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Rainforest Animals

What animals live in rainforests?

Rainforest animals range from small insects that live on leaves to large mammals that cross rivers and clearings. The jaguar lives in forests of the Americas, while the okapi and bonobo are African rainforest animals. Clouded leopards live in Asia. This list brings them together by habitat and lets you open a species profile for its photo, name and recorded range. Animals from different continents can occupy similar parts of a forest without ever encountering one another.

Browse 105 animals

From the forest floor to the canopy

Where an animal spends its time affects what it can eat and how it moves. The canopy offers fruits, young leaves and flowers, along with branches for animals that can climb or fly. Below it, fallen fruit and leaf litter feed other animals, and streams and pools add habitat for species that need water. An okapi looks for vegetation closer to the ground. A forest cat can use trees for cover or travel, even when much of its hunting happens below.

A rainforest is more than one habitat

A forest may contain flooded ground, dry ridges, riverbanks and gaps where a tree has fallen. Different animals use those places at different times. A jaguar can cross water and take prey near a river, while an okapi browses in dense forest. The profiles include species that can also use habitats outside rainforests. Look at the distribution and habitat entries together before deciding that an animal is restricted to a particular forest or region.

Compare animals from two forests

Choose an animal from the Americas and another from Africa or Asia. Trace each one’s range on a map, then compare its diet and where it finds shelter. Follow the related-species links if you want a second comparison within the same animal group. The rainforest list is especially useful for a lesson about similar habitats on different continents: the setting can be familiar even when the animals and plants that live there are different.

Rainforest Animals List