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Rainforests are tremendously rich in animal life. Rainforests are populated with insects (like butterflies and beetles), arachnids (like spiders and ticks), worms, reptiles (like snakes and lizards), amphibians (like frogs and toads), birds (like parrots and toucans) and mammals (like sloths and jaguars).
Different animals live in different strata of the rainforest. For example, birds live in the canopy (upper leaves of the trees) and in the emergents (the tops of the tallest trees). Large animals (like jaguars) generally live on the forest floor, but others (like howler monkeys and sloths) are arboreal (living in trees). Insects are found almost everywhere.
Many species of rainforest animals are endangered and many other have gone extinct as the number of acres of rainforests on Earth decreases.
As in any food web, there are more plant-eaters than meat-eaters (and many more plants than plant-eaters). There are also more small animals than large animals. Insects are the most numerous animals in rainforests.
Although there is intense competition between animals, there is also an interdependence. When one species goes extinct, it can affect an entire chain of other species and have unpredictable consequences.
Protection from Predators Animals are always in danger of being eaten and have developed many methods of protecting themselves from hungry animals.
Hiding: Some animals simply hide from predators, concealing themselves in burrows, under rocks or leaves, in tree hollows, or in other niches where they are hard to find.
Camouflage: Camouflage is another way of hiding in which the animal blends into its environment. Many animals, like the "walking stick" insect and the Indian Leaf Butterfly (Kallima inachus) are camouflaged so well that they are virtually invisible when they are standing still. Sloths are covered with a greenish layer of algae which camouflages their fur in their arboreal environment. Sloths also move very slowly, making them ever harder to spot.
Scaring predators: Some animals try to convince predators that they are bigger and more fierce than they really are. For example, the larva of the lobster moth (Stauropus fagi), whose larva looks like a scorpion, but is in fact completely defenseless. Many butterflies have large "eye" designs on their wings. This makes them look like the head of a very large animal instead of a harmless butterfly, and scares many predators away.
Warning colors: Poisonous animals openly advertise their defense methods, usually with bright colors and flashy patterns. When a predator eats one member of the group, it will get sick. This memory will stay with the predator, who will avoid that type of animal in the future. This method sacrifices a few individuals in order to protect the entire group. Examples of poisonous animals include the Monarch butterfly. Other animals (poisonous or not) have come to mimic poisonous butterflies, obtaining the benefits of their poisonous "twins." This is called mimicry.
A Sampling of Rainforest Animals
**BINTURONG**A dark, furry mammal from rainforests of southeast Asia.
** BIRDS**Many birds live in the canopy of rainforests. Birds have feathers and wings. Birds may be the descendants of theropod dinosaurs.
**BONOBO**Bonobos are closely related to chimpanzees. They are very intelligent, peaceful primates.
**BUTTERFLIES**Butterflies are flying insects with two pairs of wings, a proboscis, and clubbed antennae. They belong to the Order Lepidoptera and the Family Rhopalocera. Many butterflies thrive in tropical rainforests.
CAIMANThe caiman (Caiman crocodilus) is a widely distributed, medium-sized crocodilian. It is about 6.5-8 ft (2-2.5 m) long. The caiman is widely distributed in Central America and northern South America, ranging from southern Mexico to Peru and Brazil. The caiman is the most widely distributed of the New World crocodilians; it is found in almost all of the lowland wetlands and riverine habitats in its range. It prefers still, fresh water. Juveniles are yellow with black spots and bands; adults are a dull olive green with a whitish belly. These carnivores eat fish (including piranha), amphibians, reptiles and water birds, using their 72-78 teeth. Females lay about 22 eggs in late summer in soil-and-vegetation nests.
CAPYBARAThe capybara is the world's largest rodent. It has no tail and partially-webbed feet. It lives on river banks.
**CASSOWARY**A huge, flightless bird from Australian rainforests. It has a helmet-like crest on its head.
**CATERPILLAR**A caterpillar is the larval stage of butterflies and moths. Caterpillars eat almost constantly and molt many times as they grow.
**CHIMPANZEE**Chimpanzees are very intelligent mammals (primates).
**CHLAMYDOSAURUS**Chlamydosaurus (meaning "caped lizard") is a rare, modern-day frilled lizard native to New Guinea and North Australia. Its frill is a 7-14 inch (18-34 cm) flap of skin that completely circles its head. It opens this brightly-colored frill to frighten enemies. Adults are over 8 inches (20 cm) long. These climbing lizards live in trees in humid forests and eat cicadas, ants, spiders and smaller lizards. It can run quadrupedally (on all four legs) and bipedally (with the front legs off the ground). Adult females lay 8 to 14 eggs per clutch in spring and summer. Classification: Class Reptilia, Order: Squamata, Family: Agamidae, Genus Chlamydosaurus, Species kingii (named by Gray in 1825).
**CROCODILIAN**Crocodilians are the order of archosaurs that includes alligators, crocodiles, gavials, etc. They evolved during the late Triassic period and are a type of reptile.
**CUCKOO**The cuckoo is a bird whose call sounds like its name. Many cuckoos live in rainforest canopies throughout the world.
**FRILLED LIZARD**Chlamydosaurus (meaning "caped lizard") is a rare, modern-day frilled lizard native to New Guinea and North Australia. Its frill is a 7-14 inch (18-34 cm) flap of skin that completely circles its head. It opens this brightly-colored frill to frighten enemies. Adults are over 8 inches (20 cm) long. These climbing lizards live in trees in humid forests and eat cicadas, ants, spiders and smaller lizards. It can run quadrupedally (on all four legs) and bipedally (with the front legs off the ground). Adult females lay 8 to 14 eggs per clutch in spring and summer. Classification: Class Reptilia, Order: Squamata, Family: Agamidae, Genus Chlamydosaurus, Species kingii (named by Gray in 1825).
**FROG**Frogs are amphibians. They start out as gilled, swimming tadpoles, but grow to be air-breathing adults.
**GIBBON**Gibbons are rare, small, slender, long-armed, tree-dwelling apes from Asia.
GOLIATH BIRDWING BUTTERFLYThe Goliath Birdwing (Ornithoptera goliath) is the second-largest butterfly in the world. This brightly-colored butterfly is poisonous and has a wingspan up to 11 inches (28 cm) wide. It has black, yellow and green wings and a yellow and black body. This butterfly in found in tropical forests in Indonesia. Family Papilionidae.
**GORILLA**Gorillas are large primates from Africa. They are in danger of extinction.
**GREATER APES**The great apes (family Pongidae) include the gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans.
**GREEN IGUANA**Plant-eating lizards from moist habitats.
**HOWLER MONKEY**The loudest monkey and the largest New World monkey.
JULIAThe Julia is a yellow-orange tropical butterfly from the Americas, about 3-4 inches wide. It belongs to the group of Heliconians, tropical butterflies that have a bad taste and smell, and a large head. The eggs are round. The pupa is angular. The Julia feeds on passion flowers (Passiflora). Julias are found from South and Central America to the southern USA.
**MAMMAL**Mammals are warm-blooded animals with hair. They nourish their young with milk. Mammals evolved during the Triassic period. Many mammals live in rainforests, including gorillas, sloths, jaguars, and people.
**MONARCH BUTTERFLY**The Monarch (Danaus plexippus) is a common poisonous butterfly found worldwide. It eats milkweed in its larval stage and lays eggs on the poisonous milkweed plant. Monarchs have a wingspan of 3 3/8 - 4 7/8 inches (8.6 - 12.4 cm).
**MONKEY**There are two types of monkeys: Old World monkeys from Asia and Africa, and New World monkeys from the Americas.
Morpho ButterflyThe Blue Morpho is a brilliant blue butterfly from rainforests of South and Central America.
MOTHMoths are winged insects that belong to the Order Lepidoptera. Moths have feathered antennae (not clubbed antennae, like butterflies), a frenulum or jugum, and are generally dull colored. There are over 100,000 moth species alive today.
MOUSEMice are tiny mammals with long tails.
**OCELOT**Ocelots are wild cats from the Americas.
**ORANGUTAN**Orangutans are large, tree-dwelling apes from southeast Asia.
**OWL**Owls are nocturnal birds with large eyes and very good eyesight. Some owls live in rainforests.
PiranhaPiranhas are meat-eating, freshwater fish that are native to eastern South America.
** REPTILE**Reptiles (meaning"to creep") are a group of animals that have scales (or modified scales), breathe air, and usually lay eggs. The term reptile is loosely defined in everyday English to mean scaly, cold-blooded, egg-laying animals. In cladistics (a way of classifying life forms), the reptiles are more strictly defined as: all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor of the turtles, lepidosaurs (lizards, snakes, tuataras), and archosaurs (crocodilians, dinosaurs, and birds). The maintenance of body temperature (cold- vs. warm-blooded) is not a factor in this classification, but skull and egg structure are.
SATURN BUTTERFLYThe Saturn Butterfly (Zeuxidia amethystus) has a wingspan of about 3.9-4.3 inches (10-11cm) and lives in the shady forest understory. The female is paler than the male (above). The Saturn Butterfly is found in Malaysia, Borneo, the Philippines, Burma, and Sumatra. It was named by Butler in 1865. Classification: Family Nymphalidae (Subfamily Morphinae).
**SIAMANG**The siamang is a rare, black, long-armed ape, a type of gibbon.
SKIPPERSkippers (family Hesperiidae) are drab-colored, moth-like butterflies that are distinguished by the hook at the end of their antennae (instead of a club, like other butterflies have). These antennae are also farther apart at the base than other butterflies. There are about 2,000 different species of Skippers. They fly in a darting fashion (hence their name) and hold their wings in a moth-like fashion when at rest. The Australian Skipper also has a humeral lobe (a frenulum-like projection on its hind wing which holds the forewings and hind wings together during flight).
**SLOTH**The sloth is a slow-moving mammal that lives in trees. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside-down from tree branches; they eat, sleep, mate, and give birth upside-down in the trees. They hold onto tree branches with strong, curved claws that are on each of their four feet. These plant-eaters are more active at night; they eat leaves, tender young shoots, and fruit. Sloths have a thick brown (and slightly-greenish) fur coat and are about the size of a cat (roughly 2 feet = 61 cm long). Their coloration and their slow actions make them almost disappear in the forest canopy. Some sloths have colonies of green algae encrusting their fur, both adding to the camouflage effect and providing some nutrients to the sloths, who lick the algae. These mostly-quiet mammals live in the tropical rainforests of South and Central America. Sloths may live 10-20 years in the wild. Sloths are hunted by jaguars, eagles, and man. Classification: Class Mammalia, Order Xenarthra, Family Bradypodidae and Megalonychidae.
SNAKEA snake is a reptile with no legs. Its skin is scaly. There are many snakes in rainforests.
SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLYSwallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae) are strong fliers with three fully developed pairs of legs. Many swallowtails have distinctive tailed wings (hence the family name). They lay spherical eggs. These butterflies are found from the tropics to more temperate regions.
**TARSIER**Tarsiers are small mammals with enormous eyes.
**TIGER**Tigers are large, fierce Asian cats that have stripes. They live mostly in forests in India, Sumatra, Indochina, and Siberia. Tigers are threatened with extinction due to loss of habitat.
**TOAD**Toads are amphibians with poison glands. They usually have warty skin.
**TOUCAN**A rainforest bird with a huge, colorful beak.
Rainforests are tremendously rich in animal life. Rainforests are populated with insects (like butterflies and beetles), arachnids (like spiders and ticks), worms, reptiles (like snakes and lizards), amphibians (like frogs and toads), birds (like parrots and toucans) and mammals (like sloths and jaguars).
As in any food web, there are more plant-eaters than meat-eaters (and many more plants than plant-eaters). There are also more small animals than large animals. Insects are the most numerous animals in rainforests.
This memory will stay with the predator, who will avoid that type of animal in the future. This method sacrifices a few individuals in order to protect the entire group. Examples of poisonous animals include the Monarch butterfly. Other animals (poisonous or not) have come to mimic poisonous butterflies, obtaining the benefits of their poisonous "twins." This is called mimicry.
BINTURONG**A dark, furry mammal from rainforests of southeast Asia.
BIRDS**Many birds live in the canopy of rainforests. Birds have feathers and wings. Birds may be the descendants of theropod dinosaurs.
BONOBO**Bonobos are closely related to chimpanzees. They are very intelligent, peaceful primates.
BUTTERFLIES**Butterflies are flying insects with two pairs of wings, a proboscis, and clubbed antennae. They belong to the Order Lepidoptera and the Family Rhopalocera. Many butterflies thrive in tropical rainforests.
CAIMANThe caiman (Caiman crocodilus) is a widely distributed, medium-sized crocodilian. It is about 6.5-8 ft (2-2.5 m) long. The caiman is widely distributed in Central America and northern South America, ranging from southern Mexico to Peru and Brazil. The caiman is the most widely distributed of the New World crocodilians; it is found in almost all of the lowland wetlands and riverine habitats in its range. It prefers still, fresh water. Juveniles are yellow with black spots and bands; adults are a dull olive green with a whitish belly. These carnivores eat fish (including piranha), amphibians, reptiles and water birds, using their 72-78 teeth. Females lay about 22 eggs in late summer in soil-and-vegetation nests.
CASSOWARY**A huge, flightless bird from Australian rainforests. It has a helmet-like crest on its head.
CATERPILLAR**A caterpillar is the larval stage of butterflies and moths. Caterpillars eat almost constantly and molt many times as they grow.
CHLAMYDOSAURUS**Chlamydosaurus (meaning "caped lizard") is a rare, modern-day frilled lizard native to New Guinea and North Australia. Its frill is a 7-14 inch (18-34 cm) flap of skin that completely circles its head. It opens this brightly-colored frill to frighten enemies. Adults are over 8 inches (20 cm) long. These climbing lizards live in trees in humid forests and eat cicadas, ants, spiders and smaller lizards. It can run quadrupedally (on all four legs) and bipedally (with the front legs off the ground). Adult females lay 8 to 14 eggs per clutch in spring and summer. Classification: Class Reptilia, Order: Squamata, Family: Agamidae, Genus Chlamydosaurus, Species kingii (named by Gray in 1825).
CUCKOO**The cuckoo is a bird whose call sounds like its name. Many cuckoos live in rainforest canopies throughout the world.
FROG**Frogs are amphibians. They start out as gilled, swimming tadpoles, but grow to be air-breathing adults.
GIBBON**Gibbons are rare, small, slender, long-armed, tree-dwelling apes from Asia.
GOLIATH BIRDWING BUTTERFLYThe Goliath Birdwing (Ornithoptera goliath) is the second-largest butterfly in the world. This brightly-colored butterfly is poisonous and has a wingspan up to 11 inches (28 cm) wide. It has black, yellow and green wings and a yellow and black body. This butterfly in found in tropical forests in Indonesia. Family Papilionidae.
GORILLA**Gorillas are large primates from Africa. They are in danger of extinction.
GREATER APES**The great apes (family Pongidae) include the gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans.
GREEN IGUANA**Plant-eating lizards from moist habitats.
HOWLER MONKEY**The loudest monkey and the largest New World monkey.
KEEL BILLED TOUCAN**A rainforest bird with a huge, colorful beak.
LESSER APES**The lesser apes (family Hylobatidae) include the gibbon and siamang.
MAMMAL**Mammals are warm-blooded animals with hair. They nourish their young with milk. Mammals evolved during the Triassic period. Many mammals live in rainforests, including gorillas, sloths, jaguars, and people.
MONKEY**There are two types of monkeys: Old World monkeys from Asia and Africa, and New World monkeys from the Americas.
Morpho ButterflyThe Blue Morpho is a brilliant blue butterfly from rainforests of South and Central America.
MOTHMoths are winged insects that belong to the Order Lepidoptera. Moths have feathered antennae (not clubbed antennae, like butterflies), a frenulum or jugum, and are generally dull colored. There are over 100,000 moth species alive today.
OCELOT**Ocelots are wild cats from the Americas.
OWL**Owls are nocturnal birds with large eyes and very good eyesight. Some owls live in rainforests.
PiranhaPiranhas are meat-eating, freshwater fish that are native to eastern South America.
REPTILE**Reptiles (meaning"to creep") are a group of animals that have scales (or modified scales), breathe air, and usually lay eggs. The term reptile is loosely defined in everyday English to mean scaly, cold-blooded, egg-laying animals. In cladistics (a way of classifying life forms), the reptiles are more strictly defined as: all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor of the turtles, lepidosaurs (lizards, snakes, tuataras), and archosaurs (crocodilians, dinosaurs, and birds). The maintenance of body temperature (cold- vs. warm-blooded) is not a factor in this classification, but skull and egg structure are.
RAT**A rat is a rodent with a long tail.
SATURN BUTTERFLYThe Saturn Butterfly (Zeuxidia amethystus) has a wingspan of about 3.9-4.3 inches (10-11cm) and lives in the shady forest understory. The female is paler than the male (above). The Saturn Butterfly is found in Malaysia, Borneo, the Philippines, Burma, and Sumatra. It was named by Butler in 1865. Classification: Family Nymphalidae (Subfamily Morphinae).
SERVAL**A long-legged African wild cat.
SLOTH**The sloth is a slow-moving mammal that lives in trees. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside-down from tree branches; they eat, sleep, mate, and give birth upside-down in the trees. They hold onto tree branches with strong, curved claws that are on each of their four feet. These plant-eaters are more active at night; they eat leaves, tender young shoots, and fruit. Sloths have a thick brown (and slightly-greenish) fur coat and are about the size of a cat (roughly 2 feet = 61 cm long). Their coloration and their slow actions make them almost disappear in the forest canopy. Some sloths have colonies of green algae encrusting their fur, both adding to the camouflage effect and providing some nutrients to the sloths, who lick the algae. These mostly-quiet mammals live in the tropical rainforests of South and Central America. Sloths may live 10-20 years in the wild. Sloths are hunted by jaguars, eagles, and man. Classification: Class Mammalia, Order Xenarthra, Family Bradypodidae and Megalonychidae.
SNAKEA snake is a reptile with no legs. Its skin is scaly. There are many snakes in rainforests.
SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLYSwallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae) are strong fliers with three fully developed pairs of legs. Many swallowtails have distinctive tailed wings (hence the family name). They lay spherical eggs. These butterflies are found from the tropics to more temperate regions.
TARSIER**Tarsiers are small mammals with enormous eyes.
TIGER**Tigers are large, fierce Asian cats that have stripes. They live mostly in forests in India, Sumatra, Indochina, and Siberia. Tigers are threatened with extinction due to loss of habitat.
TOAD**Toads are amphibians with poison glands. They usually have warty skin.