Tropical forests cover only six percent of the Earth's surface, but are home to two-thirds of all the species of plants and animals on the planet. Forsyth, a biologist, takes the reader on a trip to the Monteverde Reserve in Costa Rica as he writes about the abundantand increasingly threatenedplant, animal and insect life of that magnificent rain forest. In the entertaining first-person narrative, the author recalls his encounters with sloths, golden toads, toucans, army ants and many more forest inhabitants; he draws the reader into the wonders of a tropical jungle.