Page 106 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide

ECOSYSTEMS

Within an ecosystem, animals, plants, and other organisms
interact with each other and their surroundings. Tropical 1
rain forests are the world’s richest ecosystems. Found
around the equator, they are hot, wet, and packed with
plants that provide food for herbivores, which in turn are
eaten by carnivores. A South American rain-forest
ecosystem, with a few of its animals, is described here.

1 Fruit bat flies from tree to tree, 14 Brazilian tapir uses its mobile
eating ripe, sweet fruit. snout to feed on grasses, leaves,
shoots, and small branches. 5
2 Julia butterfly feeds on nectar
from flowers. 15 Wandering spider is agressive,
highly venomous, and hunts insects,
3 Harpy eagle soars over the small lizards, and mice.
canopy, swooping on monkeys,
Howler monkey’s
snakes, and other prey. 16 Hercules beetle roams the
gripping tail
forest floor in search helps it cling to 6
4 Toucan uses its long, brightly of decaying fruit. branches in its
7
colored beak to reach fruit. treetop home
17 Giant centipede eats a wide
5 Howler monkey eats leaves and range of prey including insects,
lives in a group. Their cries can be lizards, and small birds.
heard over long distances.
18 Agouti is a rodent that eats
6 Tamandua is an anteater, which fallen fruit and leaves
uses its long, sticky tongue to snare as well as roots.
ants and termites.
19 Jaguar is a large
7 Scarlet macaw uses its curved predator that stalks and
beak to break open fruit or nuts. ambushes prey, including 13
tapirs and deer.
8 Blue morpho butterfly feeds on
the juices of overripe fruits.
9 Kinkajou is a mammal that grips
branches with its prehensile
(grasping) tail.
10 Hermit hummingbird feeds on
nectar from understory flowers.

11 Tree frog thrives in these
humid surroundings, where it
eats insects.
15
12 Green iguana eats
14
leaves and fruits.

13 Eyelash viper is a
poisonous snake that
preys on frogs, lizards, 17
and small birds.

16

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