Jungle Animals

An American spotted jaguar has an enormous appetite.

       The South American jungle is the home of many kinds of animals. Besides the familiar animals that you expect to see in a northern forest there are comedians, shy types, gaudy dressers, and killers.

       A tropical rain-forest would naturally be the home of tree-dwellers, and this is where you find those wistful comics, the monkeys. A funny acrobat is the spider monkey, with his long slim body and tail that is used like a hand as he leaps from one swinging branch to another. The loud-mouthed comedians are the howler monkeys who, because of an unusual physical device, are able to shout in voices that can be heard for miles around. Tiniest of the monkeys are gray woolly marmosets who scurry around through the treetops like active little squirrels.

       Tree neighbors of the monkeys are the brightly colored birds. In addition to our many North American birds that only spend the winter in the jungle, there are the permanent residents the many members of the parrot family; the great-beaked quarreling toucans; the bellbirds with their bell-like calls; the mocking birds, the great imitators; and those remarkable hoatzins, strange primitive birds with lizard-like fingers on the bends of their wings to use to climb up tree-trunks into the nests.

       On the ground we find the king of the American cats, the jaguar. He is a magnificent animal with spots like a leopard and a lean body that is agile enough to climb and to swim. The jaguar has an enormous appetite. He feeds on almost every animal of the tropics, from insects to tapirs. Another killer is the dreaded bushmaster, the largest poisonous snake in America. He is a relative of the rattlesnake. The yellow and brown bushmaster glides along through the leaves at night in search of a small victim.

       Another giant snake is the anaconda, a water animal. He is not poisonous. He is a constrictor who winds his body around a victim to suffocate him and then swallows him whole, head first. An opposite type from the jungle killers is the shy tapir, who feeds only on plant-life. The tapir is an odd animal. He looks like a giant pig, tastes like beef, and is related to the horse. He is recognized by his long snout. For protection, which he truly needs against all the animals and men who hunt him, the young one is spotted and striped for camouflage. When grown, the tapir will hide or, if possible, take to the water to escape his enemies.

A mother capybara and her young 
forage on the jungle floor.

       Everything seems to grow big in the jungle, and so does the capybara, the largest rodent in the world. This water animal is about one hundred pounds in weight and four feet in length. His muddy color, bristly sparse hair, heavy nose and jaws, tiny ears, and no tail make him a rather clumsy-looking animal.

       Probably the strangest of all the animals is the great anteater. He is as large as a pig, and yet he eats only small insects‚ termites and ants. He has a tail as long as his body and a narrow head about six times as long as it is wide. He has a small mouth with no teeth and a long sticky tongue that shoots out to lap up ants. He has long heavy claws on his front feet to use for tearing down anthills and for defending himself.

       As you can see, although these animals are quite unlike in their appearance and habits and although they even compete and fight with each other, they have one thing in common. All of them are adapted to the peculiar environment of the great tropical forest of South America. Buchwald.

Read more about the jungle:

• The Jungle
• People Who Live in The Jungle
• The Jungle "Maloca"
• The Jungle Hunt
• Jungle Farming and Foods 
• Jungle Medicine Past and Future 
• The Jungle Dance 
• Jungle Crafts

Visit more website online to learn facts about rainforest animals:

• 11 Amazing Rainforest Animals
• Tropical Rainforest Biome
• Rainforest Animals List