Tania 16

Rainforests are the home for millions of different animals. Animals are found in each section of the rainforest. It is thought that Tropical Rainforests contain half of the world’s known species.
While all rainforest have the same types of animals – rainforests in different countries have different species.
My favourite animal that lives in overseas rainforests are Spider Monkeys. Spider monkeys live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. Here they usually stay in the canopy away from their predators (jaguars, pumas, ocelots, and large snakes) that live on the floor of the rainforest.
The spider monkey has a brown body with black hands and feet. It has a long tail that it uses to move from branch to branch as it has no thumbs. Its tail also helps it balance when it is standing up. It is between 30 – 60 centimetres in height and weights around 6 kilograms.
Spider monkeys eat nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders.

Spiders monkeys usually live in groups and communicate with many calls, screeches, barks, and other sounds.The female spider monkey only has a baby every two to five years. They look after it for a year often carrying it on their backs. The mother looks after the baby for twelve months often carrying it on their backs.
The spider monkey is in danger because Indigenous people hunt them for food and logging is destroying their homes.

Another animal in Amazon Rainforest is the African Dwarf Crocodile. They are between 90 and 180 cm long!! This little crocodile is in danger because of losing its habitat. The skin of the animal is useless in the leather trade, so it is not poached

Central and Southern American rainforests have colourful birds like our parrots. Macaws are the largest of these. They eat nuts, fruits, and seeds with their sharp, hooked bills.

Some Australian Rainforest Animals. (picture to link)

Ulysses Butterfly
The Ulysses Butterfly is one of the largest and most beautiful butterflies in the Australian Rainforest and lives mainly in the mountains. It has bright blue wings that are surrounded by black on the edges of its wings.

King Parrot
The male King Parrot has a bright red body and head with deep green wings and blue on its chest. It is more colourful than the female who does not have the red head. They are found in trees at the edge of the forest where they eat seeds, berries, other fruits, nuts and nectar. Sometimes they also can be seen walking on the ground eating fallen seeds and fruit.
King parrots are usually seen in pairs as the male finds a mate and stays with her for life.

Giant Green Tree Frog
The Green Tree Frog is an amphibian that lives in the canopy but mates on the ground in water. They are larger than most Australian frogs (about 10 centimetres long). They eat cockroaches, spiders, flies, crickets and sometimes mice. The Green Tree Frog blend into the colours of the rainforest plants (camouflaged) with its green skin and bulging orange and red eyes.

Green Tree Python
It has bright green scales with a yellow belly. It lives only in Tropical Rainforests. Like most pythons it kills its prey (small mammals and birds) by wrapping its body around it. It has shape fangs but it is not poisonous.

Tiger Quoll

The Tiger Quoll is twice as large as other Quolls and it has white spots along their tail. It has bright eyes, a pointed snout with a moist pink nose and sharp teeth. Their fur is and is red-brown to dark brown and white and they have a long tail.
They live in rainforest in caves, hollow logs, burrows and hollow trees.
They are carnivores eating gliders, possums, rabbits and even small wallabies, bird’s eggs and dead animals and are mainly nocturnal.

Red Necked Pademelon
A Red Necked Pademelon is a marsupial. It is a small kangaroo that feeds on the edges of the forest. Their fur is soft and thick, grey brown on the back and a white chest. Its ears are large to help it hear the sounds of predators. If they sense danger they will thump their back legs on the ground to warn other Pademelons.

There are just a few of the many animals living in rainforests. Some haven’t even been named identified yet.
References
http://www.australianfauna.com/kingparrot.php
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/tiger-quoll.html
spiderhttp://spidermonkeys.com/Facts.html
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/spider-monkey.html