Wildlife at the top in the Amazon

  The Harpy Eagle is not the largest raptor, but by far the most powerful. Females are known for their seven- foot wingspan, are larger than their male counterparts. In fact the female is strong enough to carry away a full- grown monkey.

          The Harpy Eagles prefers to eat mammal prey, such as monkeys, kinkajous, and sloth’s. If it has to it will settle for reptiles or smaller birds.

 The three-toed sloth is the least active mammal on earth, spending nearly 80 percent of its life resting. When it moves, the sloth moves like molasses. At speeds of approximately a tenth of a mile per hour.

          Each hair on the Sloth’s body has microscopic grooves where green algae reside. The algae receive shelter from the Sloth’s hair; in return, the algae help camouflage the Sloth from predators like the Harpy Eagle.

 

          One thing they do, do is howl. When the first explores came to the Amazon, they fled at the sound of roaring howlers, believing it was some creature ready to attack. Howlers are able to create that sound because of an egg shaped bone in their windpipe. This bone helps to amplify the sound of their howling, so much so the male can be heard to two miles away.

  There are many species of leaf cutter ants that live in the Amazon and are responsible for harvesting nearly a sixth of the areas leaves. They consume far more vegetation than any other equally spread group of animals.

  This butterfly is called the Blue Morpho (Morpho Menelaus). You can see why it is called the Blue Morpho because of the beautiful blue color. Don’t let this beautiful color fool you this butterfly is almost as big as your hand. Morpho butterflies are a genus of neotropical butterflies; most of them have the iridescent blue wings. The female though are not so brilliantly colored. These butterflies were the source of blue dye, which was needed in the production of US- dollar bills.

   This butterfly the Ulysses butterfly is easy to recognize because of its trademark electric blue wings. It is commonly found from Mackay north, but appears more prevalent in upland Rainforest areas.

   This Butterfly the Union Jack is commonly seen in northern Queensland Tropical Rainforests. The coloring is almost entirely white in contrast of the brilliant red and yellow found on the underside.

    Females lay eggs in clusters on the leaves of mistletoe (which is the larval food plant). The green larvae feed together in rows until they are ready to pupate. A silk girdle suspends the pupa and several may be found together, on the underside of a leaf.

   The blue-winged kookaburra has a large, cream-white head that is streaked brown. It has a brown back and its wings are mostly blue. The rump and tail are also blue on the male, but the female has a reddish-brown barred tail.

          In Australia the blue-winged kookaburra is distributed widely in tropical and subtropical eucalypt woodlands. It feeds on insects and reptiles, or frogs when they are abundant. They feed on snakes, lizards, large insects, small mammals, and odd small birds.

     The Amazon has a vast parrot population. In this land of parrots, the largest and to some, the most beautiful is the Macaw.

          There are many different types of macaws; the largest is the red and green variety. Because they are such choosy eaters, Macaws are found throughout the Amazonian. In fact, they will travel hundreds of miles to reach there preferred source of food. Macaws can most often be found in patches of burriti trees. Burriti trees can provide a Macaw with every thing it will ever need, food, bed and a secure nursery for breeding.

 This is an Antstrike, which eats insects on the forest floor. They make their nest in the understory.

    This is a Heliconia butterfly. Because of the leaves it eats, as a caterpillar is poisonous to any predator that might eat it. By being brightly colored it attracts animals, which eats it then becomes sick, they will also remember this and won’t eat it again.

   This butterfly the Sulphur most people say looks like a flower. Which is good for the butterfly because it goes unnoticed by predators.

   This butterfly the green Malachite is camouflaged by blending in with the green all around it.

   The Glasswing butterfly doesn’t camouflage itself by looking like the background, but by allowing the background to be seen through it.

   Humming birds live in large numbers in the understory of the rainforests. You can find them anywhere there are flowers especially orange and red nectar-rich flowers.

     This is another type of Humming bird found in the understory. This one is called the Sugarwater Feeder.

   The Hercules beetle lives on the forest floor. Its pinchers are just for show. To scare off predators.

 The Cicadas look like leaves. This helps them avoid being eaten by birds, lizards, and snakes.

   Agoutis are big rodents, which scour the forest floor looking for seeds and other things to eat.  

    This monkey the white faced capuchin feeds on leaves and fruit. It spends most of its time leaping from tree to tree. If you are standing quietly in the rainforest you can hear monkey talk, which is monkeys calling to each other to keep in contact with their groups or to warn strangers away.

  Parrots are only one of the birds you can find in the rainforests. 2,500 birds call the rainforest their home.

        Here was a look at some of the different species of animals of the rainforest. The same animals that we are allowing to be destroyed. I hope by looking at these animals and remember there is many many more then I have not shown, that it will make people start thinking about what we are letting be destroyed. Once these animals are gone that will be the end of that species, because many of the animals found in rainforests cannot be found any where else on earth.