Rainforest Plants And Animals

The rainforests are located around the equator, which is present between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of Capricorn. The rainforests are mainly located in the Central and South America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia and parts of Indonesia and Australia.

The rainforests are home to many animals. A general estimate is that almost half of the world抯 animal species are found in rainforests. The rainforests are the oldest ecosystems on earth. The temperature in these rainforests is around 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year. With such temperature it is easy for the rainforest animals to survive even during the freezing cold or in the hot summers. Since there is an abundance of water found in these forests, the animals don抰 have to search for water.

You will not find mammals in the rainforest, but the majority of rainforest animals you will find are the millions of creepy crawlies living in every layer of the rainforest. There are approximately more than 50 million species of invertebrates living in the rainforests.

The regular search for food, water, sunlight and space for living is a match between the different species living there. The rainforest animals adapt to eating the plants or animals which the other species do not eat. Some animals have even developed a connection with the other species. The birds and animals like to eat the fruits that are grown on trees, and the fish of the rainforests depend on the fruits dropped by the tress. This helps the trees in spreading their seeds to the other parts of the forest.

Many times you will find that a species is so dependant on another, that extinction of one would lead to extinction of the other. This nearly happened with the trees that depended on the now-extinct dodo birds.

With time, each species has evolved with its own set of adaptations which help them to survive in the rainforest among the other animals. Mammals have developed an ability to protect themselves from becoming prey to other animals. Here are a few adaptations animals have:

?Camouflage: The colorings of some animals act as a protection from their predators. The best rainforest animals that are adapted to the rainforest are insects. The 憌alking stick?is one example; it blends in with the palm tree in a way that no one would realize it lives there until it moves. Some butterflies of the rainforest look like leaves, when they close their wings. Where camouflage is done for protecting oneself from a predator, it is also used by the predators themselves to sneak up to their prey.

?Hiding: Some animals protect them selves from predators by hiding themselves in burrows, rocks, leaves, tree hollows or niches which are difficult to get to.

?Pretension: Some rainforest animals try to convince their predators that they are bigger than they actually seem to be. Like the larva of the lobster moth, its larva looks like a scorpion but is really not dangerous. Many butterflies have large eye designs on their wings so that it looks like the head of a large animal.

?Colors: Many poisonous animals are covered with bright colors or flashy patters. When an animal eats one of them, they get sick; this memory stays with the animal and it avoids that animal in the future.