The rain forest canopy is home to an amazing diversity of animals and plants. In “Exploring the High Frontier” you watched them as they flew through the trees, captured prey, and escaped from predators. Many rain forest canopy inhabitants never descend to the ground at all. Their whole lives are spent in the “eighth continent,” a hundred feet (30 meters) or so above the ground.

Grades K-4

Playful Primates
You met many animals as you watched this film. Pick a favorite. Will you be a gibbon or a tree frog? An orangutan or a flying lizard? Make a paper bag mask of your animal’s face. Cut eyeholes so you can see. Then act out a play in which all the animals get together in the treetops.

Grades 4-8

How the Lizard Got its Frill
You have probably read fables such as “How the Leopard Got its Spots.” Choose an animal from the menagerie in “Exploring the High Frontier.” Write a fable to explain its adaptation to its environment. For example, you could write about how the flying snake came to leap from tree to tree, how the woolly opossum got its naked tail, or how the canopy mouse found out it could fall 50 feet (15 meters) without getting hurt.

Life List
Bird-watchers have a habit of writing down every species that they see. Use a field guide or encyclopedia of birds to find out about the species a bird-watcher could expect to add to his or her “life list” while visiting the rain forest. Create an illustrated guidebook.

Grades 9-12

Scientific Surprises
Using his humane traps, biologist Jay Malcolm discovered that the woolly opossum, once considered rare, is actually abundant in the rain forest canopy. Other scientists have found that the orangutan, once considered solitary, is not a loner at all when there is plenty of food to go around. If you were a wildlife biologist, what animals would you want to find out more about? How would you go about doing it? Imagine that you’re approaching a university or foundation for a research grant. Write the introduction to your proposal. What animals would you like to study? What do you hope to discover?