The Living Rainforest

Learning resources

mudskipper

Asian mudskipper

Fish out of water These fish are unusual as some species spend most of their time out of the water. Mudskippers are usually found in Mangroves and mudflats on the coast. They are a...

Rio the iguana

Green iguana

The green iguana is wide ranging and can be found from Mexico through to Central and South America. They are seen as invasive animals in southern Florida and Hawaii. They live in h...

orchid

Orchids

Thousands of species There are more than 25,000 documented orchid species throughout the world, with hundreds more being discovered each year. This means the number of orchid speci...

carpet python cropped 1

Carpet python

Carpet pythons are mainly found on mainland Australia. They live in a range of habitats, from rainforests to deserts. This species spends much of the day up in a tree but also come...

bromeliad

Bromeliads

Thousands of species Bromeliads originate from South and Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa. They grow in deserts, mountains and forests. The most well known bromeliad ...

Channel-billed Toucan - Edwin

Channel billed toucan

Channel billed toucans rarely fly more than 100 metres at a time and prefer to bounce from branch to branch. Keeping cool The channel billed toucan’s large bill helps to reg...

Yellow-knobbed curassow

Yellow-knobbed curassows live in the forests of Colombia and Venezuela in South America. They are often found near river valleys and water holes during the dry season, or in grassy...

Rosy periwinkle

This pretty plant from Madagascar gives us two very important cancer-fighting medicines: vinblastine and vincristine. Vincristine has helped increase the chance of surviving childh...

Giant taro

Giant taro has the largest un-split leaf in the world, reaching two metres long. The giant leaves are ideally adapted to absorbing the small amount of light that reaches the rainfo...

Philippines jade vine

The Philippines Jade Vine has some of the most extraordinary flowers of any plant. Enormous, metre-long spikes of brilliant turquoise blooms hang from the scrambling stems usually ...