(spoken)”Ah, the equatorial region.”

CHORUS
It’s the green belt on this blue ball
where it’s always warm, warm, warm, warm.
It’s where most life has evolved
and ice so rarely forms.

Long ago, the land mass separated
into the continents we know today.
That’s when the Andes elevated,
and all the rivers flowed the same way.

CHORUS

That’s how the basin of the Amazon came to be.
For 40 million years, it’s been wet.
Through the ice ages, there were islands of trees.
Those islands haven’t been dry yet.

CHORUS

And now all around the islands of the tropics,
so many kinds of corals grow
into the mighty reefs where so many fish mix.
It's a many species multicolored show.

CHORUS

Oh it’s the chorus,
the Rain Forest Chorus,
singing everywhere.

Frog croaks from his pool in the tree,
advertising his own availability.
He sings for a mate,
if he’s big or small,
with a big bassy croak
or a much higher call!
he’s singing

With a snake or an eagle, or a jaguar, too,
a sharp-eyed monkey knows just what to do.
She calls out to her family, her warning cry.
She’s caught those cagey hunters
with her sharp monkey’s eye.

CHORUS
Oh it’s the chorus,
the Rain Forest Chorus,
singing everywhere.
Oh it’s the chorus,
the Rain Forest Chorus,
voices in the air.
Everywhere,
on land, in the air,
and filling every tree.
Oh, it’s the chorus,
the Rain Forest Chorus,
singing constantly.

Water moving up those great big trees!
Water escaping from those great big leaves!
And the sun and heat will make it rise,
as it condenses in those cool blue skies.
then it rain, rain, rain, rain, rains.
Oh yes is rain, rain, rain, rains.

All the birds sing right before dawn,
claiming territory clear and strong.
Too light for the owl. Too dark for the hawk.
So the other birds feel safe to sing and squawk.
They’re singing.

CHORUS

On the limbs of trees,
on the trunk at every height,
in the canopy,
grow the epiphytes.
Roots hanging in the air,
leaves competing for the sun,
flowers blooming everywhere,
critters pollinate each one.

CHORUS
Nutrients supplied
by the dust blown on the wind.
Water rolling off of the bark,
epiphytes will soak it in.
Sprouting in the notches
of the limbs both long and short,
epiphytes use the tree only for support,
epiphytes use the tree only for support.

Epiphytes are plants,
growing in the trees
collecting pools of water,
for whole communities.
Birds, and butterflies,
spiders, frogs, and snakes
use the habitat epiphytes can make.

CHORUS

Squads of arthropods,
beautiful and odd,
everywhere we trod.
Squads of arthropods
on leaves and in dead logs.
Squads of arthropods,
food for birds and frogs.
Squads of arthropods.

Crustaceans, arachnids,
and all the insects too,
crawl and fly, multiply.
Name one after you and you
and you and you and you.

CHORUS

Pollinate, propagate,
many kinds of plants
decompose, giving those
plants more nutrients.
Pollinate, propagate,
many kinds of plants
decompose, giving those
plants more nutrients.

CHORUS

Millions of species,
most unknown and undiscovered,
in the canopy, on the ground undercover.
Beetles and termites,
spiders, ants, and scorpions,
active both day and night
all have exoskeletons.

Arthropods alive,
make the forest thrive.

Yo, I’m a flower,
here comes the bee;
she wants to get,
nectar from me.
My dusty pollen,
she will also carry,
it will stick to her body
because her body is hairy.
To the other flowers, that bee will go
with my pollen, which will quickly grow
into the middle of the flower,
then the flower makes seeds,
the seeds will sprout, into plants with leaves.

CHORUS

Plants have flowers,
flowers make seeds;
it’s the reproductive power
every plant needs.

Around the seed
fruit might grow
like an apple
or tomato.
Every fruit,
grew from a flower
on a stem,
using solar power.
Every leaf,
makes sugar from the sun.
It sweetens the nectar,
so the bees need some.
Then bees make honey;
food for the hive,
both the flowers and bees
work together to survive.

CHORUS

In the forest of rain,
there’s a tree with the name
same as it’s fruit, Brazil nut.
Fifteen or more
of those nuts are stored
inside a really tough husk.
Like cannonballs,
the husks will fall,
but no one calls “look out.”
On the ground they will stay,
because there is no way
critters can get those nuts out.

CHORUS
So goes the story of Brazil nut trees,
and how they survive with the agouti.
Brazil nuts are buried by agoutis.
If nuts are forgotten, they sprout into trees.

To get the job done, here is just one?
the rodent we call agouti.
With teeth they can trust,
they can gnaw through the husk
to get to the nuts, agouti.
When they get in the pod,
they eat like a slob.
But there’s always too many Brazil nuts.
So, they’ll bury the rest
and get on with their quest,
staying alive, agouti.

CHORUS

The tapir will come
looking for some
of the nuts the agouti has buried.
But tapirs know
the jaguar could show,
so the tapir stays wary.
Insects find what’s left behind
and eat the remains in a hurry.
From flower to seed, to each critter’s needs,
that’s the Brazil nut story.

CHORUS

watch them sprout into trees...

Brazil nut....LOOK OUT!