The Forests in the Clouds

Imagine being 100 feet above the ground, entrenched in a complicated web of greenery, soaked in a constant spray of mist and fog.

This is the reality for the plants and animals that inhabit the 'cloud forest'.

A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, mountainous forest characterized by a constant high level of low-lying stratiform clouds, which often shows as fog.

Remarkably, these forests usually exhibit an 'elfin' woodland structure, which includes gnarled trees covered in a variety of mosses, lichens, and other epiphytes.

These areas are filled with diverse ecosystems that bear a wide range of species, many of which are not found anywhere else in the world.

Strikingly, Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica alone contains over 2,500 plant species, around 120 reptile and amphibian species, and hundreds of bird species..