The Equatorial Type. In the equatorial belt the suds altitude is never less than 661/2°; its rays shine down more or less directly throughout the year; and temperatures are uniformly high. There are convectional rains at all seasons, but they are especially heavy at the equinoxes. The greater part of the Amazon and Congo basin is clad with tropical forest.
Trees includes logwood, mahogany, coconut and oil palms. Malaya and the East Indies form a subdivision of this region, though, owing to their maritime position, their forests are less dense than those of the Amazon.
In the more open tropical forests animals like the tigers of the monsoon lands and the leopards and the elephants of Asia are found In the denser areas, owing to difficulty of movements, many animals, such as the gorillas of West Africa, are tree-dwellers; while others, like the crocodiles and rhinoceroses of the Old World, live in or by the rivers.
As already discussed the regions are not continuous because of the presence of tropical highlands in between. In South America Amazon Basin is the largest equatorial region and covers practically whole of Brazil, but it extends westward and includes parts of Bolivia, Peru, Equador, Columbia and Venezuela. On the northeastern side the region extends along the coasts of Guianas. The equatorial region also includes the windward side of West Indies inlands. The Africa's Congo basin is of this type of region. Congo, Gabon, part of central African Republic, most of Cameroon and south east Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and the coastal portion of Guinea, Coast of Tanzania and southern Kenya, the island of Pemba and Zanzibar are included in this regions. In south east Asia, Malaysia is the only region that comes in this category.
The average yearly rainfall is from 60 inches to 120 inches. It has incessant rain and no dry season. It may be less wet season. Areas distant from the equator have some days without rains but near the equator it rains daily particularly during season of heavy precipitation. Equatorial belt is also known as convectional belt, because convectional rainfall occurs here with 75° to 150° thunderstorms yearly. In southeast Asian islands thunderstorms are common. In Java city, Bogor thunder occurs for more than 300 days.
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