Where can y'all discover an antelope the size of a rabbit, a snake that can fly, or a spider that eats birds? All in tropical rainforests, of class!

Tropical rainforests are home to the largest and the smallest, the loudest and the quietest of all land animals, as well as some of the most unsafe, most beautiful, most endearing and strangest looking animals on earth. You've probably heard of some of them: jaguars, toucans, parrots, gorillas, and tarantulas all make their home in tropical rainforests. But take y'all ever heard of the yeah-yep? Or the okapi? In that location are so many fascinating animals in tropical rainforests that millions oasis't been named or fifty-fifty identified yet. In fact, about half of all the earth's animal species alive in tropical rainforests.

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Q: Why do more animal species alive in the rainforest than other parts of the world?

A: Scientists believe that in that location is a slap-up diversity of animals because rainforests are the oldest ecosystems on globe. Some rainforests in Southeast Asia have been effectually for at least 100 million years, when dinosaurs roamed the globe. During the Ice Ages, the terminal of which ended about 10,000 years ago, the frozen areas of the North and Due south Poles spread over much of the world, causing a high charge per unit of animal extinction. But the behemothic freeze did not reach a number of refuges in tropical rainforests. Therefore, rainforest plants and animals connected to evolve, developing into the most diverse and complex ecosystems on world.

The well-nigh perfect conditions for life also helped contribute to the great number of species. With temperatures constant at 75 -eighty degrees F. year-round, animals don't accept to worry about freezing during cold winters or finding shade in the hot summers. They rarely take to search for water, every bit rain falls virtually every twenty-four hours in tropical rainforests.

Some rainforest species accept populations that number in the millions. Other species consist of only a few dozen individuals. Living in limited areas, virtually of these species are owned, or establish nowhere else on world. The Maues marmoset, a species of monkey, wasn't discovered until recently. Its entire population lives within a few square miles in the Amazon rainforest. It's so modest, it could sit in a person'southward hand!

Q: Which blazon of rainforest species is about numerous?

A: If you were to visit a rainforest, y'all probably wouldn't run into many jaguars or monkeys. The only living animals y'all could be certain to run into are the millions of insects creeping and crawling effectually in every layer of the rainforest.

Scientists gauge that there are more than 50 million different species of invertebrates living in rainforests. One scientist found 50 different species of ants on a single tree in Peru! You would probably only need a few hours of poking around in a rainforest to find an insect unknown to science. Y'all could even proper name information technology subsequently yourself!

Insects are frequently beautiful and always fascinating. Have yous ever heard of an emmet that farms? Or ants that act every bit security guards? Leaf-cutter, or parasol ants, can rightfully be called the world's kickoff farmers. They climb trees up to 100-feet tall and cut out small pieces of leaves. They then acquit these fragments, weighing as much as 50 times their torso weight, dorsum to their homes. Sometimes they need to travel 200 feet, equal to an average human walking about half-dozen miles with five,000 lbs. on his/her back! The forest floor is converted to a maze of busy highways total of these moving leaf fragments.

These ants don't eat the leaves they take collected, but instead coffin them surreptitious. The combination of leaves and substances that the ants produce such every bit saliva allows a type of mucus to grow. This mucus is the simply nutrient that they need to swallow.

The perfect partnership – Azteca ants live on the Swollen Thorn Acacia Tree, which offers the ants everything needed for survival – lodging, h2o, and food for themselves and their young. In return, the ants protect the trees from predators. Whenever the ants feel something moving at the foot of the tree, they rush to fiercely fight the intruder. They besides protect it from vines and other competing plants that would otherwise strangle information technology. Equally a result, goose egg can grow well-nigh these trees. They are the only trees with a congenital-in warning organisation!

Q: How exercise all these species manage to live together without running out of food?

A: The abiding search for food, water, sunlight and space is a 24-hour pushing and shoving match. With this fierce competition, you may be amazed that and then many unlike species of animals tin can all alive together. But this is really the cause of the huge number of different species.

The chief secret lies in the ability of many animals to accommodate to eating a specific plant or animal, which few other species are able to consume. Have you ever wondered, for instance, why toucans and parrots take such large beaks? These beaks requite them a groovy advantage over other birds with smaller beaks. The fruits and basics from many trees have evolved with tough shells to protect them from predators. In turn toucans and parrots adult big strong beaks, which serves every bit a nutcracker and provides them with many tasty meals.

Q: Do animals always help each other out?

A: Many animals species accept adult relationships with each other that do good both species. Birds and mammal species dearest to eat the tasty fruits provided by trees. Even fish living in the Amazon River rely on fruits dropped from forest trees. In turn, the fruit trees depend upon these animals to eat their fruit, which helps them to spread their seeds to far-off parts of the woods.

In some cases both species are so dependent upon each other that if 1 becomes extinct, the other will equally well. This virtually happened with trees that relied on the now-extinct Dodo birds. They once roamed Republic of mauritius, a tropical isle located in the Indian Ocean. They became extinct during the late 19th century when humans over-hunted them. The Calvaria Tree stopped sprouting seeds soon after. Scientists finally ended that, for the seeds of the Calvaria Tree to sprout, they needed to showtime exist digested by the dodo bird. By strength-feeding the seeds to a domestic turkey, who digested the seeds the same way as the Dodo birds, the trees were saved. Unfortunately humans volition not be able to save each species in this same manner.

Q: How do rainforest animals protect themselves?

A: Every animal has the ability to protect itself from being someone's next meal. Each species has evolved with its own set of unique adaptations, ways of helping them to survive.

BLENDING IN The coloring of some animals acts as protection from their predators. Insects play some of the best hide-and-go-seek in the forest. The "walking stick" is one such insect; it blends in and so well with the palm tree it calls its home that no one would notice it unless it moved. Some butterflies, when they shut their wings, look exactly like leaves. Camouflage besides works in reverse, helping predators, such equally boa constrictors, sneak up on unsuspecting animals and surprise them.

The three-toed sloth is born with brownish fur, but y'all would never know this past looking at it. The greenish algae that makes its home in the sloth's fur helps information technology to blend in with the tops of the copse, the canopy, where it makes its domicile. Merely green algae isn't the only matter living in a sloth's fur; information technology is literally "bewitched" with a diverseness of insects. 978 beetles were once found living on one sloth!

STAYING OUT OF SITE The sloth has other clever adaptations. Famous for its snail-similar pace; it is one of the slowest-moving animals on world. (Information technology can even accept upwardly to a month to digest its nutrient!) Although its tasty meat would make a practiced meal for jaguars and other predators, most do non notice the sloth equally it hangs quietly in the trees, high up in the canopy.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS Other animals want to announce their presence to the whole forest. Armed with dangerous poisons used in life-threatening situations,their bright colors warn predators to stay abroad.

The coral snake of the Amazon, with its bright red, yellow, and black coloring, is recognized equally i of the nearly beautiful snakes in the world, But don't admire its dazzler too long; its deadly poison can impale within seconds

The poison arrow frog also stands out with its brightly colored skin. Its pare produces some of the strongest natural toxicant in the globe, which Indigenous people often apply for hunting purposes.

Another animal with no friends is the hoatzin. Often chosen the stinkbird, it produces a horrible smell to scare away potential predators.

Q: Is it true that dozens of creature species a twenty-four hour period get extinct in tropical rainforests?

A: An average of 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every 24-hour interval in the world's tropical rainforests. The forces of destruction such equally logging, cattle ranching accept all contributed to the loss of millions of acres of tropical rainforest. Animals and people alike lose their homes when copse are cut downwardly. These animals are given no warning to movement – no time to pack their bags – and most die when the forest is destroyed.

Many large mammals such as leopards and apes need miles and miles of territory to roam and have a tough time surviving in the smaller and fragmented habitats they are forced into past humans. Other species such equally the golden toad, whose unabridged population lives on one mount in Republic of costa rica, could become extinct inside seconds from a bulldozer's crush.

When rainforests are destroyed, animals living outside the tropics endure as well. Songbirds, hummingbirds, warblers and thousands of other North American birds spend their winters in rainforests, returning to the aforementioned location year afterwards twelvemonth. Less return n each spring, as few make information technology through the wintertime considering their habitat has been destroyed.

The cut down of trees is not the simply reason for species extinction. Thousands of monkeys and other primates are traded illegally on the international market each yr, wanted for their fur, equally pets, or for scientific research. Parrots and macaws have also get pop pets; buyers will pay up to $10,000 for one bird. Even the male monarch of the jungle, the jaguar, is in danger of becoming extinct. Its fur is highly valued for use on coats and shoes.

Pollution from mining has killed fish populations in the mighty Amazon River. Many Ethnic people, who have depended on these fish for centuries, have become sick from the poisoned fish.

Extinction is a natural process. Species like the saber-toothed tiger have died off from their failure to adjust to a irresolute environs. Others like the dinosaurs died off due to a ending such as a comet or asteroid hitting the earth. Only today humans are altering their habitats too apace for animals to adapt. So many species get extinct in such a short catamenia of time, that the touch on of the industrial historic period tin can be compared to the ending of a comet strike on the diversity of life.

Humans must share the earth with all plants and animals; otherwise our abandon will result in the continued extinction of many species. Information technology would be a sad world indeed without the beauty of a toucan or the grace and power of the jaguar.

Glossary

Aye-Yes: a primate from Republic of madagascar, whose virtually unique features are its ane long finger and behemothic eyes. It uses its finger to pull out hard-to-achieve grubs from copse to eat, and its optics to run into better at night.

Ecosystem: an ecological community; complete with plants, animals, and its physical surroundings (soil, water, air etc.).

Owned: plant and animal species living only in a certain limited expanse.

Invertebrates: species such as spiders, beetles and other insects who take no courage.

Okapi: timid animals related to the giraffes who only alive in the Congo river basin in Africa.

Primates: an order in the animate being kingdom; species include monkeys, apes and human beings.

Written by Susan Silber, William Velton