Forest Floor

The Agouti

Dasyprocta punctata

Also known as Dasyprocta punctata, the agouti is up to 64cm big. You can find the animal in central and southern America, east of the Andes Mountains. The agouti can crack open the hard Brazil nutshells; and is in fact the only animal that can. Therefore the trees are dependant on the agouti to spread their seeds. The rodent has a tail which is only up to 3cm long.

 

 

Sumatran tiger

Tigris sumatrae

The males of the Sumatran tigers grow to about 2m long. They live only on Sumatra, which is an island that is part of Indonesia. These amazing tigers feed on Wild pigs, Deer, Fish, Crocodiles and birds. The Sumatran tigers have webbing between their toes, which makes them fast swimmers. The tigers also have “eye spots” on the back of their ears, used to fool enemies sneaking up from behind. The very long whiskers of these wild cats help them to move around on the forest floor without crashing into trees. Their very sensitive eyes make these tigers very good predators. They can see 6 times better than the human’s eyes, especially at night. Indonesia originally was home to three types of tigers, this is the only one left.

 

 

Bengal Tiger

Panthera tigris

The Bengal Tigers is even bigger than the sumatran tiger. The males are around 3m big, the females only slightly smaller. These tigers live in the mangrove forests of India and Bangladesh and feed on wild ox and buffalo. These predators hunt at night. The Begal tigers are very inteligent animals, especially in the way they hunt. They silently follow their prey over long distances, and when they are close enough dart towards their meal and make the kill.

 

 

Leaf-cutter ants

Atta cephalotes

Leaf-cutter ants are about 1.3cm big. You can find them in the forests of parts of the Americas. This is one of the species of animals that is affected less by the quickly decreasing size of the rainforest, but the ants have problems nonetheless. This ant-type lives in underground colonies of 3 to 8 million ants and each ant has its own job. There are foragers, which are the ants that move around the floor in the forest in long lines for kilometers in search for leaves. They bring the leaves that they cut out to the gardener ants, since ants cannot digest leaves in their original form. The gardener ants clean the leaves, cut them into small parts and then grow a fungus on these leaves – it is the fungus that the ants can eat. And there are the defender ants, which defend the colny

 

 

Golith Bird-Eating Tarantula

Theraposa Blondi

This tarantula with an incredibly large name is, in fact, incredibly large its self: to be more exact, up to 30cm – which is about the size of a small pizza. It also weighs up to 115 gramms. But that’s not all! This awesome creature has tiny, sharp hairs on its legs that can be shot at enemies. Theraposa Blondi, or simply known as Goliath, kills its prey (mainly bugs, rodents and frogs) with a venomous bite – however the poison is not strong enough to kill a human. The Goliath can be found in the coastal rainforests of northeastern South America.

 

 

African Forest Elephant

Loxodonta Cyclotis

The African Forest Elephant is different to the “normal” African Elephant by its adaptions to the forest. For example, the forest elephant’s tusks are not bent, which makes them less likely to get caught in the underbush of the forest. These elephants also have wide, padded feet, which enables them to walk quietly throught the forest. Just as other elephants, Loxodonta Cyclotis can flap its ears in order to cool down both through fanning and because the ears are packed with blood vessels, making cooled blood circulate through the body. The African forest elephant is a huge animal, growing up to two and a half meters tall and over three metric tons heavy. They live in the central African forests around the equator.

 

 

Sumatran Rhinoceros

Dicerorhinus Sumatrensis

The Sumatran rhinoceros, also known as the Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is also a huge animal. The animals can grow up to be over three and a quarter meters long and reach a weight of 0.8 metric tons. The rhinoceros has massive horns, however is a peaceful plant eater. During the hottest hours of the day, these rhinos lie down in muddy water to cool down. However, only about 400 Sumatran rhinos live in their natural habitat, the Indonesian forests.