Vacation Assignment (Cloud Forests)

 Forests of Clouds and Mist

  You’ve probably heard of rainforests, but do you know what a cloud forest is? Cloud forests are evergreen forests that are often covered in clouds or mist and are located on mountains. Cool temperatures on mountain slopes create clouds that cover the trees. There are cloud forests on most continents. Central and South America have them, as do Asia and Africa. You can also find cloud forests in Hawaii and on Caribbean islands. 

Cloud forests have different names, depending on where they are found. Cloud forests are also known as fog forests or mossy forests. In Peru and Bolivia, cloud forests are part of a larger ecosystem called yungas, which means “warm lands.”

 Many scientists consider cloud forests to be a special type of rainforest. Cloud forests are not as warm as tropical rainforests because they are found at higher elevations that have colder air. But cloud forests and tropical rainforests both have many different plants and animals living within their ecosystems.

Like tropical rainforests, cloud forest trees drip with moisture, but it does not often rain in a cloud forest. Instead, the fog collects as dew on leaves, vines, and branches. This dew provides the water that the plants need. Green moss and exotic, colorful orchid flowers hang down from the canopy. Other plants and bushes crowd between the trees, and hundreds of insects crawl and fly amid the vegetation. Cloud forests are as diverse and interesting as rainforests or temperate forests.

 Cloud forests have animals that aren’t found anywhere else, such as mountain gorillas and a strange woolly mammal called the mountain tapir. The colorful quetzal bird is also found there, and golden toads hop among the bushes. Recently, scientists discovered a new cloud forest animal, a black and brown rodent that looks like a cross between a squirrel and a rat. Cloud forests probably contain hundreds of other rare and fascinating plants and animals that people have never seen before.

1. What are cloud forests?

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2. What helps to create clouds?

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3. What other names are given to cloud forests?

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4. What is responsible for the temperature difference between rainforests and cloud forests?

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5. How do the plants in cloud forests receive water?

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6. What part of speech is “vegetation”?

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7. What does “diverse” mean?

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8. What does the word “rare” tell us about the plants and animals found in the cloud forest?

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