Transcript Jungle Animals

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
Birds
Mammals
Amphibians
Animals
Insects &
Spiders
Reptiles
Fish
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 fourchambered 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
warmblooded, airbreathing
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
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Wildlife Fact File, 1995
http://junglewalk.com/
http://mbgnet.mobot.org/sets/rforest/animals/
http://www.junglephotos.com/