Rainforest Animals
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Rainforest Animals
The worlds rainforests hold about two thirds of all existing spieces of both plants and animals. Most Rainforest animals live in the rainforests canopy layer, which holds numerous insect spiecies, mammals, birds and reptiles. It is estimated that there are still thousands of spiecies of rainforest animals to be discovered.
Some of the typical rainforest animals are mammals such as the Bengal Tiger, Jaguar, Gorilla, Orangutan, Chimpanzee, Gibbon, Lemur, Siamang and Spider Monkey, birds such as Great Hornbill, Harpy Eagle, Hoatzin, Parrot, Resplendent Quetzal, Southern Cassowary and Toucan, and reptiles such as Anaconda, Black Caiman, Boa Constrictor, Gaboon Viper and Reticulated Python.
One of the most powerful rainforest animals are the Gorillas. They live in Africa, countries such as Rwanda, Zaire and along the Congo river. They eat leaves and fruit can grow up to 180 cm (6 ft) and weigh up to 180 kilos (lbs). They can live in high altitudes.
One of the longest rainforest animals is the Anaconda, found in all of South America, but mostly in the Amazon River Basin. It eats everything from fish, caiman, turtles, birds, rodents and even mammals if the snake is long enough. They are some of the slowest digesting rainforest animals. It can take up to several weeks for an Anaconda to digest its meals.
The jaguar is the wildforest animal known for its extremely powerful jaw. It is so strong it can pierce turtle shells and exceeds the tiger's or lion's jaw strength. When adjusted for body size it is ranked as the top felid. It has been documented that "an individual jaguar can drag a 360 kilos (800 lb) bull 8 meters (25 ft) in its jaws". The jaguar is able to climb, crawl and swim, due to its short limb structure. It lives in various parts of South America.
The Bengal Tiger is the royal rainforest animal primarily found in Bangladesh, India. Bengal Tigers weigh approximately 180 - 270 kg (400 - 600 lbs) and can get anywhere from 130cm up to 270 cm (5 - 10 ft) long. Bengal Tigers eat everything from antelopes, boars, monkeys, pigs, birds to occasionally even elephants! The Bengal Tiger is on the IUCN Red List of endangered rainforest spiecies.
The rainforest is the home of many other animals that are endangered by the continuing deforestation. We at ExperimentEarth.com have started a project where we sell pieces of our world map and help fight deforestation which is proceeding at enormous pace. By buying a piece of land on ExperimentEarth you own a spot on our map, get to upload an image and link to your homepage. And you help us buy a piece of amazon rainforest to help protect the many animal spieces and their habitat.