Rain Forest Relay

by Kristin Earhart

  And that’s where the red team was headed—into the trees. They quickly found the starting point to the course. There, the workers, wearing matching Course-in-the-Canopy shirts, handed them equipment.

  “How do we know these will hold us?” Mari asked as they all stepped into woven nylon harnesses. Russell noticed her hands shaking.

  “The harnesses are strong,” answered Sage. “And carabiners—these steel loops—can hold hundreds of pounds. We just have to make sure they are locked when we attach them to the ropes.”

  Mari glanced up warily. Nearly one hundred feet above them, steel ropes stretched from tree to tree like telephone wires.

  “Don’t worry,” Sage said, her voice surprisingly warm. “We’ll double-check for you. We’ll look out for each other.”

  Sage was first to climb the ladder. It led to a wooden platform that was built around a thick tree. From there, they would complete several obstacles. Dev followed Sage, then Mari. Russell would be last.

  Russell got antsy waiting for Mari. He didn’t want to use the word slow, but he couldn’t believe how precise she was. She grasped each rung of the ladder so carefully it felt like he was waiting forever.

  But once they were up top, Mari seemed more at ease. She got across the cargo net without a problem. And the tight rope. Now it was actually Russell who started lagging behind.

  Even though he knew it was a race, he slowed down to take it all in. For one thing, he could see a sloth only ten feet away. It was just hanging there, upside down, with yellow claws that looked like they were straight out of a horror film.

  As he crossed a huge expanse between trees on a wobbly plank bridge, he stopped and stared at the world around him. It was entirely different up in the trees. The lush beauty shimmered in the sunlight. The sun blistered down from above with an intense heat.

  Now he understood the name. Like a canopy over an old-fashioned bed, the rain forest canopy covered most everything below. It shielded the lower forest from the sun and rain—only small amounts leaked through. Russell saw macaws, cleaning their scarlet feathers with curved beaks; a troop of spider monkeys, plucking fruit from the branches; and lizards, using camouflage to blend into their surroundings. They all called the canopy home.

  Over the crunches, squawks, and chatter, Russell could hear the familiar voices of his friends on the green team. They sounded far away, as if they were nearing the end of the course.

  “Russell, hurry up,” Sage called from the next platform. For once she sounded more encouraging, less insistent. “You’ve got to see this.”

  The slim bridge swayed as Russell made his way to the other side.

  “Check it out,” said Dev.

  Russell leaned forward and focused where the others were looking, at a plant that seemed to be growing on one of the branches of a tree. It had lots of tall, spiky leaves and, in its center, there was a tiny pool of water. And there was something in the water.

  “Is that—”

  “It’s a bromeliad,” Mari said. “It’s in the pineapple family, and it’s amazing. It gets its food and water from the air. And it stores its own water, too.”

  “But what’s in the water?” Russell asked.

  “They are tadpoles—they’ll grow to be poison dart frogs, like the one Dev found earlier. The frogs use the bromeliad as a nursery for their tadpoles. The tadpoles are safer up here than in a stream below.”

  “But how did it get there?”

  “One of the parents carries the tadpoles on its back,” Mari said with a shrug.

  Russell took a deep breath. It was awesome. There was a tadpole living in a plant, that was living on a giant tree, a hundred feet above ground. Crazy!

  “Hey, Russell!” This time it was Dev. “Let’s go.”

  Russell rushed across the stirrup obstacle. It was like a string of six swings, all dangling from the same wire. It wasn’t long before he had caught up. When he did, he realized that they were at the end. The only obstacle left was a zip line that would take them all the way from the treetops to the ground.

  Mari stared down, her front teeth digging into her bottom lip.

  “It’s not that bad,” Dev told her. “It’s all based on gravity, and you’re light, so you won’t accelerate as much. Probably sixty miles per hour tops.”

  Mari’s teeth dug deeper.

  Sage turned to Russell. “You should go first,” she said with her usual authority. He nodded. If Sage, suddenly filled with goodwill, wanted to stay behind and coax Mari onto the zip line, he would let her. But he didn’t want to abandon Mari altogether. He walked up to his teammate, who was fiddling with her braid. “You’ll be fine,” he said, but he knew he didn’t sound that comforting.

  And that’s what Russell was thinking about as he whizzed down the zip line at breakneck speed, the wind whipping around him. He should have been thinking of swinging like a spider monkey from tree to tree or soaring like a fierce harpy eagle. Instead, he was worrying about his teammates getting down safely.

  That’s when he saw something in a clearing. It appeared man-made, but it also seemed like it belonged in the forest—like it had been there forever. It looked like the combination of a stone cross and an ancient tree. He stared at it until it disappeared from view. When Russell looked back to the zip line path, he saw the ground approaching.

  Once he landed, Russell looked around. The zip line left them farther inland. He had to search for the sign that pointed toward the river.

  Waiting for the others, he thought about the green team and how big their lead would be by now. It wasn’t long before his teammates were all on the ground, taking off their harnesses.

  “The new clue came in,” Dev announced, holding up the ancam.

  Deep pink in dark water,

  Gray in the clear.

  No need to see your dinner,

  If you can always hear.

  “Well, that’s another winner,” Dev said.

  “I don’t know what it is, but it says something about the water, so I think we should go back to the river,” Sage announced. “We’ll figure it out on the boat.” She headed toward the path to the dock. Dev glanced at Russell and Mari, then followed Sage.

  “Wait,” Mari said, almost in a whisper.

  Russell was the only one who heard her.

  “I’ve almost got it,” she said. She pressed her fingertips into either side of her head.

  “Wait, you guys!” Russell called. When he looked up, he realized Dev and Sage had already turned down the lush, forest path. He could barely see them. “You guys, wait a sec!” He glanced back at Mari, who was still deep in thought.

  Just as Sage and Dev came back around the turn, Russell heard a low rumbling sound.

  “What?” Sage yelled. She didn’t look happy.

  Russell didn’t answer. He was trying to make out the sound. Then he heard it again. It was a growl, and now it was getting closer.

  “Uh-oh,” announced Sage. She stopped short.

  Between them was a jaguar cub. Blue-eyed, spotted, and fluffy, the cub was too young to be on its own.

  The growl grew deeper.

  “That’s not coming from this little guy. It’s the cub’s mom,” Sage called from down the path. “We need to get out of here. You’ve got to run the other way. Fast!”

  CREATURE FEATURE

  PALE-THROATED THREE-TOED SLOTH

  SCIENTIFIC NAME: Bradypus tridactylus

  TYPE: mammal

  RANGE: rain forests of Central and South America

  FOOD: tree leaves, twigs, and buds

  What is the size of a house cat, lives upside down, and is one of the slowest animals in the world? The sloth! The three-toed sloth has long, curved claws. Its claws are strong enough that the sloth can hang from them all day, even while it sleeps, which is a lot. The length of its claws makes it hard for the sloth to move on the ground, so these animals are safest high in the canopy. Sloths often have a green tint to their long hair; it’s because algae, a kind of p
lant, lives there.

  There are other three-toed sloths and also two-toed sloths, but they are all different species.

  Russell saw the movement in the leaves. He grabbed Mari’s hand and took off, trying to get as far from the jaguar cub as possible. He knew that the cub would be the mother’s first concern.

  “Meet at the boat!” Sage’s voice seemed to fade as she and Dev ran down the path. Russell and Mari forged deeper into the forest.

  They ran until they had to stop, Russell’s shallow breath burning in the back of his throat.

  “I can’t believe we saw a jaguar. They’re incredibly endangered and very private animals.” While Mari was marveling about their good fortune, Russell was thinking that their fortune was not so good at all. Looking around, he realized how foolish they had been. They had run without thinking, without noting landmarks.

  “I still hear something,” Russell said. The rain forest was always full of sound, but this was the sound of a large group of animals: leaves rustling, twigs breaking. “Come on,” he said, grabbing Mari’s hand again. He jogged, skirting fallen branches. He stopped. “I still hear it.”

  That’s when he saw the tree. Its top branches opened like a giant green umbrella in the sky, nearly two hundred feet high. But Russell was interested in the tree’s base. He pulled Mari toward it. Many leg-like roots sprouted from the trunk, making the tree look like a sea monster rising from the wet earth. Russell didn’t care. He had seen a gap between the gnarled roots. Ducking down, he tried not to think of the hundreds of species that would call a dark hollow like this home. He pulled off his backpack and slid through the opening.

  It was dark, and the damp air smelled rich.

  “A good predator could sniff us out in here,” Mari insisted.

  Russell brought his finger to his lips. “A good predator wouldn’t break twigs,” he whispered, “telling us it was close.”

  He knew Mari understood. He had thought it was the jaguar following them at first, too, but jaguars were too clever to be detected. Russell knelt down, hidden by the shadows, and listened. Beyond the soft scurrying and odd, dripping sounds under the tree, he could hear something else. There were voices, coming closer.

  “Where’d they go?”

  Russell recognized that voice at once. It was Gabe.

  “I don’t know. It says they should be here,” Dallas replied.

  Even in the darkness, Russell could see Mari’s eyes grow wide as she realized it was the green team.

  “Maybe it’s broken. Maybe Russell’s team didn’t come this way at all.”

  Russell tried to peek out, but he couldn’t see anything. What was Dallas looking at?

  “It was working before.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Russell doesn’t know where he’s going. Or maybe he lost his backpack. We have to get back to the river. Maybe our guide can give us a hint.”

  That was Jayden. No one responded to him. They just took off, heading back the way they came.

  “What was that all about?” Mari asked as she and Russell squeezed their way out in the open.

  “I can’t say,” Russell answered. “You heard the same thing. It sounded like they followed us.”

  “But why?” Mari wondered.

  Russell shook his head as he brushed ants off his legs. Even though he had a sneaking suspicion as to how his friends had found them, he really couldn’t say, not unless he wanted to get them kicked out of the race for good. For now, he decided to focus on his own team.

  “We’ve gotta move,” Russell insisted, but Mari was facing in the opposite direction. She shifted her backpack and buckled it at her chest before she turned around.

  “We came from that way, didn’t we?” Mari asked, pointing. There was doubt in her voice.

  “I don’t think so,” Russell said, noticing tracks on the ground. “It looks like the green team went this way.”

  Without another word, they set off at a jog. Russell quickly lost the green team’s path. Mari was not fast, but she was steady. It gave Russell time to try to pick the best route. It was hard to tell if they were headed in the right direction. He led Mari downhill, hoping the slope would lead to the river, only to find that the land pitched uphill again.

  “Wait,” Mari said after a while, coming to a full stop. “Nothing looks familiar.” She had turned back and was facing the opposite direction again. To Russell, this part of the forest looked pretty much like all the others: moss everywhere, endless trees, emerald leaves overhead, dead leaves on the ground.

  Russell would never admit it, but he was certain they were lost.

  ENDANGERED SPECIES AND HABITAT

  Many species in the Amazon rain forest are endangered. Endangered is a term for an animal that could become extinct in the near future. An animal becomes extinct when there are no longer any of its kind alive. These are some of the Amazonian animals that are endangered:

  black spider monkey

  golden lion tamarin monkey

  great green macaw

  Amazonian glass frog

  Many other animals, including both predators and prey, are on the verge of being endangered. They are considered “near threatened” or “vulnerable.” Some of these include:

  harpy eagle

  jaguar

  maned wolf

  lowland tapir

  The greatest threat to these animals is the loss of habitat. Since the 1960s, the lush forest has been replaced by farms, ranches, and roads. The loss of rain forest habitat is a tremendous threat to animals, plants, and humans alike.

  Mari flinched, her whole body tense. Russell watched as she raised her chin and stared up toward the sky, alert like a cat. “Hear that sound?” she whispered.

  Russell could hear lots of sounds, all running together. He listened closer. He didn’t hear anything like when the green team had been tracking them.

  “It’s the squirrel cuckoo,” Mari said. “The same call again and again.” She flashed an unexpected smile at Russell and moved toward the sound. She tilted her head to the side, as if her ear were leading the way. “I bet that’s not a real bird,” she mumbled. “I haven’t seen any squirrel cuckoos around. It’s Sage and Dev, using the bird calls, taking turns.”

  Russell followed Mari, stunned that she could tease the laughing squawk of the squirrel cuckoo out of the constant chorus of the forest.

  Before long, they stepped into a small clearing. Russell recognized it at once.

  “I saw this,” he said, almost in a daze. “From the zip line.”

  At the clearing’s center was a stone monument. Covered in ancient carvings, it was evidence of the old civilizations of the Amazon. Russell stopped and stared. He knew that people lived in the rain forest, but they had not seen any signs of them. Looking at the monument, Russell realized that it was in the shape of a tree—the same kind of tree where he and Mari had hidden from the green team.

  “Russell, come on,” Mari said from the far side of the clearing. “If you saw this from the zip line, then we’re really close. And, you might recall,” she added, in a tone not unlike Sage’s, “this is a race.”

  When they finally found their way to the river, the smiles of Javier, Sage, and Dev lifted their spirits. Their teammates were thrilled to learn that the green team was not that far ahead.

  “That’s awesome,” Sage said as they all took seats in the boat. “They haven’t come back to the dock yet, so we might even be in the lead. We just have to answer the clue.”

  Dev unclipped the ancam from his utility belt and read it again. “I figure the last two lines, about not seeing your dinner if you can hear, could be about echolocation,” Dev said. “You know, using sonar. Lots of animals can make a sound, and then visualize things based on the sound waves that echo back to them.”

  “Yeah, like bats,” said Sage.

  “And dolphins,” Russell added.

  “That’s it!” Mari yelled. “The Amazon river dolphin. I couldn’t come up with it before. It uses echoloc
ation. And, in really murky water, the dolphin is pink. But it’s gray when the water’s clear. It has to do with their skin getting more sun or something.”

  “Awesome. So we just have to find a river dolphin now. I assume in the river?” Sage said. The question was directed at Mari, but everyone smirked.

  “Yes,” Mari answered, still trying not to laugh. “During the rainy season, they venture into the streams and the flooded areas, but they’d be in the river now.”

  “So, do you all agree to go downriver?” Javier asked. They agreed.

  “All right, sir. Let’s go,” Javier said, pointing.

  The captain nodded. “Anchors aweigh,” he said with a smile, even though the motorboat didn’t have an anchor.

  After a few moments, Sage whispered, “Should we ask if we can go faster?”

  “Well, we probably have a better chance of seeing a dolphin if we aren’t going too fast,” Mari said. “Even then, it’ll take some luck.”

  The team went silent.

  “Fish?” the captain said.

  “No.” Sage shook her head. “We need a dolphin.”

  “No, fish,” he repeated.

  Russell looked toward the captain and noticed that he was pointing to a bucket of fish. “You have fish!” Russell yelled out. “We can use them to lure a dolphin,” Russell said. “Thank you!” He grabbed the bucket with both hands. The captain smiled, his eyes bright like the sun on water.

  Javier spoke with the captain and confirmed that it was a good location for tracking down dolphins. “He said there is a dock close by where tourists even swim with them.”