1.How much rain falls in el Yunque?
El Yunque has an average rainfall of 6m (240 inches) per year, more than 100 billion gallons of rainwater fall on the forest every year, it rains about four times a day.
2. why are Puerto Rican parrots endangered?
there are only 40 puerto rican parrots left on the wild, and they are very close to extinct. deforestation is supposed to be the main reason for this parrots to get endangered, deforestation is the act or process of removing trees from a forest. Another reason would be the hurricanes for example hurricane Hugo killed almost half of the Puerto Rican parrots reducing their population from 47 to 22. Before scientists studied the Puerto Rican parrots they thought that predators were the main reason for the Puerto Rican parrot population to be endangered but now scientists have found that the problem was the environment since the population is already low.
www.fs.fed.us
3.How many rainforest zones (or types) are there in El Yunque?
There are four zones in el Yunque:
TabonucoForest- Located at elevations of up to 2000 ft, the trees there grow at about 115 to 125 ft tall. Tabonuco and Ausubo tree are the dominant speciethere.
PaloColorado Forest- Occurs at 1970 ft-2950 ft. Here you can find lots of Caimitillo, Caimitillo Verde and Palo Colorado.
Palma Sierra Forest- This forest is found at elevations of over 1958 ft, as its name describes, the Sierra Palm is the dominant specie.
Bosque En Las Nubes" (Forest in the clouds)- Located 2500 ft above sea level, this forest is limited to the highest mountain tops . These trees do not grow over 12 ft. It's usually very windy and the earth is saturated with water. Common tree species are Némoco, Roble de Sierra, Limoncillo Guayabota and Camasey.
4. what is the history of El Yunque?
El Yunque is located in the Luquillo Montain at 40Kg of San Juan.
EL Yunque is the oldest Forest Reserve in the Western Hemisphere. In 1876 King AlfonsoXII of Spain set aside 12,000 cuerdas (1 cuerda =.9 acres of land) to be protected for all times. In reality his goal was to avoid the enemy from getting hold of some of the great wood for making strong ships. In 1903, the forest was proclaimed The Luquillo Forest Reserve and became the only Rain Forest within the US National Forest System. It is the only Puerto Rican Forest administered by the US Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service.
5.What does El Yunque mean?
In ancient times El Yunque was called yu-ke which ment white lands.
