Jungle Animals (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain everything about the animals that live in the jungle, examples, what they eat and the characteristics that allow them to adapt to their environment.

jaguar jungle animals — The jungle has enormous biodiversity including predators such as jaguars.

What are the animals of the jungle?

By jungle animals we mean those that make tropical or temperate rainforests their habitat. That is to say, they live in places with a humid climate that tends to be hot, whose plants usually grow to significant heights and have leafy, abundant and evergreen crowns (evergreen).

In these jungles or jungles, especially around the tropics, an impressive number of species lives, which results in very high margins of biodiversity. In fact, Almost half of the known species on the planet are found in the jungles.

Of course, this means that the animals that live in the jungles of one continent and those that live in the jungles of another are, essentially, different. However, share many adaptive characteristics, given the climatic, biotic and and other types that exist among the different jungles of the world.

It is also worth clarifying that the terms “jungle”, “jungle” and “tropical rainforest” are essentially synonyms, and there is no agreement regarding when to speak of forest and when of jungle, beyond that established by the speakers of each region. determined.

Characteristics of jungle animals

orangutan jungle animals — Jungle animals are adapted to life in trees.

The animals that live in the jungles are, more than any other habitat outside the sea, diverse. It is estimated that in A single hectare of tropical forest is home to around 1,500 species different from animals, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects and even fish.

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This very high concentration of animal species is not known in its entirety, and they form complex, vast ecological circuits, of which man often has little knowledge.

Given the important presence of vegetation in the jungles, which can reach up to 30 meters in height, the animal species They are highly adapted to life in trees or from them. There they make their nests, they feed on its bark, its products, its leaves or on animals that feed on them.

The species are organized territorially among the leafy region of the tree crowns; the lower region or understory, shaded by foliage; and the terrestrial region most attached to the ground, in the midst of abundant decomposing organic matter, such as dry leaves.

Jungle food chains tend to be fast voracious and involve numerous possible combinations of species, since the jungles are hives of life in constant and mutual interrelation.

What do jungle animals eat?

anaconda jungle animals — Many jungle animals are carnivores like the anaconda.

In the jungles, as in many other biotopes, there are four main trophic groups of animals, which are:

Herbivores They feed exclusively on plant matter, be it leaves, stems, fruits, flower nectar, seeds, bark, etc.
Carnivores They feed on the meat of other animals, mostly herbivores, but also other carnivores and smaller omnivores.
Scavengers They feed on decomposing organic matter, whether of plant or animal origin, such as animal secretions, dead animals, etc.
Omnivores They combine all of the above categories as the opportunity presents itself, without being restricted by a specific diet.