Jungle Animals A Science Perspective By Helen Merrill

Life in the jungle is filled with danger. Cougars and pumas stand ready to pounce; snakes sliver unseen between feet to administer a lethal bite; while exotic birds chirp overhead. An animal must be both smart and strong to survive in this environment. The intense competition from other species makes jungle animals the most interesting. The jungles of the world are being destroyed by loggers and development. Many species found in the rainforest are endangered. Once they disappear, they are gone forever!

Animal Classification Animals BirdsAmphibiansReptilesFish Insects & Spiders Mammals Jungle animals can be classified into these different groups

Mammals Mammals are vertebrate animals with body hair, mammary glands and four limbs. They breathe air and are warm-blooded. They have a four- chambered heart. The young are born alive and feed on their mother’s milk. The largest animals, the elephant and the whale, are mammals,.

Birds Birds are warm- blooded, air- breathing vertebrates with a four chambered heart that are covered with feathers. They reproduce by laying eggs. They have a light body weight in relation to their size.

Amphibians Amphibians are the earliest form of all land vertebrates. The word “amphibia” means both lives. These animals begin life in the water, spend their adult life on land, and return to the water to lay their eggs. They are born with gills to breathe under water. These are replaced by lungs at the end of their development, or metamorphosis, into adults, They lay eggs.

Reptiles Reptiles are cold-blooded and breathe air. Their skin is thick, usually forming scales or plates. Their young develop in eggs, inside or outside the body, depending on the species.

Fish Fish live in water all their lives. They breathe oxygen from water through special organs called gills. They have fins and scales. Fish are cold-blooded and give birth to babies hatched from eggs.

Insects and Spiders Insects and spiders are known as arthropods. They have segmented bodies, jointed legs, and an external skeleton. There are more than a million species of insects and around 50,000 species of spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks. They are cold-blooded and give birth to young hatched from eggs.

Habitat A habitat is an environment where the existing conditions meet the needs of a form of wildlife for survival. The setting is determined by the geology of the land and the climate. These factors influence the vegetation, which in turn defines the animal inhabitants.

Resources Wildlife Fact File,