The submerged Tropical Forest

Delve into the humid jungle with the sounds of teeming tropical fauna all around you, listen to beautiful tropical bird songs, discover piranhas and caymans and jump out of the water with the arawanas. In Guyana and the Amazon, explore flooded forests, right in the heart of it all! 

Deep into the rainforest

Tropical rainforest develops in the world’s inter-tropical regions around the equator. At these hot and humid latitudes, the forest is bursting with life. 

Old growth or primary forests only cover 2% of the Earth’s surface, but are home to more than half of all known plant and animal species! Of all natural environments, they are the richest in native biodiversity. Gigantic trees rise above the canopy to form a vaulted plant ceiling made from hundreds of different species per hectare, compared to the ten or so per hectare found in temperate regions. 

The rivers, streams, lakes and swamps of rainforests are the preferred stomping ground of mainly freshwater fish species as well as caymans. Most of the tropical fish in the aquariums come from tropical forests. Although mangrove trees are not native to rainforests, they provide a buffer between this kind of environment and the ocean. 

Today, logging, agriculture and animal farming threaten the survival of old growth forest, which plays an essential role in maintaining the planet’s global ecosystem.