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Rainforest Animals And Their World
By George Wolf | March 5, 2010
Imagine a world of tall trees and dense green foliage covering a forest floor that is shaded from the sun. It is an almost magical kingdom that rainforest animals live in.
As the name suggests, these forests get some of the highest rainfalls in the world. The only other season they have is the dry season when it doesn’t rain. So with no separate winter, summer or autumn, these forests are always green and thick, rich in flora and fauna, capable of sustaining its own ecosystem. And each of our rainforests boasts of a million indigenous animals and plants.
Unlike animals in the other forests, there are more rainforest animals per square inch of these forests living in total harmony. Rainforest animals include small insects, beetles and butterflies, spiders and scorpions, snakes and lizards, frogs and toads, birds, monkeys and orangutans, gorillas and elephants, alligator and crocodiles, tigers, leopards and jaguars and the list goes on and on. And these are only to name the ones we recognize.
Rainforest animals have unique qualities since these forests have only two seasons - the rainy season and the dry season. The constant rain makes the animals adapt differently to eating, hunting, procreating etc. The food chain is also hugely different as there aren’t any clear predators.
Common to all the rainforests is the dense forest. The Rainforests are actually divided into four layers based on the pattern and size of the trees. The top most layer consists of very tall trees called emergent that grow anywhere between 45 to 80 meters high. This layer, called the emergent layer for obvious reasons, is home to many birds in the rainforests like the eagle.
But the fight between the predators and the prey is much more intense among the smaller of the rainforest animals. Especially the weak have incredible defensive systems that can be found only in the rainforests. Take for instance the Monarch Butterfly. It’s colorful and poisonous to the predators that eat them. So, in a move unique to rainforest animals only, the monarch butterflies defense is its colorful body. Once a predator dies after eating this butterfly, the rest stay away from this particular color of prey.
Even though the rainforests are full of carnivorous predators, a large number of rainforest animals are actually herbivores. Above them are the insects and arachnids that prey on each other mostly. Also size need not necessarily determine the food chain in a rainforests. Giant poisonous tarantulas are known to bring birds down and small poisonous frogs can kill bigger snakes.
And the lowest layer is of course the floor of the rainforests. This is another world in itself, full of swaps crawling with snakes and crocodiles, exotic colorful plants, carnivorous plants, fungi, rats and other small animals. And do not forget the rainforests are also home to more than hundreds of tribes that have no connection to the outside world.
Unfortunately, the continuous threat from encroaching farmland and illegal logging is cutting into these rainforests and the rainforest animals are now entering the endangered species lists all over the world. We still have time to save the rest of the rainforest animals by taking steps to safeguard their unique world.
Click here to know more about how to preserve and activate the movement to save this wonderful resource of the nature.
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