A growing number of tours let
visitors explore the elevated ecosystem of the rain forest canopy, a
luxuriant and little-known realm that is home for most of the jungle's
plant and animal species. It has only been in the last two decades that
biologists have begun to seriously study the canopy, using such varied
devices as mountain climbing equipment and construction cranes, and
tourists now have the opportunity to follow them into that biological
frontier.
Those opportunities range from a
ride on a modified ski lift that takes passengers floating through the
tree tops to platforms set in the crowns of massive tropical trees, more
than 100 feet above the jungle floor. All those tours offer a
monkey's-eye view of the rain forest canopy, where thick branches serve
as platforms for an incredible diversity of smaller plants, and such
animals as tree frogs, vine snakes, sloths and hundreds of bird species.
Adventurous travelers may want to try one of the more rustic canopy
tours, which entail strapping on a mountain climbing harness and pulling
yourself along suspended cables to a series of small wooden platforms
built in the tops of trees. Several private biological reserves also
have platforms in the canopies of large trees that people are simply
hoisted, or hoist themselves, up to. One private reserve even has a
small hotel room built in the top of a tree, for those who want to spend
a night in the canopy.
A growing number of tours let
visitors explore the elevated ecosystem of the rain forest canopy, a
luxuriant and little-known realm that is home for most of the jungle's
plant and animal species. It has only been in the last two decades that
biologists have begun to seriously study the canopy, using such varied
devices as mountain climbing equipment and construction cranes, and
tourists now have the opportunity to follow them into that biological
frontier.
Those opportunities range from a
ride on a modified ski lift that takes passengers floating through the
tree tops to platforms set in the crowns of massive tropical trees, more
than 100 feet above the jungle floor. All those tours offer a
monkey's-eye view of the rain forest canopy, where thick branches serve
as platforms for an incredible diversity of smaller plants, and such
animals as tree frogs, vine snakes, sloths and hundreds of bird species.