plain remained witnesses of the last convulsions of a dying volcano.

Now, at the bottom of the giant crater, grassy savannahs, acacia forests stretch, streams run down the slopes, forming a shallow muddy lake. We are 2400 meters above sea level, and the bottom below us lies at an altitude of about 1800 meters. On the crest of the crater, a few steps from the road, there is a modest monument. This is a pyramid made of granite stones with the inscription: “Michael Grzimek. 12.4.1934-10.1.1959. He gave everything he had, even his life, to save the wild animals of Africa."

We stand in thought for a long time, remembering the tireless fighter for the protection of the nature of Africa, who loved this amazing continent so much.

To get down into the crater, we have to drive more than 25 kilometers along the ridge, change from a comfortable minibus to a clumsy but powerful two-axle Land Rover, and only then move down a steep rocky serpentine.

The dry slope, strewn with large boulders, is overgrown with thorny bushes and picturesque candelabra spurges, outwardly resembling giant Mexican cacti. The dark green branches of milkweeds, armed with powerful spines, curve upwards in an arcuate manner, and their ends are decorated with pink inflorescences.

As soon as the Land Rover, having overcome the rocky descent, leaves for an open grassy plain, we find ourselves among the grazing wildebeest, zebras, Thompson's gazelles. Some wildebeests of 20–50 heads wander in a chain across the steppe, accompanied by zebras, others stand still, carefully looking at us. Some animals rest by lying on the grass. A hyena slowly wanders through the herd of wildebeest, but then it stops to take a dust bath. Among the tall grass, a bustard is hiding, stretching its neck and watching our approach. Between the legs of the antelope, a pair of piebald lapwings scurries restlessly. Apparently, their masonry is nearby, and it is necessary to protect it from hooves.

In the distance to the right, squat Maasai huts are visible, surrounded by a fence of thorny branches of shrubs. Several young warriors in dark red tunics, armed with long spears, drive the herd out to pasture. There are Maasai settlements inside the crater. And although the Maasai do not hunt wild animals, but their livestock creates some competition for herbivorous ungulates in the use of pastures. The increase in the number of livestock among the Maasai causes new problems in maintaining the natural balance.

Having approached the shore of the lake, we suddenly find here, in shallow water, thousands of flocks of bright pink flamingos. Mixed flocks are formed by two types of flamingos - large and small. They differ in color intensity: the small flamingo is noticeably brighter. Separate groups of birds now and then fly from place to place, and in flight the pink color is effectively set off by the blackness of flight feathers.

Several black-backed jackals roam the shallows in search of food. We have already gathered to sympathize with these miserable creatures, hunting for the remnants of someone else's dinner, as we suddenly became witnesses of their active hunting.

Here is one of them at a shallow jog, gradually, in an arc, approaching a flock of flamingos, looking in the opposite direction from the flock with accentuated indifference. And suddenly, having already found itself several tens of meters away, the jackal turned sharply and rushed headlong through the shallow water right at the feeding birds. The frightened flamingos took off clumsily, but the jackal jumped high, already in the air grabbed one of the flying birds and fell to the ground with it.

His fellow tribesmen rushed to the lucky hunter and after a few minutes tore the bird to pieces. The hyena arrived in time, too, managed to grab a tasty morsel from the jackal feast.

Driving around the shore of the lake, we found ourselves in a swampy lowland formed at the confluence of the Munge River. Among the thickets of marsh vegetation, small lakes sparkle, where ducks swim and crowned cranes gracefully pace. Here, in the reeds, a couple of sacred ibises roam, and on the neighboring stretch - three dozen Nile geese and several coots. An old lion with a luxurious black mane is resting on the river bank. Coming closer, we notice that the black mane is dotted with light brown dots - these are hordes of tsetse flies annoying the mighty beast.

After the swampy lowlands we again leave for the open dry savannah, and we are even more amazed by the abundance of ungulates. A huge herd of wildebeest in the distance moves in a huge ribbon, and the wind raises a plume of dust from under the hooves high into the sky. How many of them are there in this gigantic "Noah's Ark"? According to repeated calculations from the plane, at the bottom of the crater, on an area of ​​​​about 264 square kilometers, about 14 thousand wildebeest, about 5,000 zebras and 3,000 Thompson antelopes live. The total number of large ungulates in the crater is about 22 thousand.

In the open savannah, obese dark gray rhinos are visible from afar. A couple of rhinoceroses quietly graze, not paying any attention to the approaching car. But a single male quickly becomes irritated and, having run up, rushes towards us with a clatter. However, not having reached a few meters, he heavily slows down, and, having ridiculously lifted up his little tail, embarrassedly runs back. A little further in the grass, a female rhinoceros lies on her side and feeds her cub with milk, which has only a small blunt bump instead of a horn. In total, about 100 rhinos live permanently in the crater, according to records. Not all of them stay on the open plain, many prefer to graze in the bushes of the lower part of the slopes.

Again we are approaching the shore of the lake, but from the other side. In the swampy mouth of the river, like huge smoothly wrapped boulders, hippos lie - about two dozen hippos. Occasionally, one or the other raises his head, opening his pink mouth with powerful fangs.

If you watch hippos only during the day, when they rest in the water, then you won’t think that these clumsy giants swollen with fat go out to graze meadows and forests at night. About 40 hippos live in the crater, and this population is isolated from the nearest other by tens of kilometers of mountainous and waterless terrain.

In a small cliff of the lake terrace, the hole of the hole darkens, and near it a happy family of hyenas is located in the sun: a father, a mother and five already grown puppies. When danger appears, round-eared fat puppies hide in a hole, and their parents run off to the side, watching us warily. Strange as it may seem, hyenas are the most active and influential predators in the Ngorongoro Crater. They hunt wildebeest and zebras in groups of up to 30 individuals, driving the victim with stubborn pursuit. Such hunts are arranged at night, and during the day visitors see them only resting, lying in the shade or climbing up to their necks into the water.

If in the Ngorongoro Crater we see how lions feast on a bitten zebra or wildebeest, and hyenas roam around waiting for their turn, then this should not be explained according to the “classical” scheme. In fact, the hyenas, in a persistent night hunt, got their food, and then the lions unceremoniously drove the hyenas away from their prey. They will have to wait until the lions are fed.

The territory of the crater is clearly divided between several packs, or clans, of hyenas. Each clan has several holes in its hunting territory for resting, sleeping and for rearing puppies. According to the accounts that Dr. Hans Kruuk conducted in the crater, about 370 hyenas live here. It is these animals that collect the largest "tribute" among the Ngorongoro ungulates - after all, the number of other predators is much lower: there are about 50 lions in the crater, about 20 wild dogs, cheetahs and leopards less than 10 individuals of each species. As for the three species of jackals, which are generally more numerous here than hyenas, they, unlike the latter, are actually scavengers and rarely attack live prey. We were lucky to see an unusual scene of jackals hunting flamingos.

Completing the circular route along the bottom of the crater, we drive up to the Lerai forest. The main stand is formed by yellow-bark acacia, and under the umbrella-shaped crowns of trees - juicy damp and swampy meadows fed by streams that run down the eastern slope of the crater.

In that woodland find shelter many forest and moisture-loving animals. Knee-deep in marsh vegetation, an elephant stands on the edge of the forest, having managed to descend here along the steep slope of the crater. Three little egrets rest on its back. A flock of baboons gathers food in a forest clearing, and black-faced monkeys fumble among the branches. Several swamp goats stand like statues in an emerald green meadow.

From the crowns of trees pours the continuous chirping of brilliant starlings. Their bright metallic blue plumage sparkles in the midday sun.

Kites are circling over the clearing, long-tailed widows are flying in thickets of bushes. On the edge of the swamp, jabiru storks hunt down their prey, and crowned cranes roam among the herd of wildebeest.

Right behind the forest of Lerai, serpentines leading out of the crater begin. Each of the two serpentines "works" only in one direction: one for the descent, the other for the ascent. When driving a heavy Land Rover on a narrow, rocky, winding road along the edge of a cliff, the need for one-way traffic becomes clear: oncoming cars cannot pass here.

The administration of the reserve does not consider it necessary to improve and widen the roads leading to the crater. Now they serve as a valve, holding back the influx of visitors. The number of daily excursions to the crater is already close to the maximum allowable. Let the projects of “tourism businessmen” on the construction of an airfield and a multi-storey hotel at the bottom of the crater remain in the past. What would be left of the diversity of living nature that we observe and admire? It is necessary to maintain the natural balance of all components of this biocenosis so that the giant Noah's Ark can sail safely into the future.

From the middle of the ascent, we look back, down, into the spacious bowl of the crater, swaying in the hot midday haze. Now we can easily recognize herds of wildebeest in black dots, and flocks of flamingos in pink petals scattered across the lake.

We leave the unique crater, and life in it continues to flow in its complex ways, life, ever-changing and unchanging in its constancy.

ON THE SERENGETI PLAINS

Early in the morning we leave the crest of the Ngorongoro Crater, taking a last look at its gigantic bowl, still shrouded in a light mist. Through the gaps in the clouds one can see the flat bottom of the crater with islands of forest and a shallow lake, bordered by a white stripe of salty mud flats. From here you can not see any strings of wildebeest and zebras, or colorful flocks of flamingos on the lake, or majestic lions and sullen rhinos. However, all these amazing meetings in the crater are still so fresh in our memory!

Ahead of us is an acquaintance with the unique wildlife of the Serengeti National Park - a true pearl in the necklace of African national parks. There, on the endless plains, more than a million large ungulates graze. Thousands of predators find their food among their herds. Such gigantic aggregations of wild animals cannot be seen anywhere else in Africa and throughout the world.

The country road runs down the volcanic highlands, crosses several channels of dry drains framed by sparse acacias, and leads us through the dry short-grass savannah. Not far away is the famous Olduvai Gorge, where Dr. L. Leakey discovered the remains of the most ancient man, the Zind Jatrop.

After several tens of kilometers, we find ourselves at the entrance to the park. Near the road, more and more often come across small groups of graceful Thompson's gazelles and their larger relatives - Grant's gazelles. A single ostrich runs away from the road.

But then we drive up to the house, where the park security checks the documents for the right to visit it and supplies us with maps and guidebooks.

In the protected area, an increase in the number of antelopes is immediately noticeable: grazing in groups of five to ten individuals, they are visible everywhere, and at times there are also large herds - up to a hundred heads each. But we know that during the dry season, the main concentrations of ungulates migrated to the northern areas of the park with more lush vegetation, and the main thing is still ahead of us.

A flat plain with a horizon as smooth as a ruler unexpectedly diversifies with bizarre granite remnants. Rounded boulders, framed by green patches of bushes, rise to several tens of meters, like the heads of giant sleeping knights.

On one of the trees nestled close to the remnants, skilfully woven nests of weavers are visible. From the bare surface of the granite warmed by the sun, a red-blue agama escapes into a crevice, and on top of another granite block, a rocky hyrax, a distant relative of elephants, has taken up a guard position, in appearance and manners resembling rather an enlarged pika or a small marmot.

At the foot of the monolith we notice a couple of graceful dik-diks - small bushy antelopes. In places, the yellow vegetation of the low-grass savannah is replaced by black spots of old burns, where green sprouts are already breaking through the dusty ash, waiting for new rains to spread out in an emerald carpet to feed the hundred thousand herds when they return here in a couple of months.

By noon we drive into the small picturesque village of Seronera. This is the administrative center of the Serengeti National Park, located at an altitude of 1525 meters above sea level. Here, among the acacias at the foot of the granite remnants, there are the National Park Authority, a small museum, the Seronera Lodge Hotel, the Safari Camp and residential houses for park employees. Nearby are the buildings of the Serengeti Research Institute and the laboratory named after Michael Grzimek. During a short stop for lunch, we have time to see several grazing buffaloes, a lone giraffe, small groups of Thompson's gazelles, antelope, congoni and topi in the immediate vicinity of the houses. Starlings chirp in the crowns of acacias - already red-bellied, with a blue-green metallic tint of the head and back. Tree hyraxes deftly run along the branches of trees, the red-headed woodpecker is busily hammering the bark of the trunk.

From Seronera we head north, to the border with Kenya, where the final point of our today's route is located - the Lobo Hotel. At first, the road runs along the river valley, where a dense gallery forest borders the riverbed with a dense wall. Yellow-bark acacias are interspersed with phoenix palms and shrubbery. On one of the acacias, we suddenly see a leopard lying quietly among the branches. Noticing that we have stopped right under the tree, the spotted cat gets up, stretches and deftly runs down the vertical trunk straight to the car. Everyone involuntarily screws up the windows, but the leopard hurries past the car and in a moment disappears into the thick riverside thickets.

Having crossed the shallow branches of the river, we find ourselves in a tall-grass tree-shrub savannah with sparse groves of umbrella acacias. In one of the groves, a family of lions rests in the shade - such a group is usually called a "pride". All predators are exhausted by the midday heat and sleep, lounging in the most picturesque poses.

In the center of the group is a huge black-maned male, five lionesses and a dozen cubs of different ages doze around. Some cubs suckle their mothers, others play lazily with each other or with the parent's tail. And in the distance, about two hundred meters, another adult male is resting, which, apparently, is not allowed closer by the black-maned owner of the pride.

Here and there, brownish-red mounds are scattered across the savannah - above-ground constructions of termites. Some of them reach two meters or more in height and have the shape of bizarre towers - you can find their inhabitants in such termite mounds. Others are dilapidated, in the form of oval mounds, already uninhabited. They are gradually leveled off to the ground.

On one of the dilapidated termite mounds, an elegant cheetah sits like an Egyptian sphinx. His posture is tense, and the gaze of strict and slightly sad eyes is riveted to a group of gazelles grazing not far away. Here he is descending from the observation post and jogging at a light springy trot in the direction of the herd.

Noticing the approach of the enemy, the gazelles scatter in a skip, and the cheetah increases speed, trying to chase the nearest animal. However, the gazelle easily moves away from the cheetah, keeping a safe distance. After a hundred meters, the chase tires the cheetah, in the sun it quickly runs out of steam and goes back to a soft and tireless trot.

We drive up to the cheetah, but he does not seem to notice the car moving after him. A short stop for shooting - and then suddenly a predator runs up to a standing car, a light jump - and he is on the hood of a car! A meter behind the glass - just reach out - a graceful lean cat with a dry, almost dog-like head. Our eyes meet. And if in our eyes there is surprise and admiration, then his eyes express only calmness, bordering on indifference. He is full of self-respect. Black stripes running from the eyes to the corners of the mouth give the animal a slightly sad expression. But now the regal "courtesy visit" is over, and the cheetah again heads to his favorite termite mound.

Further north, the path lies through hilly terrain. In some places, thickets of acacias and shrubs become dense, but then again they are replaced by open glades. The herbage is high, and only near you can see a single bustard or a brood of guinea fowl. But there are so many large ungulates that it is simply impossible to count them on the go. Increasingly, wildebeest herds of at least several hundred heads come across. Well-fed striped zebras graze with them or at a distance in groups numbering dozens of individuals. In open places there are herds of Thompson's gazelles, and among the bushes there are groups of graceful lyre-horned impala gazelles.

In addition to these in the full sense of the "background" species, small groups of topi and kongoni are periodically found. Silhouettes of giraffes loom among the umbrella acacias. And Cairo buffaloes peacefully graze in dense thickets.

Here it is, pristine Africa with a fantastic abundance of ungulates! Wherever a glance is enough, everywhere among the hills overgrown with rare groves - herds, herds: black wildebeest, striped zebras, brown swamps, dark golden gazelles with black stripes. It seems incredible that so many animals could live together and in such abundance.

Every now and then a few wildebeests, with their bearded heads bowed and their tails up, run across the road in front of the car itself. And along the road jump impalas. Easily, as if effortlessly, they soar into the air and seem to freeze for a moment at the highest point of the jump. With a sonorous gallop, throwing up a thick striped croup, a zebra jumps in front of the radiator.

It may seem that the life of ungulates is serene here. But it's not. They face many dangers. Among the thickets we notice a lone lioness, cautiously creeping up to the grazing antelopes. A couple of black-backed jackals are trotting somewhere in an open area. In the distance, two cheetahs are busy hunting for gazelles. And how many predators we do not see! They rest somewhere in the shade and wait for nightfall to go hunting.

The abundance of carrion birds confirms that in the savannah you can find plenty of the remains of someone's meal. Vultures and vultures soar in the sky or sit on the tops of acacias. And here is a group of feasting birds near the remains of a zebra eaten by a lion.

After driving about 100 kilometers literally through countless herds of ungulates, we are approaching the Lobo Hotel on the northern outskirts of the national park. Low mountains appear on the horizon to the right, and the valley of the Mara River and its tributaries stretches ahead and to the left. In the thickets near the river we notice four huge dark silhouettes - these are grazing elephants, the largest attraction in the northern part of the park.

We drive up to a group of gray granite rocks. The road dives into a narrow crevice between two huge boulders. Suddenly, inside a natural courtyard framed by rocks, a three-story building of the Lobo Hotel appears in front of us. Skillful architects superbly inscribed a light structure with open verandas and galleries into the bizarre contours of the rocks. From the side of the road, the hotel is almost invisible - it is all hidden by blocks of granite. And even a swimming pool was built right in one of the blocks using its natural recesses. One side of the building fills a gap between the rocks and overlooks the untouched savannah, although there is no way out.

Herds of animals can only be admired from the balconies. The first floor is not inhabited, there are only service premises. The only way out of the hotel is to the courtyard between the rocks, and from there drive out by car through a narrow crevice.

We soon realize that such strictness is not dictated by a whim: in the daytime buffalo and antelope grazed near the hotel, and at nightfall, champing and the measured clatter of hooves were heard right under the windows.

We were already going to bed when we suddenly heard the thunderous growl of a lion, from which the windows rattled. A mighty beast stood in the darkness somewhere nearby. Drowsiness vanished as if by hand. With relief, I thought that our windows were not on the ground floor. In the patches of half-light, which moved the darkness a few tens of meters away from the hotel, we tried to distinguish in the dark moving silhouettes of the royal guest and his sacrificial animals.

The area of ​​the Serengeti National Park is 1295 thousand hectares. It is the largest national park in Tanzania and one of the largest in Africa. Its territory stretches from the border with Kenya in the north to Lake Eyasi in the south, and from the Olduvai Gorge in the east to Lake Victoria in the west.

Africans have known from time immemorial this vast, game-rich mountain plateau with its mild, comparatively cool climate. Here people of the Ndorobo tribe hunted, the Ikoma tribe was engaged in primitive agriculture, in recent centuries the Masai penetrated here even more often with their herds. But all these tribes have not yet violated the great harmony of nature.

Only at the end of the 19th century these places were discovered by Europeans. In 1892, the German traveler Oscar Bauman passed through the Serengeti plateau with his detachment. His path lay past Lake Manyara, through the Ngorongoro Crater - the "eighth wonder of the world" and further to the shores of Lake Victoria. It seemed that nothing could hit him after he first saw and crossed the giant crater. However, the abundance of game in the Serengeti made a lasting impression on the explorer.

In less than two decades, big game hunters, organized in hunting expeditions - safaris, rushed here. Lions, which in those days were considered dangerous pests, were subjected to special persecution. At the beginning of the century, safaris consisted of foot parties with porters and pack animals. The era of car safaris in these places was opened by the American L. Simpson, who in 1920 reached the Seronera in a Ford car. Looking at how tired drivers and passengers are now arriving in Seronera along a quite decent country road in modern comfortable cars, one can imagine the complexity of that first car safari.

Already by the thirties it became clear that further uncontrolled extermination would quickly lead to the disappearance of large animals. Therefore, in 1937, a game reserve was organized in the Serengeti, and in 1951 the Serengeti plains were declared a national park.

Over the next two decades, the boundaries of the park changed several times. So, at first, the northern regions near the border with Kenya were not part of the park, but the park included the Ngorongoro Crater and the short-grass savannas surrounding it. However, in 1959, the eastern part of the park, along with the crater, was "cut off" from the national park, and in return the northern regions were annexed, which united the Serengeti with the Mara reserve in Kenya.

An outstanding role in the study of the Serengeti was played by Professor Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael. They investigated the migration routes of ungulates using aerial surveys and animal tagging. The researchers showed that the boundaries of the park are insufficient for the complete protection of herds of nomadic animals. Herds of ungulates spend a significant part of their time outside the modern boundaries of the park, leaving during the rainy season to the short-grass savannas of the eastern part, and during the dry season, wandering northwest of the protected areas. Our readers are familiar with the history of research by father and son Grzhimekov in the national park from their fascinating book The Serengeti Must Not Die.

Unfortunately, at the very end of the joint work, son Michael died in a plane crash during another exploratory flight over the Serengeti plains. He was buried on the very crest of the Ngorongoro Crater. A significant amount of money was collected for the construction of a monument to the young researcher, but my father chose to invest these funds in the creation of the Michael Grzimek Memorial Research Laboratory, on the basis of which a large scientific institution has now grown - the Serengeti International Research Institute, where dozens of scientists from various countries of the world. This is truly the best monument to the heroic scientist. A wonderful book and a magnificent full-length color film with the same name, created by father and son Grzimek, went around the world and drew everyone's attention to the fate of the world-famous Serengeti Park. In the last decade, the number of large animals was repeatedly taken into account and it was found that their number has been increasing for several years, which creates new problems for the protection of landscapes and natural balance.

As for the boundaries of the park, its territory was somewhat enlarged in the northwestern part. The right bank of the Grumet River was attached to the park, which expanded the "western corridor", and forest thickets in the Mara River Valley on the border with Kenya, as a result of which the herds that come to the Mara Valley during the dry season were protected. How many large animals now live in the vast territory of the park, on an area of ​​​​about 13 thousand square kilometers? According to the latest estimates, about half a million Thompson and Grant's gazelles, 350 thousand wildebeest, 180 zebras, 43 buffaloes, 40 swamps, 20 kongoni, 15 cannes, 7 giraffes, more than 2 elephants, 2 - hyenas, 1 thousand lions, 500 hippos and the same number of leopards, 200 rhinoceros and hyena dogs each - a total of more than one and a half million large animals! The bulk of the animals - primarily wildebeest and zebras - make annual migrations through the territory of the national park and beyond. At the height of the dry season, in July - August, we found giant concentrations of ungulates in the northern and northwestern parts of the park. Here, even during the dry period, they find permanent watering places in the valleys of the Mara and Grumeti rivers, which flow into Lake Victoria. When the rainy season begins in November and the first short showers irrigate the withered savannah in the north of the park, herds of wildebeest and zebras begin to migrate to the south and southeast.

Every day the rain front moves further south, and with it endless lines of herds move south. In December, when the low-grass savannas between the Seronera and the Olduvai Gorge are covered with fresh greenery, thousands of herds of wildebeest and zebras come there.

On these green pastures, calving takes place, so that newborns are provided, in addition to mother's milk, with fresh young grass.

Before leaving in late May - early June, the dry plains of the eastern Serengeti, which have become inhospitable, herds of wildebeest are experiencing a mating season. At this time, the males become aggressive towards each other, each of them captures and guards an area of ​​the savannah, trying to keep as many females as possible on it - their temporary harem, which breaks up with the start of migration.

A fantastic sight opens up to the visitor of the park during the period of mass migration. Up to the horizon, endless ribbons of black wildebeest are visible, wandering one after another with bearded heads downcast. Here and there, motley inclusions are visible - these are the accompanying groups of zebras. Something mighty and inevitable seems to be in this universal movement. And after the herds of ungulates, their inevitable companions - lions, cheetahs, hyenas and hyena dogs - also migrate. Like strict shepherds, they select sick, wounded and decrepit animals from the herd. And woe to the lagging behind and weakened - predators immediately rush to him. Thus, cruel but creative natural selection dominates the path of the great migration.

And when the herds have already disappeared beyond the horizon, deep furrows remain on the surface of the savanna - paths pierced by the hooves of thousands and thousands of animals. For many months, until the next rainy season, these "wrinkles of the earth" will remain, clearly visible from the window of a low-flying aircraft.

ROUNDING SMOKE

Early December morning we fly from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, to the small town of Victoria Falls. It is located in the northwest of the country, closer to the border with Zambia.

December in the Southern Hemisphere is the first month of summer. Dry, not very hot, somewhere under 30 degrees. In the capital of Zimbabwe, located approximately at the height of Kislovodsk, the air in December is the same as in the North Caucasus or in the Crimea in August: dry, smelling of dust.

The town of Victoria Falls is the main tourist center of the country. It is located on the banks of the famous Zambezi River - one of the largest on the African continent. Every year it is visited by thousands of tourists from all over the world. There is a national park here. But the main attraction of these places is the Victoria Falls. In tourist brochures, it is called the eighth wonder of the world.

The stewardess warns us we're flying into Victoria Falls. One should not miss the happy opportunity to look at the waterfall from the air. Here is a town immersed in greenery, a wide ribbon of Zambezi. Yes, and a waterfall.

From a height it is clearly seen that the river falls into a narrow opening that has arisen in its path. Above the canyon hangs a giant snow-white cloud of water vapor.

From the book Notes of a Soviet War Correspondent author Solovyov Mikhail

From the book Notes of a Weary Romantic author Zadornov Mikhail Nikolaevich

Signs of Savannah I was struck by the sight of my guide. In a completely lifeless savannah for me, he noticed some animals almost at the horizon. And we went to them in a jeep. However, after a couple of days, I also began to guess something. And even a couple of times surprised his guide. Not

From the book of Magellan author Kunin Konstantin Ilyich

Around Africa "... if I die abroad or on this armada, on which I am now sailing to India ... let them perform funeral rites for me, as for an ordinary sailor ..." From the testament of Fernando Magellan dated December 17, 1504. Never before departed from Lisbon like this

From the book Sting. Secrets of Gordon Sumner's Life author Clarkson Winsley

Jungle Earth is a large, wild, uncleaned, but luxurious greenhouse, created by nature for itself. Charles Darwin, 1836 The Amazon River is second only to the Nile in length, but is the first in terms of the volume of water carried and the size of the zone irrigated by it. All its tributaries flow along a huge

From the book Child of the Jungle [ Real events] the author Kugler Sabina

The jungle is calling Full of enthusiasm and joyful anticipation, we plunged into the familiar life of the jungle. But very soon we could no longer turn a blind eye to the obvious fact: our house was falling apart. Father had already fallen under the floorboards twice, the boards breaking under his weight. Besides

From the book of Brem author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

Deep into Africa On September 27, 1847, Brehm and Müller, in the company of clergymen, boarded a large sailing boat. The Nile journey has begun. From the diary: Water-cooling jugs

From the book Life. Cinema author

From the book Remember, you can not forget author Kolosova Marianna

LETTERS FROM AFRICA Did the winds howl for this, And the fires raged, So that we would experience so much severe pain? Trains sped us off into the distance, Not to see native roofs. Healing sadness Sighs slower and quieter... Weekdays...little things...care... Life was hard to come by. Good that

From the book of Miklukho-Maclay. Two lives of the "white Papuan" author Tumarkin Daniil Davidovich

The second expedition to the jungles of Malacca Miklouho-Maclay began his second journey through the Malacca Peninsula in a difficult political situation. British residents and their assistants in the conquered sultanates of Perak, Selangor and the Negrisembilan federation gradually took all

From the book Hitler's Favorite. Russian campaign through the eyes of an SS general author Degrelle Leon

Jungles and mountains The October offensive of 1942 on the Caucasian front was long in coming. It began in an unhealthy atmosphere. In August, the High Command decided to attack this massif on two flanks: from the southeast along the Terek River in the direction

From the book "Flaming Motors" by Arkhip Lyulka author Kuzmina Lidia

In southern Africa In the middle of 1995, the Sukhoi Design Bureau concluded an agreement with the Air Force of the Republic of South Africa on the display of Su-35 aircraft with AL engines at their air show. Together with pilots A. Kharchevsky - head of the Lipetsk training center, V. Pugachev, E. Frolov, specialists of the Design Bureau

From the book The Last River. Twenty years in the wilds of Colombia the author Dahl Georg

The edge of the savannah The raft is moored with a liana rope to the top of a fallen tree sticking out of the water - a mighty ceiba. The river undermined the edge on which the giant stood. During a heavy rainstorm several years ago, the shore collapsed and mercilessly threw a tree into a swollen, raging

From the book Life. Cinema author Melnikov Vitaly Vyacheslavovich

Caspian jungle After the death of Eisenstein, something subtly changed in VGIK. It seems to me that the starting point has disappeared. Previously, when faced with something incomprehensible, requiring a clear attitude or assessment, we involuntarily asked ourselves, how would we look at it?

From the book Gumilyov without gloss author Fokin Pavel Evgenievich

“Discovery” of Africa Anna Andreevna Gumileva: The poet wrote to his father about his dream to live at least for a short time “between the shores of the lush Red Sea and the Sudanese mysterious forest”, but the father categorically stated that neither money nor his blessing for such (at that time)

From the book In the Wilds of Africa author Stanley Henry Morton

IN THE WISDOM OF AFRICA

From the book Stalin's Daughter author Sullivan Rosemary

CHAPTER 29 The Modern Jungle of Freedom Luckily for Svetlana, in the winter of 1981 her friend Rosa Shand moved her family back to New York. Svetlana soon came to them, as she was eager to introduce Olga to Rosa again. She told Rosa that she wanted to take her daughter to

What is jungle? It would seem that there should be no difficulty in answering this question. “Who does not know this,” you say. “Jungles are impenetrable forests in hot countries, where there are many wild monkeys and tigers angrily waving their long tails.” But everything is not so 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 a little-known English writer at that time, Rudyard Kipling.

Many of you know this writer very well, having 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, are well aware of the main character of these books. 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 distribution map of the jungle and other tropical forests 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 Tarzan, another hero of popular books and films, Mowgli really grew up in the jungle. “But how so! - you will exclaim. - Tarzan also lived in the jungle. We ourselves saw both in the pictures and in the movies bright tropical flowers and colorful birds, tall trees intertwined with lianas. And crocodiles and hippos! Where do they live, isn't it in the jungle?"

Alas, I will have to upset you, but neither in Africa, where the incredible adventures of Tarzan and his friends took place, nor in South America, not even in hot New Guinea, "teeming with bounty hunters", there is no jungle and never has been.

Has Kipling deceived us? In no case! This magnificent writer, the pride of English literature, was born in India and knew it well. It is in this country that dense tree and shrub thickets intertwined with lianas with bamboo groves and areas covered with tall grasses are called “jangal” or “jungle” in Hindi, which in Russian turned into a more convenient “jungle” for us. However, such thickets are characteristic only of the South and South-East Asia(mainly for the Hindustan and Indochina peninsulas).

But the popularity of Kipling's books was so great, and the word "jungle" so beautiful and unusual, that even many well-educated people (of course, except for specialists - botanists and geographers) began to call any impenetrable forests and shrubs that way. Therefore, we are going to tell you a lot 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 has affected not only the word "jungle": in English, all the forests of hot countries, including the jungle, are usually called tropical rain forests (tropical rain forest), not paying attention to the fact that they are mostly not located in tropical, and in the equatorial, subequatorial and even partially in the subtropical belts.

Most of us are familiar with temperate forests and their characteristics. We know which trees are found in coniferous and which ones in deciduous forests, we have a good idea of ​​how the herbs and shrubs growing there look like. It would seem that “a forest is also a forest in Africa,” but if you were in the equatorial forest of the Congo or Indonesia, in the rainforests of America or in the Indian jungle, you would see a lot of unusual and amazing things.
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 studying them. The secrets of the jungle have always attracted the inquisitive; probably, 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 would have as many nicknames (sometimes even contradictory in meaning) as these forests have names. Equatorial forests, tropical rainforests, hylaea*, selva, jungle (however, you already know that this name is erroneous) and, finally, the term that you can find in school or scientific atlases is constantly wet (equatorial) forests.

* HYLEIAN FOREST, HYLEA (Greek hyle - forest) - a tropical forest mainly in the Amazon basin (South America). The hylaean forest is the concentration of the most ancient flora of the Earth. There is no drought in the Hylaean Forests and there are practically no seasonal temperature changes. Hylaean forests are characterized by multi-layered, incredible variety of plants (only woody about 4 thousand species), an abundance of lianas, epiphytes. Numerous valuable species of trees grow in the hylaean forests, such as cocoa, hevea rubber, bananas. In a broad sense, hylaea is called equatorial forests South America, Central Africa and the islands of Oceania (editor's note).

Even the great English scientist Alfred Wallace, who in many respects anticipated the main provisions of the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin, being a biologist, did not particularly 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, when talking about 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 of 23 ° 2T with. sh. and yu. sh. These parallels themselves were also often called the tropics: 23 ° 27 "N - the Tropic of Cancer, and 23 ° 27" S. sh. - Tropic of Capricorn.

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

Forests, not much different from modern rainforests, appeared on our planet about 150 million years ago. True, then they had much more coniferous trees, 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 decrease 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, the pollen and spores of most plants are perfectly preserved for thousands and even millions of years. From 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, on the Malay Archipelago, which Wallace explored 150 years ago, and on some islands of 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 (more recently it was Zaire).

To help you develop a detailed understanding of this type of forest, we will describe their climate, waters and vegetation in sequence.
Constantly humid (equatorial) forests are confined to the equatorial climatic zone. The equatorial climate is depressingly monotonous. This is where truly "in winter and summer - 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 the snowfalls.” Or: “Something the anticyclone has stagnated, the heat will intensify, and you won’t get rain.” This does not happen at the equator - there all year round hot and humid equatorial air masses dominate, never giving way to colder or drier air. Average summer and winter temperatures differ there by no more than 2-3 ° C, and the daily allowances 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 is only about 2000 mm per year (in other places on the globe they can be more than 24,000 mm per year).

But the "day without rain" in the equatorial latitudes is a practically unknown phenomenon. Local residents absolutely do not need weather forecasts: they already know what the weather will be like tomorrow. All year round, every morning the sky is cloudless here. By mid-afternoon, clouds begin to gather, invariably breaking into the infamous "afternoon showers." A strong wind rises, from powerful clouds, to the accompaniment of deafening thunder, streams of water fall on 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 shine brightly, the air becomes a little cooler, fog accumulates in the lowlands. The air humidity here is also constant - you always feel as if on a hot summer day you found yourself in a greenhouse.

Jungle Peru

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

Three-fifths of the territory of Peru, its eastern part (selva), is occupied by an endless humid equatorial forest. In the vast selva, two main areas 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 the Selva, the second, the northern, low-lying, adjacent to the Amazon. The foothill areas of the High Selva (or, as it is sometimes called, La Montagna), with better drainage conditions, are more favorable for the development of land for tropical crops and livestock. The Ucayali and Madre de Dios river valleys with their tributaries are especially favorable for development.

The abundance of moisture and uniform heat throughout the year contribute to the growth of lush vegetation in the selva. species composition Peruvian selva (more than 20 thousand species) is very rich, especially in non-flooded areas. It is clear that in the selva live primarily animals leading an arboreal lifestyle (monkeys, sloths, etc.). There are a huge number of birds here. There are relatively few predators, and some of them (jaguar, ocelot, jaguarundi) climb trees well. The main prey of the jaguar and puma is the tapir, wild peccary pigs and the capybara capybara, the world's largest rodent. The ancient Incas called the area of ​​the selva "Omagua", which means "a place where fish are found."
Indeed, in the Amazon itself and its tributaries there are more than a thousand species of fish. Among them is a huge pancha (arapayma), reaching 3.5 m in length and more than 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 (locally yakumama). A lot of insects. It is not for nothing that they say that at least one insect sits under each flower in the selva.
The rivers are called "highways of the rainforest". Even the "forest" Indians avoid going far from the river valleys.
Such roads must be periodically cut through with a machete, getting rid of fast-growing vines, otherwise they overgrow (one of the photos in the group's album shows a picture where Indians armed with machetes are just busy cleaning the road).
In addition to the rivers in the selva, the Varadero paths laid in the forest are used for movement, leading from one river to another through the forest. The economic importance of the rivers is also great. Along the Marañon, ships rise to the rapids of Pongo Manserice, and the port and main economic center of the selva of Iquitos, located 3672 km from the mouth of the Amazon, receives large ships. Pucallpa, on Ucayali, is the second largest river port, yes, and the cities themselves in the jungle of Peru.

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

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

What is the selva for a European spoiled by civilization? "green hell" ... At first, bewitching, and then able to drive you crazy ...

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

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

Jacek Palkiewicz, Andrzej Kaplanek. "In Search of the Golden Eldorado":
"... Someone said that a person in a wild forest experiences two joyful minutes. The first - when he realizes that his dreams have come true and he has entered the world of untouched nature, and the second - 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 through the jungle of a 17-year-old girl, when everything ended well ( www.4ygeca.com ):

"... Approximately half an hour after the departure of the Lance airline flight from Lima, the capital of Peru, to the city of Pucallpa (Department of Loreto), which is half a thousand kilometers northeast of the capital, a strong chatter began. So strong that the stewardess strongly recommended to passengers In general, nothing special happened: air pockets in the tropics are a common occurrence, and the passengers of a small airliner descending remained calm. , 17-year-old Juliana Koepke was sitting next to her mother, looking out the window and looking forward to the joy of meeting her father in Pucallpa. Outside the plane, despite the daytime, it was quite dark - because of the hanging clouds. Suddenly, lightning flashed very close and at the same time a deafening roar.A moment later, the lightning went out, but the darkness did not come again - there was an orange light: it was as a result of a direct lightning strike that their plane burned. A scream arose in the cabin, an utter panic began. But they were not allowed to last long: fuel tanks exploded, and the liner shattered into pieces. Juliana did not have time to be properly frightened, as she found herself in the “embraces” of cold air and felt: together with the chair, she was rapidly falling. And feelings left her...

The day before Christmas, that is, on December 23, 1971, the people who met the liner from Lima at the Pucallpa airport did not wait for him. Among those who met was the biologist Koepke. AT Eventually, excited people were sadly informed that, apparently, the plane had crashed. Searches were immediately launched, they included the military, rescue teams, oil companies, enthusiasts. The route of the liner was known very accurately, but days passed, and searches in the tropical wilds did not give a result: what could remain of the plane and its passengers disappeared without a trace. In Peru, they began to get used to the idea that the mystery of this plane crash would never be revealed. And in the first days of January, sensational news spread around Peru: in the selva of the department of Huanuco, the passenger of that very dead aircraft of the Lance airline, Juliana Koepke, came out to people - that's what she called herself. Surviving after falling from a bird's eye view, the girl wandered alone in the selva for 10 days. It was an incredible, double miracle! Let's leave the answer to the first miracle for the last and talk about the second one - how a 17-year-old girl, dressed in only one light dress, managed to hold out in the selva without a whole whole 10 days. Juliana Koepke woke up hanging from a tree. The chair to which she was fastened, which was one piece with a huge duralumin sheet from an airliner, caught on the bough of a tall tree. It was still raining, it was pouring like a bucket. A storm roared, thunder roared, lightning flashed in the darkness, and sparkling in their light with myriads of lights scattered in the wet foliage of trees, the forest retreated back so that in the next moment it would embrace the girl with a frightening impenetrable dark bulk. Soon the rain stopped, and a solemn watchful silence reigned in the selva. Juliana was scared. Without closing her eyes, she hung on a tree until the morning.
It was already noticeably brighter when the cacophonous choir of howler monkeys greeted the beginning of a new day in 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 Koepke - the only one of all the people who were in the crashed plane - remained alive. Alive, although not unharmed: she had a cracked collarbone, a painful bump on her head, and an extensive abrasion on her thigh. The selva was not completely alien to the girl: for two years she actually lived in it - at a biological station near Pucallpa, where her parents worked as researchers. They inspired their daughters not to be afraid of the jungle, taught them to navigate in them, to find food. They enlightened their daughter on the recognition of 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 very useful for the girl - thanks to her, she defeated death. And Juliana Koepke, taking a stick in her hand to scare away snakes and spiders, went to look for a river in the selva. Each step was given with great difficulty - both because of the density of the forest and because of injuries. The creepers were dotted with bright fruits, but the traveler well remembered her father's words that in the jungle everything beautiful, attractive in appearance - fruits, flowers, butterflies - is poisonous. About two hours later, Juliana heard the indistinct murmur of water and soon came 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 from pain - the wound on her leg began to fester: it was the flies that laid their testicles under the skin. The traveler's strength was fading. More than once she heard the rumble of helicopters, but, of course, she had no opportunity to draw their attention to herself. One day she suddenly found herself in a sunny clearing. The selva and the river brightened, the sand on the shore hurt 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. Like a stung Cap, she jumped to her feet and retreated from this lovely terrible place - after all, there were, undoubtedly, guardians of crocodiles - adult crocodiles.

The wanderer had less and less strength left, and the river wound endlessly through the boundless selva. The girl wanted to die - she was almost morally broken. And suddenly - on the 10th day of wandering - Juliana stumbled upon 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 burst of energy she felt! Somehow the sufferer dragged herself to the hut and collapsed exhausted in front of the door. How long she lay there, she does not remember. Woke up in the rain. 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 did not sleep that night. She listened to the sounds: if people were coming to her, although she knew that she was waiting in vain - no one walks in the selva at night. Then the girl still fell asleep.

In the morning she felt better and began to think about what to do. Someone had to come to the hut sooner or later - it had a completely lived-in appearance. 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 Koepke'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, having previously picked out the worms from them, fed her and forced her to sleep. The next day she was taken to the Pucallpa 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 has been known for a long time, but only to the inhabitants 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 a height of 870 meters. Prior to the "discovery" of Yumbilla, the third highest waterfall in the world was Gosta (Gocta). It is also located in Peru, in the province of Chachapoyas (Chachapoyas), and, according to ING, falls from a height of 771 meters. However, this figure is questioned by many scientists.

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

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

Ecologists in Peru discovered an unknown Indian tribe while flying through the Amazon region in a helicopter in search of poachers cutting down the forest, writes BBC News.

A group of 21 Indian 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 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 found other huts along the river. They are a nomadic group, he stresses, noting that the government has no plans to search for the tribe again. Communication with other people can be fatal for an isolated tribe, since they do not have immunity against many diseases, including common viral respiratory infections. So, most of the Murunahua tribe (Murunahua), which came into contact with lumberjacks in the mid-90s of the last century, died out.

The contact was fleeting, but the consequences will be considerable, as this stretch of the Amazon region, which is 550 miles (760 km) west of Lima, is the center of the struggle of Indian rights groups and environmentalists against poachers and oil companies operating here. exploration. The steady advance of the lumberjacks is forcing isolated groups, among them the Mashko-Piro and Yora tribes, to go deeper into the jungle, moving towards the borders with Brazil and Bolivia.

According to the 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-Piro build temporary dwellings along riverbanks during the dry season, when fishing is easier, and return to the jungle during the rainy season. Some of the Mashko-Piro, who number about 600 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. About 1,500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies grow on an area of ​​6.5 square meters.

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

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

***
Facts about the possible dangers that threaten the rainforests, local residents and living creatures living in the tropics:

1. In 1500 AD 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, a piece of rainforest equal in size to a football field disappears from the face of the Earth. So, 86,400 “football fields” disappear per day, and more than 31 million a year.

Brazil and Peru will develop joint projects for the production of biofuels. (18.0.2008):

Brazil and Peru have agreed on joint projects to increase the production of biofuels, hydroelectric power and petrochemicals, the Associated Press reports, citing a statement by 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 Lima, the capital of Peru. As part of one of them, the Peruvian state oil company Petroperu and the Brazilian Petroleo Brasileiro SA agreed to build an oil refinery with a production capacity of 700 million tons of polyethylene per year in northern Peru.
Brazil is the world's largest supplier of biofuel - ethanol.

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

Amazon is the best long river in the world. This was announced by the Brazilian National Center for Space Research (INPE).

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

Then the researchers reached the source of the Amazon, located in the Peruvian Andes, at an altitude of 5 thousand meters. They solved one of the greatest geographic mysteries by 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 of 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 most full-flowing river, but in terms of length it has always been considered the second after the Nile (Egypt).

Photographer and zoologist Axel Gomil has been exploring India for the past 25 years. There is a tropical coastline, and the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas, and the Thar Desert, and rainforests in the northeast of the country. Such diverse landscapes provide incredible biodiversity.
For example, out of 37 species of wild cats, 14 live in India, which is more than in any other country. For comparison: only ten cats live on the entire African continent.

Jungle. An image often arises in the head of an impassable, overgrown and hostile place where light barely penetrates. In fact, the jungle is the most "hot spots" of biodiversity.


The jungles of India are home to some of the rarest and most exotic animal species, and none of them symbolize Indian wildlife better than the tiger.
The tiger is considered the king of the jungle and the most powerful predator in the Indian subcontinent. Today there are about 50 reserves with total area more than 70,000 square kilometers where tigers live. Such major conservation projects for tigers and their habitats have also benefited other jungle species.
Tigers love to relax in the shade during a hot day. Like all cats, they are always wary of environment. And judging by her face, she recently had breakfast. The rest of the jungle inhabitants can relax for now - the next hunt will begin at night ...


In the jungle, even squirrels are the size of a domestic cat. This is an Indian giant squirrel, it lives in the upper tier of the forest and rarely leaves the trees. Squirrels jump from tree to tree, overcoming about 6 meters. In danger, these squirrels do not run away, but seem to “hang” and nestle against tree trunks. The main enemies are birds of prey and leopards.


Water is life, especially in such a hot climate. Not surprisingly, the wetlands are like magnets for wild animals that come here to get drunk or find coolness.
It's very big variety residents. Local hosts sitting at the top of the food chain are crocodiles. In India, the swamp crocodile is the most common species.
These are spotted deer. Birds are calm, they know that herbivores are not dangerous.


Gray pelicans. These birds live mainly in shallow lakes.


The Thar Desert dominates the northwest of India. It is a very dry area with sand dunes. The distribution of precipitation is uneven, with most of it occurring between July and September. Precipitation falls towards the west. In the most arid regions, precipitation may be absent for up to 2 years.
The appearance of this sloth bear is so peculiar that it has received the nickname "sloth bear". Gubach is very different in appearance and way of life from real bears and is isolated in a separate genus. The sloth bear, like the anteater, has evolved to feed on colonial insects (ants and termites)


A female leopard at the entrance to a cave in a remote area of ​​Rajasthan that she uses as a safe haven for her family.


Cranes are defenseless against predators. The most they can do is fly away quickly.


Kicks well.


And we are moving to the mountains. Some of the most impressive and diverse animal habitats in India are found in the north. This is the realm of the magnificent and ghostly snow leopard others need to be on the lookout.


Big cats have a hard time. People capture everything and capture their original habitats. Food is getting tight. Leopards are forced to visit villages and find easy prey - goats, poultry and even dogs.


Ranthambore National Park is located in the state of Rajasthan and is considered the best tiger reserve.


Life is hard for tigers these days. Over the past century, their number in wild nature seriously decreased from about 100,000 to 3900, half of them live just in India ...

"Savannas" is a Portuguese word; it means "steppe with trees". Savannah is also called light forest. I kind of prefer the second option.
And when it comes to the savannah, the African savannah always appears with grass scorched from the sun and rarely standing acacias, with elephants walking and running zebras and antelopes. Something like that:

We looked at the savannas on the world map:

And they focused their attention on the African savannah (I'm going to talk more about the savannas of other continents 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 on the black continent for a long time (we walked around the Sahara, and studied Ancient Egypt), we decided to continue our acquaintance with the types of forests of our planet according to this picture:

Topic start .
... and at the same time repeat the information already known to us + supplement knowledge with new interesting facts.
I have not made books according to the method of G. Doman for a long time and I 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 reading materials with various pictures to make it more interesting to read, like this:

The sections "Savannah of Africa" ​​and "Jungle of Africa" ​​of such a "book" I post here in the post, so if someone decides to repeat the lesson, you can copy it by diluting it with your photos or make books using the Doman method by selecting the basic information. Now we get mini-classes, even more repetition, so I didn’t tell much, Sena had to work more: read and answer questions.
Text from our book:
African savannahs are spaces completely covered with tall grasses and separately standing trees or their groups. In rainy seasons, the grasses grow rapidly and can reach a height of 2-3 m or more. Trees are leafing out at this time.

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

In drought, countless herds of antelopes roam, making long journeys to those places where water can be found. And they are followed by predators - cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, jackals...

When it starts to rain, the dusty yellow-black edge turns into an emerald green park with shady trees. Hazy from the smoke of fires and dust, the air becomes transparent and clean. The first tropical downpours after a drought are impressive. It's always hot and stuffy before it starts to rain. But then a big cloud appears. Thunder rumbles are heard. And then the rain hits the ground.

With the onset of the rainy season, antelopes return to their former pastures.
For grass savannas, tall elephant grass is most characteristic,

and among the trees there are the oil tree and the oil palm, the ramp, and often the baobab comes across. Along the river valleys stretch gallery forests with many palm trees, reminiscent of tropical rainforests.
Cereal savannas are replaced by shrub or acacia savannas. The grass here is already of a lower height, only 1-1.5 m, and the trees are mainly represented by several types of acacias with a dense crown in the form of umbrellas.

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

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

There are more animals in the savannas than anywhere else on earth. Why? For millions of years, only rainforests have grown in tropical Africa. Then there were changes. The climate has become drier. Large tracts of rainforest have disappeared, giving way to light forest and open spaces covered with grass. Thus, new food sources were born. "Pioneers" moved into the newborn Savannah. Giraffes were among the first to leave the jungle. Many antelopes also came here. For them, the savannah was heaven - so much food!
The animal world 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 rest in the shade of sprawling acacias. The largest animals on land, elephants, pluck branches with their trunks. And in the crowns of the trees monkeys scream. And a huge number of species of insects, snakes, birds ...
In the savanna, you can also see towering cone-shaped termite mounds.

About all the animals of the savannah we read:
- our self-made book (or rather, Senya read it himself), but unfortunately, I did not have a file with facts about animals;
- ,
- books by Kipling and another wonderful book "Funny stories about animals" by T. Wolfe:

Listened to entz. Chevostika "Animals of Africa" ​​and watched "Safari with Kuzey":

Finally, the son enjoyed watching all the series (some more than once)! I myself really liked this cartoon (or rather, the animated series), but before Sena was not interested, but now he just absorbed all the series.
Animals were used to repeat .
Then I wanted to get out of a distant box an already useless savanna layout that my son and I once made ... From a pile of animal figurines, I asked my son to find the inhabitants of the savannah and populate our layout:

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

They beat something, even for the "riot of colors" they added a fabric - a lake:

They played situations of watering 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

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

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

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

The forest canopy is a world of extremes, a world of scorching sun, hot winds, heavy rains. The drought is replaced by rains, the seasons differ sharply from each other. The jungle palette is changing. 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 autumn colors.
The most desirable delicacy that the jungle gives in the spring 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, foraging in the forest is not an easy task, but later comes abundance.
The figs here bear fruit all year round, so it is easier to observe wild animals near these trees.

Okapi is always cautious and very shy, it is very difficult to meet him and, at the slightest danger, takes flight.
The African elephant is not afraid of dense tropical vegetation. On the branches of trees you can also meet a leopard. There are many insects and snakes in the jungle. But most of all, birds love tropical forests, but it’s not so easy to see them here. The feathered inhabitants of tropical forests are well camouflaged and, at the slightest danger, they immediately hide in the foliage.

We liked this video: