Label: Tropical Rainforests
May 16, 2011
Cool Photo of the Week
This is a Three-Toed Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus). Sloths are arboreal, which means that they live in trees. They are built to hang, using those long claws to get a good grip on branches.
They are among the slowest moving creatures on Earth, spending about 18 hours a day hanging from a branch, sleeping. In fact, sloths move around so little that green algae grows on their furry coats! The algae works as camouflage because when a sleeping sloth is hanging from a branch, it looks like a bunch of leaves.
Sloths even mate and give birth while hanging in the trees, and their babies travel by hanging onto their mothers for the first nine months of their lives.
The three-toed sloth is an herbivore (a plant-eater) that eats at night, and it is about the size of a cat. They are endangered, due to the destruction of their tropical rainforest habitats in Central and South America.
You can read more about Tropical Rainforests in my latest book, which is now also available as an eBook for the Nook Color and iPad.
Photo: Christian Mehlführer
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Posted by: Seymour Simon
November 12, 2010
Farewell to Texas (for now!)
The kids at Starrett Elementary School in Arlington did wonderful art projects and book displays for my visit this week. Look at this great collage which they made to represent my latest book, TROPICAL RAINFORESTS. It was made with translucent tissue paper and placed in front of a window, where all those rich greens glowed as if we were in a real rainforest! It was very beautiful, and I liked it enormously.
I’d also like to say a special thanks to librarian Nancy Allmon for all the great work you and your colleagues did.
It really made for a memorable visit. And of course, we’ll remember all the great weather and Tex Mex food when we’re back in chilly New York.I will be back in Texas to speak in San Antonio schools the week of December 13, so kids in SA-Town, get ready for a journey to the end of the Universe!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
August 12, 2010
Watch the Trailer for “Tropical Rainforests”
Seymour Simon’s new Collins/Smithsonian book, TROPICAL RAINFORESTS, will be in store on August 24th. And we now have a 90-second video trailer so that you can preview this breathtaking photo essay book. Click here to view and enjoy!
Note to Teachers: This is a "safe" video, hosted on SeymourSimon.com. Clicking to watch this video will no longer take you to YouTube, or anywhere off Seymour’s website.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
August 9, 2010
Birthday Treats for All!
Today is Seymour Simon’s birthday, and he is featured on the Happy Birthday Author blog. You must check it out for two reasons.
#1 - They are doing a giveaway. Enter to win a personally autographed, advance copy of Seymour’s upcoming Collins/Smithsonian book, Tropical Rainforests. Contest closes 8/15, and if you tweet the contest, you get three additional entries!
#2 - There is an absolutely adorable photograph of Seymour on his fifth birthday.
Happy Birthday, Seymour!!!
Posted by: Liz Nealon
May 28, 2010
Simulating the Effects of Deforestation in the Amazon
While working on the Teacher Guide for Seymour’s upcoming book, TROPICAL RAINFORESTS, we came across this US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data on the effects of deforestation on average surface temperatures. Two 100-year simulations were carried out with CFS (Climate Forecasting System): 1) a current climate control simulation {CONTROL} and 2) a deforestation simulation {DEFOREST} in which tropical rainforest in the Amazon region was replaced with perennial ground cover.
The results suggest that the impact of Amazon deforestation would be a warmer and drier Amazon, as well as a warmer tropical Pacific and tropical North Atlantic, with the caveat that CFS is not specifically designed for long climate change simulations.
If you are interested in more detail about this study and others like it, you can find it here: Climate Test Bed Joint Seminar Series.
Deforestation and other words related to life in the Tropical Rainforest, such as Canopy, Emergent Layer, Epiphyte and Understory, are all defined for children in Seymour’s online Science Dictionary. As each new book comes out, we will be adding all relevant terms, with images, to this digital information source for kids. This is all free content, so please introduce it to any children you know who are interested in learning more about the amazing world around them.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
