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50 Best Jungle Facts for Kids
Odds are, your kids may have seen movies or read short stories about jungles. If they are showing an interest, here are 50 best jungle facts for kids you can share to keep learning fun.
Do you see your kids involved in pretend play, pretending to be tigers, snakes, elephants or some other jungle-adjacent animal? Or, perhaps your kids love the move, The Jungle Book.
Jungles are not uncommon as the backdrop of childhood fantasy and imagination. Learning is made easier and more fun when it is centered around something we already love or are interested in. Learning about jungles is a great way to explore and discover more about the planet that we live on. Read on for information about jungles and jungle facts perfect for growing minds!
What is a Jungle?
A jungle is a type of land or area that has an extremely dense amount of vegetation. This dense forest of vegetation includes many trees and plants. This makes jungles almost impossible to travel through! The trees, vines, and other plants get all tangled together make it very difficult to move through unless you are a jungle animal yourself! A jungle looks very overgrown and is usually in an extremely warm part of the world with a lot of rainfall. The word jungle comes from a Sanskrit word, jaṅgala. It means “rough and arid”. Very fitting!
Best Jungle Facts for Kids
Here are 10 easy jungle facts for the younger kids to understand. They are the fun facts found in the Building Sentences Jungle Facts printable worksheets. As you scroll through the post, you will find more interesting facts about jungles and rainforests.
- Jungles have less trees than rainforests.
- Jungles usually surround rainforests.
- The weather in jungles is hot and humid.
- Jungles have a lot of trees, plants, and vines.
- It rains a lot in the jungles.
- Jungles are all over the world.
- Monkeys, elephants, and tigers live in a jungle.
- Jungles have swing vines called lianas.
- About 6% of Earth’s surface is jungles.
- There are four layers to a jungle.
Jungle Weather
Kids often ask, “What is the weather like in a jungle?”. Because they are found on the outside of rainforests, weather in the jungle is very similar to a rainforest.
Jungle weather can be extremely hot and humid. Some jungles may reach 90 degrees during the day. The average temperature in the rainforest is around 75 degrees during the day. Jungles can be slightly warmer than the rainforests they are near because of the sunlight they allow in.
Jungles and rainforests do not get too cold during the night. This is why they are able to grow so much vegetation! Jungles that are near to tropical rainforests will receive more rain and those that are close to temperate rainforests will get slightly less. Both are still pretty wet all around!
Animal Species in the Jungle
There are many different animals living in the jungles. Here, you will learn some of the most popular animals in the tropical climates of the jungles and rainforests. Did you know there are nearly 1300 species of birds in the jungle? You’ll find a couple of the bird species listed below.
- Bonobo – A close relative to the chimpanzee!
- Bongo – These large mammals are similar to antelopes!
- Chimpanzees – These live in the jungles of central and western Africa.
- Forest elephant – This is the smallest species of elephant!
- Gorilla – You can find these in a range of jungles and rainforests.
- Leopard – This animal can live in all sorts of environments – including jungles and rainforests.
- Hippopotamus – These large animals are semi-aquatic.
- Crested eagle – This bird species is found in Asia and loves hunting snakes.
- Dhole – This mammal is an endangered wild dog found in the jungles of Asia.
- Great Hornbill – This bird species is found in the jungles of Asia and Africa.
- Python – The world’s largest snake.
- Bengal tiger – Lions are often called the King of the Jungle, but they do not actually live in jungles or rainforests! That title goes to tigers.
- Poison dart frog – These dangerous tree frogs can be found on the forest floor as well as in the safety of trees.
- Ants – There are over 200 species of ants found in jungles and rainforests. They love the lush floors that jungles provide!
Tree and Plant Species that Grow in the Jungle
- Cacao- Chocolate grows in the rainforest and jungle!
- Giant water lily
- Coffee plants
- Rubber tree
- Bananas
- Acai palm tree
- Pitcher plant- This is a carnivorous plant!
- Kapok trees- This one grows to be 200 feet high!
- Mahogany tree
- Brazilian nut tree
- Lianas – A climbing vine!
- Lapacho – These are medicinal plants!
- Strangler figs – These are vines that grow around trees!
More Interesting Jungle Facts
- Over half of the world’s animal and plant species live in rainforests and jungles.
- Jungles are found all over the world.
- Jungles are usually found close to the equator.
- Bacteria and plants can grow very easily in the jungle.
- Jungles are warm places with lots of sunlight and rain – often found outside of rainforests.
- The largest flower in the world grows in the jungle!
- The tangled trees and vines of the jungle give many animals a place to hide from predators.
- If you combined all of the ants on the jungle floor, they would weigh more than all of the mammals put together!
- Around 6% of the earth’s surface is jungles and rainforests.
- Tropical rainforests have over 40,000 species of plants.
- One third of all bird species are found in the Amazon rainforest.
- Rainforests have a “dry season”. However, they still get rain during this part of the year!
Rainforests have been around for a very long time and there are multiple different types! They can be found on every single continent except for Antarctica. Tropical rainforests are found in Central America, South America, parts of Africa and Asia, and the island of New Guinea. These rainforests can get up to 400 inches of rain every year! The Amazon rainforest is a tropical rainforest. The Amazon adds about 1.2 billion acres (1,875,000 square miles) of rainforest to the world’s rainforests!
Temperate rainforests are found in coastal areas. These rainforests get up to 200 inches of rain a year. Southern Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, the United Kingdom, and the Pacific Northwest are a few areas you will find temperate rainforests and the jungles that are next to them!
What is the Difference between a Jungle and a Rainforest?
Because jungles and rainforests both have a lot of rain, they are often confused for one another! They are usually found very close to each other! The land around or surrounding a rainforest is often called a jungle. The word jungle is not actually a scientific word at all – its a descriptive word used to talk about the area often found outside of a rainforest. The word rainforest refers to a specific type of scientific ecosystem!
Rainforest and Jungle Vegetation
As mentioned before, jungles are an extremely dense forest of vegetation. Much of which is on the ground! The vines and plants on the jungle floor make it very difficult to move through. This thick vegetation is able to grow in the space because jungles are sunny and provide plenty of light for plants to grow on the ground. Rainforests on the other hand have many layers of trees and do not allow very much light in.
So, while jungle areas have plenty of action happening on the floor because of a large amount of sunlight, rainforests do not.
Rainforests have several different layers of trees and vegetation that are a key part of its ecosystem. The top layer of the rainforest is the emergent layer. The emergent layer is made up of the tallest trees, and can be up to 200 feet above the rainforest floor!
The next layer is the canopy layer. This is the main layer of the rain forest and what keeps sunlight from coming in. It is like a roof of trees.
Under the canopy layer is the understory layer. Very little sunlight reaches this area, so the plants here grow very large leaves to try and reach some light. Down at the bottom of the forest floor is where many of the animals live. It is very dark down there, and almost no plants are able to grow in this area. This is the opposite of jungles! Most growth happens on the forest floor in jungle areas.
Before you go, here are more fun facts for kids:
37 Fun Dinosaur Facts for Kids
