What kind animals live in the rainforest

Glass frog tadpoles freely flow from the trees and fall directly into the water upon hatching. The Jesus lizard was given its name thanks to its ability to run on water. Catholic explorers found it similar to the Gospel story of Jesus who walked on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. When fleeing from predators, it can literally run on the surface of water such as a pond or stream at a speed of 5 miles per hour, and for up to a distance of 20 meters.

This common basilisk can do this incredible stunt with its toes that possess a special webbing, allowing it to stand upon its two hind feet. The kinkajou, a relative of the raccoon, has a furry golden skin and a tail designed to grip branches. More commonly known as bear-monkey, honey bear or lion monkey, the Kinkajou is rarely seen because it is a nocturnal creature who clings on the top of trees.

They use their 5-inch long tongues to pick ripe hanging fruits. They love to drink the nectar of flowers and have a diet consisting of 90 percent fruits. Even still, they are considered carnivores. They are sometimes kept as pets although they can carry the roundworm parasite.

One of the most unusual animals on earth, the Sloth, is known for being a very slow animal. This mammal is slow-paced in everything, from its movement which entails sleeping for 10 hours a day and moving only as necessary. It can take their bodies a month to digest food! Moreover, a sloth's main diet is mostly only leaves chewed by its tongue that is around 10 to 12 inches long.

It's not surprising that two-thirds of their whole body is made up of the contents of their stomach! Their body temperature is low at only 86 degrees Fahrenheit merely 30 degrees Celsius. The poison dart frog, contrary to its name, may not be deadly at all, as only 3 species are actually lethal, of which the golden poison arrow frog is the most dangerous.

Members of the other main group of turtles, Cryptodira, draw their heads straight back into their shells. The aye-aye is a species of lemur found in the rainforests of Madagascar an island country off the east coast of Africa. The aye-aye eats grubs insect larvae , which it finds by tapping on trees with its fingers.

By listening carefully to the noise produced by the tapping, it can tell if a grub is hidden under the bark. Members of this family are known as viverrids. The binturong is the only Old World mammal with a prehensile tail. Blue morphos are brilliant blue butterflies. There is more than one species of blue morpho; the name is used for any blue butterfly in the genus morpho. A genus is a group of closely related species.

Blue morphos feed among other things on rotting fruit , which they find on the floor of rainforests in South and Central America. Sometimes there are so many blue morphos flying over the rainforest canopy that pilots can see the blue of their wings from the sky! The boa constrictor is a large rainforest snake. It ambushes its prey, then constricts squeezes it before swallowing it whole.

The boa constrictor is a member of the family Boidae , a group of large, non-venomous snakes that also contains the green anaconda see further down the page. Caimans are predatory reptiles that live in the rivers and lakes of Central and South American rain forests and other habitats. There are six species of caiman. The spectacled caiman Caiman crocodilus is one of the most common species of caiman. It gets its name from the bony ridge on its nose, which makes the reptile appear to be wearing glasses.

The largest caiman is the black caiman Melanosuchus niger , which grows to lengths in excess of 5 m 16 ft. The candiru is a small fish found in the Amazon River and several other South American rivers and their tributaries.

It has a long, thin, translucent body. Small spines are present on its gill covers. These rainforest fish feed on the blood of larger fish by attaching themselves to their gills of their victims. It is even rumored that the candiru can enter a human body. However, this is both unproven and unlikely.

It lives South and Central American forests. The capybara has several adaptations for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. It can remain submerged for up to five minutes; a useful skill for an animal whose predators include jaguars and ocelots! Civets are cat-like mammals found in rainforests in Asia and Africa. They produce a strong-smelling substance that is used to make perfume although most perfume manufacturers are now switching to synthetic alternatives.

Most civets are members of the family Viverridae the binturong also belongs to this family. The African palm civet , a civet found in African rainforests, is the only species in the family Nandiniidae.

Civets are mammals in the group Carnivora. This group is split into two branches; Feliforma the cat-like carnivorans and Caniformia the dog-like carnivorans. Civits, along with animals such as cats and hyenas, are placed in Feliforma.

These cat-sized carnivorous mammals are members of the raccoon family, Procyonidae. Coatis forage on the forest floor by day. They find food among the leaf litter using their acute sense of smell. During the night they rest in the rainforest canopy.

Despite its name and eel-like appearance, the electric eel is a knifefish rather than a true eel. This long, thin fish has a fin running almost the whole length of the underside of its body. By moving this fin with a wave-like motion the electric eel is able to swim both forwards and backwards.

Like other knifefish, the electric eel is able to produce electrical fields that help it navigate in murky water. The electric eel has greatly developed this ability and is able to produce voltages strong enough both to stun prey and deter predators.

A shock from an electric eel can even be life-threatening to humans! This strange-looking rainforest bug is found in the island country of Madagascar. This is an adaptation for fighting and nest-building.

The neck of the male is over twice as long as that of the female, giving the insect a total body length of almost 1 in. In their adult form they are over 10 cm 3. Their larvae weigh up to grams 3. The goliath birdeater is a member of the tarantula family Theraphosidae. This huge rainforest spider is the heaviest spider in the world although its leg-span, at 11 inches 28 cm is only the second largest, after the giant huntsman spider.

Its body reaches a length of up to 4. They live primarily on the lush mountain sides of national parks in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa.

With its brilliant, iridescent blue wings, the blue morpho butterfly flutters through the rainforest canopy. The striking okapi—the closest living relative of the giraffe—lives in the dense tropical Ituri Forest of Central Africa.

The slow-moving sloth, weighing only eight or nine pounds, lives exclusively in trees, feeding on leaves, twigs, and fruit. It moves so slowly that its fur takes on a green tinge from the algae that grows on it. It can take a month to digest a single meal. Jaguars are famous for their beautiful spotted coats, which help them hide amongst the grasses, bushes, and trees where they live.

The rare, all-black melanistic jaguar is what we commonly refer to as a black panther. Jaguars are known to eat more than 85 species of prey, including armadillos, peccaries, capybara, tapir, deer, squirrels, and birds and can even snatch fish, turtles and young caiman from the water.

Bearing a strong resemblance to its guinea pig cousin, the capybara is the largest rodent on Earth, weighing in at more than pounds and standing two feet tall. The crowded roosting places demand that the toucans tuck their beaks and tails under their bodies to save space. All the seven species of these monkeys are threatened to some extent. These highly social creatures live in large groups of about 35 individuals and split into smaller groups to feed during the day.

The three-toed sloths are arboreal mammals found in South and Central America. These tropical rainforest animals are named so for their slow gait which is an adaptation to conserve energy. These sloths have a size of a small dog or a big cat and three clawed toes on each limb. The great hornbill or Buceros bicornis is a vulnerable species found in forests in parts of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is one of the largest species of the hornbill family.

Predominantly frugivorous, the bird also feeds on small mammals, birds, and reptiles occasionally. It can live for around 50 years in captivity and features prominently in the rituals and cultures of locals in areas where it is found.

The kinkajou is one of the animals in the tropical rainforest which though mistaken for monkeys or ferrets, are related to none of them. The kinkajou is native to the Central and South American rainforests. These animals are nocturnal, frugivorous, and arboreal in nature. Unfortunately, they are hunted for the pet trade and for their fur. The emergent layer has few giant trees that reach heights up to 45 to 55 m or even higher. Thus, these trees appear to emerge over the canopy layer. The trees of this layer are well adapted to withstand the strong winds and hot temperatures above the canopy.

When such emergent layer trees collapse, it forms gaps in the canopy, allowing sunlight to reach the lower layers of the rainforest. The crowned eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus is a massive and ferocious bird of prey that is found in the emergent layer of the rainforests.