ANIMALS | into-the-amazon

Animals - Pictures and Information

The Amazon rainforest is home to many animals of all different types. There's large and small, strange-looking, loud and quiet, dangerous and harmless, and many, many more! In fact the Amazon is home to more than 50% of the world's species of animals! Below will be a variety of animals that are quite well-known in the Amazon rainforest and some accurate information about these animals.

Giant Sea Otter

THE Giant Sea Otter (pteronoura brasiliensis) is a South American carnivorous animal. It is an endangered specie located in the South American-northern area. It comes from the Mustelidae family and its type of species/genus is pteronoura brasiliensis.

The unique creature is the longest in the Mustelidae family growing up to 1.7m long and weighing up to approximately 32kg. On its menu are mostly a variety of fish, small reptiles and birds.

Spider Monkey

THE Spider Monkey (Ateles) can be found in the tropical rainforests Central South American. The monkey is apart of the genus 'Ateles'.

These monkeys live on the higher part of the canopy, travelling from tree-to-tree with their long limbs and tail giving the reason why they are named 'spider monkeys'.

Most of the time, spider monkeys eat fruit but will also eat leaves, flowers, seeds and insects from time to time. Spider monkeys have an average weight of 10.8kg for males and 9.66kg for females. Also, these monkeys' tails can be up to 89cm long.

Sloth

THE medium-sized Sloth belongs to two types of families - the Megalonychidae family (two-toed sloths) and the Bradypodidae family (three-toed sloths). They are related to anteaters as they are both in the same order (Pilosa) and both of them have special types of claws. Sloths are found on the canopy layer of the Amazon and move slowly through the trees, which is why they are named 'sloths'.

Sloths mainly eat fruit, buds, leaves, and bugs. As leaves are their main source of food, sloths have special types of stomachs that can digest easily through the tough leaves while eating.

Giant Anteater

THE Giant Anteater, also known as the 'ant bear', is an insect-eating mammal native to Central of South America. Giant anteaters are related to sloths as they are in both in the Pilosa order and both have special types of claws. These animals are not endangered, but are vulnerable (meaning that they are possibly harmed).

The giant anteater is the largest in its family (Myrmecophaga) as it is 182-217cm in length, weighing 33-41kg for males and weighing 27-39kg for females. It does not have any teeth and only use their tongue to eat. The whole length of an anteater's tongue can be up to around 45cm; which is longer than the length of a skull!

Toucan

THE Toucans are apart of the Ramphastidae family. This family is closely related to the American Barbets as they have very brightly colourful and large bills/beaks. Toucans are on the canopy layer of the Amazon rainforest.

A toucan's body is similar in size to a crow's. The tail can be of different sizes, from half of the bird's body and the size of its whole body. Toucans have short and thick necks. Their wings are small and only needs to fly short distances as they are forest-dwelling birds.

Toucans eat fruit, insects and small lizards. It has been proven that if you kept a toucan in a cage, it can possibly go on an only-insect diet. They also take eggs and nestlings from nests. These are a good part of protein for their diet.

Capybara

CAPYBARAS (Hydrocherus hydrochaeris) are the most largest rodents in the world. It lives in the savannas, thick forests and bodies of water (surfaces with water). Capybaras are very social animals as they can be found in a group with around 100 other capybaras, but only live with 10-20 capybaras. These animals are not threatened (not undangered) although they are hunted for their meat and fatty skin.

The capybara has a heavy, barrel-type-like body and a short head with reddish-brown fur on the top and then becomes yellowish-brown down at the bottom of its body. When capybaras are adults, they can grow up to 107 to 134cm in length, making them able to stand 50 to 64cm tall and weigh between 35 and 66kg. The heaviest female recorded in the book weighed 91kg from Brazil and the heaviest male weighed 73.5kg from Uruguay!

Capybaras are herbivores, grazing mainly on grass and watery plants but also eat fruit and tree bark. They eat a much bigger variety of plants in the dry season as there fewer plants available.

Macaw

MACAWS are the largest of the parrot family. They come from six generas: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca. Most Macaws are found in rainforests but others prefer either the woodland or savannah-like places.

Macaws' large and dark (usually black) beaks and colourful feather patterns help us recognize them by appearance. They also have facial patches around their eyes and sometimes on their beaks too.

These parrots' diet contains fruits, palm fruits, leaves, nuts, flowers, seeds, and stems.

Amazon Pink River Dolphin

THE Amazon Pink River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) was listed as vulnerable of being endangered as it lost its habitat, too much pollution, overfishing, and boat traffic. But then in 2011 it was changed to 'data deficient' and there was no information about its population, threats, trends and ecology.

Amazon Pink River Dolphins can grow larger than humans; reaching lengths 1.53 to 2.4m. Females are slightly larger than males.

These dolphins' flexibility is important so then they can travel through the water. Their necks can even turn 180 degrees around! Also, inside their long beaks contains 24 to 34 cone-shaped and molar-type teeth on each side of their jaws.

When the water level drops of where these dolphins currently are, they move to different areas where the water level is more higher. The foods they eat in these water levels are crustaceans, crabs, small turtles, and a large variety of fish.

Electric Eel

THE Electric Eel (Electrophorus electricus) is an electric fish which is not endangered at all and is actually the only type of species in genus 'electrophorus'. It can shock up to around 600 volts and uses these volts for hunting for prey and for defensing. The electric eel is actually not an eel itself but is a type of knifefish.

Its long and cylinder-ish body can grow up to 2m and can weigh up to 20kg. Electric eels can be recognized by their long bodies which are a dark grey-brown type of colour and their bellies are either orange or yellow.

Anaconda

THE Anaconda is a non-venomous snake native to tropical areas of South America. They can grow up to 6.4m long and weigh around 250kg as they are the largest and heaviest of all snakes. Anacondas can even grow as big as a grown man!

When Anacondas eat their prey, they first squeeze their prey until is cannot breath, and then swallow up all of its prey without biting it! It takes about one week to digest it, varying on the size of the animal.

Piranha
THE Piranha is apart of the family Characidae, a freshwater-type fish that eats both plants and animals living in the South American rivers. Piranhas are well-known for their small and sharp teeth and their appetite for meat and flesh. These deadly fish are originally from these four generas: Pristobrycon, Pygoncentrus, Pygopristis, and Serrasalums as piranhas from these four have special type of teeth.

Piranhas are normally between 14 to 26cm in length, but there was a report reporting about some piranhas being 43cm in length! Piranhas from the four generas (listed in the previous paragraph) are known for their unique teeth. Their sharp teeth are in one row on each side of their jaws and are used to quickly pierce or cutting.

Golden Lion Tamarin
THE Golden Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia), also known as the 'golden marmoset', is a monkey apart of the Callitrichidae family. Golden lion tamarins are endangered as there are around 1,500 spread between 3 different places in Brazil and around 490 spread among 150 zoos.

As there are companies cutting down rainforests, these monkeys have lost all of their homes in the rainforest except for only 2-5% of it in Brazil. Today, golden lion tamarians are only found in 3 small parts of Brazil: Poço das Antas Biological Reserve, Fazenda União Biological Reserve, and on the Reintroduction Program's private land. In 1972 the amount of these monkeys were between 400 to 500. But in 1981 the amount dropped and was only around 200.

These monkeys' diet consists of fruits, flowers, nectar, bird eggs, insects and small vertebrates.

Amazonian Manetee
THE Amazonian Manetee (Trichechus inunguis), also known as 'sea cows', can be found living in the freshwater parts of the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Venezuela. The colour of this animal's thick, wrinkled skin is grey, but can also sometimes be a brownish-grey. It is almost hairless but just has a few 'whiskers' around its mouth. It is vulnerable of being endangered as it is being hunted by humans.

Amazonian manetees can grow to a length of 2.8m. Females are a little bit bigger than males, weighing between 360 to 540kg.

Black Caiman

BLACK Caimans are carnivorous reptiles that like to live near slow-moving rivers and lakes. Black caimans use to be hunted and were very near to extinction, but nowadays they are at a lower risk of being extinct.

These large predators of the Amazon river can be recognized by their dark-coloured and scaly skin. Their skin can help them with camouflage at night with their hunting but can also absorb heat when the sun is out. Younger caimans' jaws' colour stands out more and will slowly fade as it becomes into an adult. Black caimans can weigh from 95 to 400kg and be in length between 2.5 to 5m and over depending either if they are still young, in the middle, or mature.

Younger black caimans eat crustaceans and insects, but then will quickly later on eat fish, piranhas, catfish and perch. When they have the chance to capture turtles, birds, or mammals they will take the chance. Older black caimans can eat anything they would like. The larger things mature black caimans will eat tapirs, anacondas, deers, giant sea otters and capybara and also domestic animals such as cattle, pigs, dogs and horses.

Jaguar
THE Jaguar (Panther onca) from the genus Panthera is the only Panthera found in America. It is the third-largest feline and is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar is listed as 'near threatened'. The number of jaguars are slowly going down due to the loss and separation of their habitat. And while this is happening, farmers with ranchers are being killed in South America. They are most closely related to leopards but are often more bigger and its behaviour and habitat area is more similar to a tiger's.

When jaguars hunt for their prey, they can swim to swim after pirarucu or turtles and can climb up on trees. Jaguars only feed on meat as they are carnivores. Its diet contains exactly 87 types of different species. They regularly eat adult caimans, deer, capybaras, tapirs, peccaries, dogs, foxes, and sometimes they even eat anacondas, which are quite big animals. But the jaguar will also catch smaller prey if can be caught, containing frogs, mice, birds, fish, sloths, monkeys, and turtles.

Poison Dart Frog (Poison Arrow Frog)
THE Poison Dart Frog is a very small animal, but could be poisonous enough to kill 100 people! They come from the Dendrobatidae family and is native to South America.

Poison dart frogs are VERY small as they can grow up to only 1.5cm as an adult, but there were a few dart frogs that had grown up to 6cm in length. They weigh about 2 grams, depending on their size. These frogs are very bright and colourful which warns predators of it being highly poisonous. Although, Colostethus species are colourful but not poisonous whereas Dendrobates species are also colourful but highly poisonous.