Rainforest Animals

Rainforests are incredibly rich biomes in terms of life forms – it’s thought that rainforest animals and plants make up over 50% of all of the world’s species and around 80% of land animals. This despite rainforests making up just 2% of the earth’s total surface.

A large portion of rainforest animal species are made up of insects, arachnids, reptiles, and amphibians, whilst there are also a number of iconic medium and larger-sized mammals. Many rainforest animals have special adaptations that allow them to thrive in this environment and are not found in other habitats.

What exactly is a rainforest?

The name is a rather obvious clue here – all rainforests are dense forests located in areas that receive large amounts of rain. It’s open to debate, but rainforests are generally accepted as being forests that receive at least 1.8 m of rain per year.

Whilst most rainforests are found in tropical regions, there are actually two types of rainforest: tropical and temperate:

Tropical rainforests

Tropical rainforests are rainforests located close to the Equator, between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are hot, humid places with little seasonal variation, averaging temperatures of at least 64 °F. This mix of high rainfall and constant warm temperature provides an ideal habitat for life.

Regions with significant tropical rainforest include Brazil and northern South America, West Central Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Northeast Australia.

Temperate rainforests

Temperate rainforests are further from the Equator than tropical rainforests so are typically cooler, and experience a wider range of temperatures. Fauna is dominated by coniferous trees such as pines, firs, and redwoods.
Temperate rainforests are found along the Pacific Coast of Canada and the USA, and parts of Europe, Russia, and East Asia.

The 4 layers of the rainforest

Tropical rainforests are made up of four vertical layers (or strata), each one providing a habitat for different species types:

1. Emergent layer

Emergent trees rise above the canopy layer with thick, strong trunks and grow up to 100 meters – making them some of the world’s tallest trees. With visibility for many kilometers, the emergent layer provides an ideal habitat for eagles and other birds of prey, as well as some bat species and many insect species.

2. Canopy

The canopy is composed of the vast majority of the rainforest’s trees and acts to both block out sunlight and trap moisture and humidity beneath its leaves and branches.

Many animal species are so well adapted to the rainforest canopy that they live an arboreal life, rarely ever moving to other layers. Such species include birds such as toucans and parrots, and mammals like sloths, orangutans, lemurs, and spider monkeys.

3. Understory

Between the canopy and the forest floor is a rainforest layer known as the understory. This is made up of plants and small trees with large, broad leaves to capture as much light as possible.
The understory is a dark, humid zone that is home to large amounts of insect life.

4. Rainforest floor

Very little plant life is found on the rainforest floor, as so little light makes it this far down. Rather, this layer is made up of decomposing vegetation inhabited by insects and some larger mammals like jaguars, okapis, bengal tigers, elephants, bears, and flightless birds such as cassowaries.

13 Iconic rainforest animals

With all of this context in mind, here are 13 iconic rainforest species from tropical rainforests around the globe:

Three-toed sloth (Bradypodidae bradypus)

Found: Central and South America

Sloths have an incredibly low metabolic rate and need only a few leaves and twigs for nutrition, along with a very slow digestive system leading to their sluggish pace. In combination, the sloth’s anatomical structure differs from other mammals in having very long arms with very short shoulder -blades, which allows them a large reach without the effort of too much movement, and adds to their languid style of movement.

The three-toed sloth is, in fact, the slowest mammal in the world, moving at the hair raising speed of up to 2.4 meters per minute on the ground. When they’re up in their favored rainforest canopy they’re able to pick up their speed to around a 4.6 meters per minute.

Poison dart frog (Dendrobatidae)

Found: Central and South America

This golden poison dart is one of a diverse group of brightly colored frogs found in the rainforests of northern South America. From Colombia’s Pacific coast, this frog has enough poison to kill ten adult men, and with poison glands under the skin even a touch can be enough to cause death.

Cassowary (Casuarius)

Found: Australia and Paua New Guinea

There are three species of cassowary – Northern, Southern and dwarf. All are large, flightless birds closeley realted to the emu. Picture is the Northern cassowary (Casuarius unappendiculatus), endemic to northern New Guinea. The females of the species are larger than the males, weighing up to 70 kilograms and standing 1.7 meters tall. Despite their stocky build, the northern cassowary – also known as the single or one-wattled cassowary or gold-necked cassowary – can run in bursts at 50 kilometers an hour.

Jaguar (Panthera onca)

Found: Central and South America

Jaguars are found in South and Central America, preferring wet lowland habitats, swampy savannas, and tropical rain forests. They are known to almost anything they can catch, including deer, crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, deer, sloths, tapirs, turtles, eggs, frogs and toads, and fish. The jaguar has the strongest bite of all the cat family – with a bite-force 1.4M kg per m² its bite is twice as strong as a lion’s.

Learn more about jaguars. How are jaguars different from leopards?

Anaconda (Eunectes murinus)

Found: South America

There are four sub-species of anacondas in South America, with the largest being the green anaconda, coming in at up to 250 kg and 10 meters long.

Anacondas can constrict, kill, and eat prey up to their own body weight, allowing them to take on large prey such as caimans, wild pigs, and even jaguars. The anaconda’s body design allows them to swallow their dead prey in one and digest the entire meal in just a few days, with a metabolism that means they can go for months without eating.

They are considered one of the world’s strongest animals due to their power of being able to squeeze and crush such large animals – some people believe that an anaconda would win a fight with a gorilla!

Gorilla (Gorilla)

Found: West and Central Africa

Although the most numerous of all gorilla subspecies, the western lowland gorilla (pictured) is still an endangered species. They inhabit the remote, dense tropical rainforests of Angola, Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea.

Their remote and secluded habitats make it difficult to accurately estimate their numbers, but conservationists put the total population at almost 100,000. This number is known to be decreasing, however, with the animals threatened by poaching, disease, climate change, habitat degradation, and destruction.

Okapi (Okapia johnstoni)

Found: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Despite having zebra-like markings the rare and unusual looking okapi is actually a member of the giraffe family. Their striking striped hindquarters camouflaged them and help them disappear into the forest.

Living in the dense tropical rainforests of Central Africa they use their long, sticky, giraffe-like tongues to graze on leaves, ferns, grasses, and fruit.

Black howler monkey (Alouatta caraya)

Found: South America

The black howler monkey is so named because of the loud howl it makes when marking its territory. Their call has been described as a strong wind blowing through a tunnel, and can be heard up to 3 kilometers away, carrying across the rainforest canopy.

Sulawesi bear cuscus (Ailurops ursinus)

Found: Indonesia

The Sulawesi bear cuscus is actually an arboreal marsupial rather than a bear but is so named for it’s dark, thick bear-like fur. As with most marsupials newborns are underdeveloped and carried in a pouch on the mothers’ belly until they can navigate the rainforest canopy themselves.

Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus)

Found: South East Asia

The sun bear is the smallest species of bear in the world (we all know a koala is not a bear, right?). It’s also the only species of bear that is mostly arboreal, spending the majority of its life off the ground. Found in Southeast Asia’s tropical rainforests the sun bear gets its name from the unique markings on its chest – an orange “U” shape.

Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis)

Found: South America

The Amazon River dolphin is one of five river-living dolphin species, and the only one found in tropical rainforests. Also known as the pink dolphin or boto, their range covers South America’s Amazon and Orinoco river basins.

Glass frog (Centrolenidae)

Found: Central and South America

Found across the rainforests of Central and South America, glass frogs are incredible in that they’re one of the few translucent animals. They’re so see through you can see their organs, and even right through them to see the plant life through their body. This feature takes camouflage to a new level, protecting them from predators who struggle to notice them.

Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus)

Found: South East Asia

Growing up to 1.5meters long siamangs are the largest species of gibbons in the world. They have long, shaggy black hair and a mostly hairless face, and are known for their loud whooping call made using an inflatable throat pouch. As with black howler monkeys, these calls are used to mark territorial boundaries between groups.

What did you think of these iconic rainforest animals? Have you had the opportunity to see any of these creatures in the wild? Let us know in the comments section below!