Rainforest mammals are a rich and varied collection of animals, from bats to tapirs, from elephants to sloths. Many species are jeopardized in their natural environments by the destruction of the rainforests.
This chapter describes a cross section of both Old World and New World rainforest mammals, concentrating on the best known and the most interesting species. Some groups of mammals are well represented in the rainforests, while others like the horse family, dogs and rabbits have only a few if any rainforest cousins.
Apes
Apes are primates - relatives of the monkeys that walk on their hind legs and have no tail or cheek pouches. Apes are also characterized by their high intelligence - human beings are classed as apes. Non-human apes are restricted in the wild to the Old World and the major groups are the gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutan.
Gorillas live in the lowland rainforests of Africa as well as in montane rainforests. Gorillas weigh up to 600 pounds and walk on the soles of their feet aided by the knuckles of their hands. Gorillas live mainly on the ground and eat plant material.
Gorillas live in troops of 15 or more individuals. Each troop consists of females and juveniles led by one dominant male. Although most gorillas have black fur, older males have whitish fur on their backs, and are called 'silverbacks'.
Chimpanzees are smaller than gorillas (around 150 pounds full grown) and live in tropical African rainforest as well as on the fringes of the forest where it joins regions of grassland. Chimps are the most similar apes to human beings, and they are the only animals known to make tools.
Chimpanzees live in troops of 30-80 animals.
Orangutans are hairy red apes that live in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Although they are now restricted to these regions, they were once found throughout SE Asia. Orangutans weigh up to 220 pounds and live in trees - they construct crude nests and live on a diet of plant materials.
Bats
There are two major groups of bats - insect eating and fruit eating bats. Both are found extensively in the rainforests of the world. Vampire bats live in the American tropics. They feed on the blood of animals like cows, tapirs or peccaries, and may transmit rabies and other diseases.
Other bats eat fruit, nectar or insects. Long tongued bats use their long tongues to extract nectar from flowers, while Wrinkle faced bats feed on fruit.
Cats
Cats belong to the family Felidae and there are a number of species found in the rainforests. The widest variety of cats are found in South American rainforests, and these include the Ocelot, Jaguar, Margay and Jaguarundi. Jaguars are the largest tropical cats - they are 6 feet long, weigh 300 pounds and have beautifully patterned fur. Jaguars eat animals ranging in size from small fish up to peccaries. They hunt both by day and by night.
Ocelots and Margays look alike. Their fur is a rich tan color with dark brown, black-rimmed spots.
African rainforest cats are much less common. The best known is the African Golden Cat. This now-rare animal weighs around 30 pounds and is spotted golden brown in color. Golden Cats eat small animals.
Asian rainforests are home to tigers. The Indochinese tiger lives in the dense rainforests of Southeast Asia and is able to swim across wide rivers. Most of these tigers are solitary, except for mothers with young to rear. Sumatran tigers are the smallest and rarest of the tigers. Less than 1,000 remain in the wild.
Clouded leopards live in southeast Asian forests up to 7,500 feet in elevation. These endangered leopards are very good climbers and eat birds and monkeys as well as ground-dwelling prey.
The fishing cat lives in marshy thickets, mangrove swamps and other watery areas of an area that includes Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Indochina. This relatively small wildcat has webbing between its toes and crouches on rocks or sandbars to scoop up fish with its foreclaws.
Edentates
Edentate means 'without teeth' and is given to this group of animals because their teeth are reduced or even absent. Edentate rainforest mammals include anteaters, sloths and armadillos.
Anteaters live in Central and South America and do not have teeth. The Giant Anteater is up to 5 feet long and has a long tubular mouth with a long sticky tongue. These adaptations allow the anteater to reach far into ant mounds. Giant Anteaters also have stout curved claws on their forefeet, and these are used to open ant and termite nests.
Sloths are tree-dwelling edentates found in South America. Unlike anteaters they do have teeth in their cheeks. There are two main types of sloth, two toed- and three toed- sloths.
Sloths have feet with long curved claws which they use to hang upside down from tree branches - they move very poorly on the ground. Sloths eat leaves and are very slow moving. The sloth's fur often acquires a covering of green algae because it moves so slowly. The fur hangs in the opposite direction to that of most mammals: this helps it to shed rain when the animal hangs upside down.
The Giant Armadillo is another rainforest edentate of South America. It lives throughout the Amazon Basin and has a horny plate on its back to help protect the animal against predators like the jaguar. The backplate is articulated by bands of softer skin so that the armadillo can curl up when disturbed.
Giant Armadillos are most active at night and so are rarely seen. They can be up to 5 feet long and weigh 120 pounds or more.
Elephants
Indian elephants live in the rainforests of South Eastern Asia although much of their natural habitat has now been destroyed. African elephants live in grassland as well as in rainforest regions.
Indian elephants are characterized by their small ears. They weigh up to 3000 pounds and may eat up to 700 pounds of trees grasses and bamboo per day.
Even-toed hoofed mammals
The even-toed hoofed mammals include the pigs, camels, hippos, giraffes, deer and cattle families. They are characterized by usually having two toes on each foot as well as a 4-
compartment stomach. These animals are ruminants which 'chew the cud'. Ruminant mammals found in the rainforests include peccaries or New World pigs, chevrotains or mouse deer, okapis, gaur and banteng - the latter are two cattle species found in SE Asia.
Okapis are relatives of the giraffe found in African rainforests. These animals are covered in a separate section of this CD ROM disk.
Giraffe family
The shy okapi lives in dense rainforests of Zaire. It was first discovered early in the 20th century by the British governor of Uganda, Sir Harry Johnston. The okapi is the closest living relative of the giraffe. It has a very long tongue, between 15 and 18 inches, which it uses to gather leaves, shoots and fruit from high tree branches. The tongue is also used for grooming, and can reach behind the okapi's ears. Although protected since 1933, okapis are still hunted and are now an endangered species. Adults reach a height of 6 foot tall and can weigh as much as 500 pounds.
Marsupials
Marsupials or pouched mammals are mammals which give birth to a premature fetus which attaches itself to a nipple within the females' pouch, remaining in this position until development is complete.
Most marsupials are found in Australasia, and include several species of tree kangaroo native to the rainforests of Papua New Guinea.
New World marsupials are restricted to the opossums.
New World monkeys
Monkeys are mainly tree-dwelling primates that eat mainly fruit and seeds. They are found in both the Old and New Worlds and are usually grouped into the lemurs (Madagascar and SE Asia), lorises (SE Asia and Africa), tarsiers (SE Asia), New World monkeys and Old World monkeys.
The New World monkeys of Central and South America are separated into two main groups, the Callithricidae or marmosets; a group of small monkeys including tamarins, and the Cebidae, a group which includes the capuchins, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys and spider monkeys.
Marmosets have a variety of tufts, manes and mustaches. Unlike most other monkeys marmosets do not have fingernails, but instead have claws. They have long balancing tails which are longer than their bodies. Marmosets are very active monkeys, constantly turning their heads in all directions to scan for predators.
Tamarins also have long nonprehensile tails. Like marmosets, the hair on their heads comes in a variety of ear tufts, manes and mustaches.The main difference between the two lies in the shape of their teeth - the tamarin has tusklike lower canine teeth.
The howler monkey is one of the largest monkey species, found in Central and South America. Howler monkeys have strong prehensile tails with which they grip branches for support. The howler monkey's threatening powerful roar can be heard over long distances in the forest. The Indians gave the howler the name 'caraya' which translated means 'chief of the woods'. They are arboreal and feed on fruits and leaves. These monkeys are intensively hunted and are rarely found in inhabited places.
Odd-toed hoofed mammals
Odd-toed hoofed mammals are the horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses. Horses are not native to present-day rainforests, but both tapirs and rhinos are found in rainforest environments.
There are four species of tapir: two are found in South America and two in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Tapir are gentle, large animals with thick necks and a long upper lip. Adults may weigh over 1/4 ton. They live near riverbanks and are strong swimmers. They are usually nocturnal and feed on fruit and grasses. The number of tapirs has decreased sharply as their hides are considered to be extremely desirable.
Destruction of their habitat is also endangering the tapir. The black and white color of the Malayan tapir provides an effective camouflage in moonlight.
African rhinoceroses are found in woody or grassy areas south of the Sahara desert but are not true rainforest animals. The Sumatran rhinoceros is however found in forest areas.
Old World monkeys
Monkeys are mainly tree-dwelling primates that eat mainly fruit and seeds. They are found in both the Old and New Worlds and are usually grouped into the lemurs (Madagascar and SE Asia), lorises (SE Asia and Africa), tarsiers (SE Asia), New World monkeys and Old World monkeys.
Old World rainforest monkeys include the mandrill, proboscis monkey, colobus monkey, and guenons. These monkeys do not have prehensile tails. Proboscis monkeys live in mangrove forests of the coasts of SE Asia - they are now confined to parts of Borneo and the surrounding islands.
The lemurs include the tree shrews, woolly lemurs, aye-aye and true lemurs. Apart from the tree shrews, lemurs live in Madagascar. There are 20 known species and a further 14 species have become extinct in the last 100 years. Lorises include the slow loris of SE Asia and the bush baby of southern and equatorial Africa. These large-eyed primates have no tail
Tarsiers live in the rainforests of SE Asia - they have large eyes for night vision and look rather similar to lorises. Unlike the lorises tarsiers have long, ratlike tails.
Pigs
There are two families of pigs, the Suidae or Old World pigs and the Tayussuidae or New World pigs. They are very similar groups of animals, with canine teeth that are enlarged as curved tusks.
Babirusa are hairless wild pigs found in the forests of Sulawesi in Indonesia. (The name 'babirusa' comes from the Indonesian words 'babi' meaning pig, and 'rusa' meaning deer). Babirusa are good swimmers and much of their diet consists of water plants, tubers and fruit.
Unlike other wild pigs, babirusa do not root for their food. Males have two pairs of curved tusks whereas females are tuskless.
Peccaries are New World pigs found in the rainforests of South America.
Racoon family
Although racoons are not found in rainforests, several related animals are native to the Central and South American rainforests . These are the kinkajou and the coatimundi.
The white-nosed coati shown here was filmed in Costa Rica - this type of coati is found from Texas down to the west coasts of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The very similar South American coati has a brown muzzle and is found east of the Andes in the Amazon rainforest down to Argentina and Uraguay.
Rodents
Rodents are classified as gnawing mammals. They have chisel-like teeth which grow continuously to replace the tooth surfaces as they are worn away.
Rainforest rodents include the agouti and capybara, both native to South America. This group of animals all have large heads with bulging jaw muscles, short ears and short or no tails. The capybara is the largest rodent in the world, measuring about 2 feet long. Capybaras are found from Panama down to Argentina and live in family groups of 2-6 individuals. They are good swimmers and are always found close to rivers.
There are a number of agouti species, differing mainly in coloration. Smaller than the capybara, these rodents are found in many areas of Central and South America. Some species like the Black Agouti and the Red-rumped Agouti occur predominantly in rainforest regions.
Agoutis eat nuts and fruits, and live in dense understory thickets in rainforest regions - the vegetation provides protection from predators like human beings or jaguars.
Squirrels
Squirrels are often thought to be native to temperate woodlands, but this is a large group of animals with representatives found in many different habitats. The flying squirrel Glaucoma for example lives in the forests of SE Asia. It has broad membranes along the sides of its body, used to help the animal glide between trees.
