NewsTracker Answers for week of Sep. 27, 2010

Q: A fifth child has died in Peru in an outbreak of rabies spread by vampire bats, say health officials. Where is Peru?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Vampire bats usually feed on wildlife or livestock, but are sometimes known to turn to humans for food, particularly in areas where their rainforest habitat has been destroyed. What is the name of this tropical rainforest  the world's largest?

A. Amazon

B. Equatorial

C. Peruvian

D. South American

A. The Amazon rainforest represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. About 60 percent of the forest is in Brazil, followed by Peru with 13 percent.

Q: Brazil is located . . .

A. North of Peru

B. East of Peru

C. South of Peru

D. West of Peru

B. Peru is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

Q: What is destroying the vampire bats' Amazon habitat?

A. Disease

B. Flooding

C. Wildfires

D. Deforestation

D. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest are human settlement and development of the land. More than 90 percent of land deforested since 1970 is used for livestock pasture.

Q: Rainforests have been called . . .

A. Jewels of the Earth

B. Lungs of the world

C. World's largest pharmacy

D. All of the above

D. The forests are home to up to 75 percent of the world's species and produce 28 percent of the world's oxygen. More than one quarter of the world's medicines have been discovered in the forests.