More than half of the world’s species of plants and animals are discovered in the rainforests. From monkeys to spiders, rainforests are bristling with life.
It is stated that a single hectare (about 2 and half acres) of rain forest can include as much as 1500 species of plants plus 750 species of trees. It is this wealth of plant life that attracts and sustains a fantastic collection of animals.
For example, one in five of all bird species are discovered in the Amazon rainforest. Mammals such as Orangutans (in Asia), Gorillas (Africa), Jaguars (South America) and sloths (Central and South America) all call the rainforest home.
List of rainforest animals
Mountain Gorillas (Status Endangered)
Mountain gorillas are the biggest living primates on earth! Along with chimpanzees, orangutan, and bonobos, they are the closest living family members of people, with mountain gorillas having the most developed brain of the four.
They live mainly on the lavish mountain sides of national forests in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. Mountain gorillas live in groups of roughly 30 members, with one dominant, male troop leader called a ‘silverback’ for the silver color in his coat.
Orangutan (Status Endangered)
Orangutan abundantly resides in the Southeast Asian tropical jungle. Orangutan suggests “male of the forest” in Malay. Orangutan is the biggest types of the fantastic monkeys. They are reside in trees and spend most of their times there. They have powerful arms strong large body, reddish-brown in color, and strong legs. Their diet plan includes flowers, ripe fruits, leaves, vines, and orchids.
Black Howler Monkey (Status Endangered)
The black howler monkey makes its name with the loud howl it utilizes to mark area. These vocalizations, which sound like a strong wind blowing through a tunnel, can be heard approximately two miles away. These monkeys live high up in tall jungle trees in groups of 4 to 19.
Blue Morpho Butterfly (Status Endangered)
With its fantastic, iridescent blue wings, the blue morpho butterfly flutters through the rainforest canopy. The many “eyespots” on its brown underside trick predators into thinking the butterfly is a large predator. Read another butterflies species here.
Monarch Butterfly (Status Endangered)
Monarch butterflies primarily found in The United States and Canada. They look stunning and have bright-colored, scaly wings. Monarch butterflies are a species of poisonus butterflies that eat the milkweed plant. Their predators fall sick if they consume them due to the poison and hence. Prevent taking advantage of them.
Okapi (Status Endangered)
This animal is like the cross breeding in between zebra and antelope. Okapi is still closely related with giraffe. They invest most of their time to consume on the Main African jungle. Their primary diets are including turf, fruits and roots. They can get different leaves and fruits with their long tongue.
Brown Throated Three Toed Sloth (Status Endangered)
The slow-moving sloth, weighing just eight or nine pounds, lives exclusively in trees, feeding upon leaves, twigs, and fruit. It moves so gradually that its fur handles a green tinge from the algae that grows on it. It can take a month to digest a single meal.
Golden Lion Tamarin (Status Endangered)
They are arboreal, live in neighborhoods, and the jungles of Brazil in South America is their natural environment. Golden Lion Tamarins are primates of the size of a squirrel, with a golden smooth hair like lion’s. They have very strong legs with sharp claws that enable them to trying to find insects from tree barks. It feeds upon insects, fruits and small birds.
Toco Toucan (Status Endangered)
They can not fly extremely well and they are found hopping the majority of the time. Toco Toucans are the biggest among their species and generally discovered in the Amazon River basin. Their striking feature is their long, curved bill and their brilliant color. They feed on bird eggs, frogs and fruits. They are social birds, in cavities integrated in tree barks.
Malayan Sun Bear (Status Endangered)
They are competent climbers, assisted by long sickle-shaped claws on all four feet. Called for the golden crescent, or “U” formed golden patch on their chest. This bears are omnivores. Their diet plan also consists of fruits, bugs, little mammals, and birds. Their natural habitat remains in southern part of China and Southeast Asia.
Crested Guan (Status Endangered)
Crested Guan is the northern member of the genus Penelope. Their existence are typically shown by its loud honking and yelping weeps or crashing sounds. Several other species of guans appear very similar and are separated by variety and vocalizations. This species can be quite approachable and even tame in safeguarded areas, but throughout much of its variety, Crested Guan is greatly hunted.
Boto (Status Endangered)
The Amazon River Dolphin or Boto is among the five types of dolphins which is live on the river. Boto lives on the Amazon River and Orinoco alcoves, South America. They can be located swimming along the mangrove trees. This species is likewise called as the pink dolphin.
Cassowary (Status Endangered)
This huge bird can be found in the New Guinea and Australia rain forest. This colorful flightless bird is the 3rd biggest bird worldwide after the emu and ostrich. The male cassowary is brighter in color than the female.
Marmoset (Status Endangered)
This unique primate can be located in the South American rainforest. Marmoset is probably the prettiest primates of perpetuity. There are 22 species of Marmoset existed on the planet. The amazing fact from this animal is, they always gave birth of twins.
Mata-mata (Status Endangered)
This unusual looking turtle can be acknowledged by its triangular flat head. Mata-mata can be located in the Amazon rain forest. Mata-mata searching their victim with their impressive camouflage, by emerging their body looking like a piece of dead tree to prevent the predators.
Rhinoceros (Status Endangered)
This mammal is huge and they are referred to as the high tempered animal. They can weigh more than 1.000 kg. Although rhinoceros is big in their physical look but they are herbivore animal. Their skin is thick and they have hearing and smelling senses. Most of the rhino can live till 40 years.
Green Anaconda (Status Endangered)
The storied green anaconda is one of the biggest snakes in the world, reaching over 30 feet in length, 12 inches in diameter, and weighing over 550 pounds. Due to its size, it is quite cumbersome on land, but it is sneaky in the water.
Elephant (Status Endangered)
This grand mammal from the family Elephantidae and the order of Proboscidea. There are two species of elephant which are The African and Asian elephant. Elephant can be found in savanna, jungle, dessert and also in the jungle. This giant creature is a herbivore mammal.
Tree-kangaroo (Status Endangered)
Tree-kangaroos are special jungle animals that only live in New Guinea and Queensland. They are perfectly adapted to live in the trees. Compared to ground kangaroos, tree-kangaroos have larger tails, broader and longer hind feet, and unique gripping paws that have a sponge-like texture. They eat fruits, leaves, tree barks, saps, and nuts. The majority of tree-kangaroo species are threatened or threatened due to searching and logging.
Margay (Status Endangered)
Margay (Leopardus wiedii) is a wild feline that resides in Central and South America, from southern Mexico to the Andes region and Uruguay. This nocturnal cat is 48 to 79 inches (19 to 31 cm) long and has markings that appear like ocelots. Margay is often called tree ocelot since it is much better in climbing than ocelots, despite looking similar. It consumes birds, eggs, tree frogs, lizards, and small monkeys. Much like routine felines, margay likes chewing plants and even fruits to make food digestion smoother.
Glass Frog (Status Endangered)
If you looked at this types, you will think that this frog is a see through creature. Glass Frog can be located in every Central and South America rainforest. There are more than 150 species of this splendid frog.
Poison Dart Frog (Status Endangered)
Among the most brilliantly colored animals on earth, the poison dart frog utilizes its color to warn predators of the toxic venom the lies within its skin. Indigenous cultures often use this frog’s poison to coat the pointer of blow darts used for hunting.
They feed on small bugs like spiders, ants, and flies. They have a dangerous skin and the toxin is used on the tips of darts and arrows for searching.
Wallace’s Flying Frog (Status Endangered)
Wallace’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) is a special frog discovered in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. Also known as “Abah River flying frog”, this brightly-colored frog has membranes between limbs that allow it to parachute from tree to tree. The males are around 3.15 inches (80 mm) long, while the women are typically larger, around 3.94 inches (100) mm long. Despite being agile on the trees, these frogs are routine victims of tree-climbing snakes.
Piranha (Status Endangered)
Piranhas are members of the Characidae household, which includes a number of fish species that reside in South American freshwater. They have infamous credibilities due to their sharp teeth and meat-eating diet plan. Nevertheless, numerous piranhas are omnivorous, because they likewise consume marine plants and fruits that are up to the water. Piranhas have sharp teeth that constantly be restored throughout their life, and they can assault and eat little mammals or birds that are up to the water.
Aye-aye (Status Endangered)
Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a native lemur types of Madagascar Island, and called the biggest nighttime primate worldwide. Aye-aye can grow to 3 feet (90 cm) long. Aye-aye has brown or yellowish color, with white streaks on the back and head. It has thin and long middle finger and index finger, which it utilizes to hunt for grubs. Its hunting method is tapping the wood to discover grubs, chew open the wood surface, and after that fish out the grubs with its long fingers.
Tapir (Status Endangered)
Tapir (Tapirus) is a group of pig-like forest animals that have round bodies, brief necks, and trunk-like proboscis noses. These animals reside in the forests of Southeast Asia, Central America, and South America. Tapirs are varied in size, however the typical measurement is 6.6 feet long (2 m) and three feet high (1 m).
The colors range from unclean white to reddish brown and even black. Malayan tapirs are unique due to the fact that they have black upper bodies and white lower bodies. They survive on drylands, however tapirs that live near water love hanging out in it.
Giant Anteater (Status Endangered)
Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is an unique insectivore mammal that lives in the rain forests of Central and South America. The animal has a long snout and thin tongue to consume ants and termites. They have big, curved front claws that they use to dig ant’s and termite’s nests. The huge anteater can grow to 7.1 feet long (6 m), and it has dark fur with special grey and white streaks. It does not have teeth, but when searching for ants, the tongue can move 160 times per minute. The animal also consumes soil and sand to aid with digestion.
Lesser Antillean Iguana (Status Endangered)
Lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima) is a relative of the more popular green iguana. It resides in the rainforests and mangroves of Caribbean islands such as Dominica, Martinique, Anguilla, Saint Barth, and Guadeloupe. Lesser Antillean iguanas spend the majority of their times on the trees, but like green iguanas, their diet plans consist of plants, flowers, and fruits. They are threatened by feral cats and pet dogs and habitat loss.
Sulawesi Wrinkled Hornbill (Status Endangered)
Also called knobbed hornbill, Sulawesi wrinkled hornbill (Rhyticeros cassidix) is the most colorful hornbill types. These jungles animals are likewise among the signs of South Sulawesi province in Indonesia. The bird has a black plume with white plumes, but the head and beak have yellow, red, and blue shades. The bird consumes fruits, pests, and small vertebrates. Knobbed hornbill is monogamous, and the female creates a nest in a hollow tree trunk by sealing the hole with feces.
Jaguar (Status Endangered)
Jaguars are species of wild felines discovered in Central and South America. They prefer residing in environments that have water sources and they are excellent swimmers. They are nocturnal animals with strong physical features, like short limbs and an extremely strong jaw with long and sharp canine teeth.
Jaguars are well-known for their lovely spotted coats, which help them hide amongst the turfs, bushes, and trees where they live. The uncommon, all-black (melanistic) jaguar is what we frequently describe as a black panther. Jaguars are understood to consume more than 85 species of prey, consisting of armadillos, peccaries, capybara, tapir, deer, squirrels, and birds and can even take fish, turtles and young caiman from the water.
Capybara (Status Endangered)
Bearing a strong resemblance to its guinea pig cousin, the capybara is the biggest rodent in the world, weighing in at more than 100 pounds and standing 2 feet high. It resides in the dense plants that surrounds water, and frequently jumps in water bodies to hide from predators. It can hold its breath for up to five minutes.
Scarlet Macaw (Status Endangered)
Scarlet macaw (Ara Macao) is a renowned parrot from South America. These birds can be found in evergreen forests of Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Amazon. These birds are rather large, around 32 inches (81 cm) long.
Scarlet macaws have bright red plumes combined with yellow, blue, and a little green. They eat fruits, seeds, and nuts, and they utilize their powerful beaks to break open tough shells. Scarlet macaws are famous for their monogamous life.
Sulawesi Bear Cuscus (Status Endangered)
Called for its thick, dark, and bear-like fur, the Sulawesi bear cuscus isn’t a real bear, but is actually an arboreal marsupial. Like other marsupials, the female Sulawesi bear cuscus gives birth to fairly underdeveloped offspring and carries the infant in a pouch on her tummy up until it is approximately 8 months old and adequately developed for survival. They live in the undisturbed forests of Indonesia, predominantly on the island of Sulawesi.