Endangered Rainforest animals
Jaguars
Jaguars and leopards may look alike, but they are actually different animals! Jaguars live in forests and are shorter and thicker, and have different ways of capturing food. While leopards rely on speed to catch their dinner, Jaguars quietly follow their prey, and then pounce on it! This sneaky cat has a powerful bite and they quickly nab their victims before they even know what has hit them. Jaguars are endangered because people hunt them for their fur, and because their forest homes are being destroyed.
Jaguars and leopards may look alike, but they are actually different animals! Jaguars live in forests and are shorter and thicker, and have different ways of capturing food. While leopards rely on speed to catch their dinner, Jaguars quietly follow their prey, and then pounce on it! This sneaky cat has a powerful bite and they quickly nab their victims before they even know what has hit them. Jaguars are endangered because people hunt them for their fur, and because their forest homes are being destroyed.
Poison dart frogs
Poison dart frogs are really, really poisonous, like many other animals that are unhealthly to eat {such as Monarch Butterflies} they advertise that they make deadly meals with their bright colours. Poison dart frogs eat insects and spiders, and they use their excellent vision to find their prey on the forest floor. Naturally, they capture their prey using their long, sticky tongues. Poison dart frogs lay their eggs on leaves, covered in a slimy gel that keeps them fresh. When they hatch, they go onto their father's back so he can give them a piggy back ride to the nearest pool of water.
three toed sloths
Sloths spend more time hanging upside down than bats! In fact, these slow creatures barely move at all, and male sloths may spend their entire lives in the same tree. Sloths sometimes sleep up to 20 hours a day so they don't have to eat as much food. Also, unlike most mammals, they don't control their body temperature very well. This means that they can only live in tropical forests, where it is always very warm. The three toed sloths is endangered because their forest homes are being destroyed to make charcoal harvest wood, and to clear land for plant farms.
Hyacinth macaws
Macaws are parrots, which means that they have strong toes that can crush nuts, and strong toes that they can use like hands- to hold things! Macaws live in groups of 10 to 30 birds, and are very social. They love to clean each others feathers, and "chat" with one another. When macaws pair up to have young, they stay together for life! They are excellent parents, who both take care of their chicks until they can fly and find food. Hyacinth Macaws are endangered because their forest homes are being destroyed. Also, so many macaws are trapped and sold to people as pets that their numbers in the wild are falling!
gorillas
The threats to gorillas is complex. Their life span in captivity is 50 years, in the wild it is 35 years. Loss of their habitat is a large reason for their decline. But poaching is very hard to keep in check, and even live capture for smuggling to the black market for the trade is almost impossible to track or stop. The Gorillas are killed for their meat, refered to as "bush meat" this is illegal, and yet still they are butchered on the side, making capturing the guilty highly imporobable. Gorillas and many other primates are endangered because of humans. Each year, a lot of trees and forests are cut down, where these gorillas live. Gorillas are mammals just like us. In fact, almost all primates are like humans. Primates are the closest relative to humans.
Cassowary
Cassowaries eat fruit and seeds. The seeds pass through their bodies, and so the cassowary plays an important part in spreading seeds of rainforest plants. They also eat small mammals and birds they find dead. Females are slightly larger then males. Breeding takes place between May and November. After mating, a female lays 3-6 eggs and leaves the male to sit on them for about 8 weeks until they hatch. Cassowaries are endangered because of habitat being lost or the hunting for food.