The water falls here almost 70 m down, the total length of the
wide falls are 2.700m, or 2.7 kilometers, and 800 m of this is
in Brazil.
There are alltogether around 275 greater or smaller waterfalls.
In these humid sorroundings the trees have no difficulties finding
a way to survive,
and there are at least 60 different orchid species around. In
total, there are some 2,000 vascular plant species present
The fauna is rich. So far there have been found at least 68 species
of mammals, 422 birds, over 40 reptiles, 18 amphibians, and 250
butterfly species.
We are, of course, unable to present all of them here, but let's
give you a taste of it:
Black
Capuchin, Sapajus nigritus
Photo: José Reynaldo da Fonseca
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A
Southern Tamandua , Tamandua tetradactyla
Photo: http://www.birdphotos.com
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The black capuchin, Sapajus nigritus, also known
as the black-horned capuchin, is a capuchin monkey from the Atlantic
Forest in south-eastern
Brazil and far north-eastern Argentina. Historically, it was included
as a subspecies of the Tufted Capuchin.
Capuchins are black, brown, buff or whitish, but their exact color
and pattern depends on the species involved. They reach a length
of 30 to 56 cm,
with tails that are just as long as the body.
Like most New World monkeys, capuchins
are diurnal and arboreal. With the exception of a midday nap,
they spend their entire day searching for
food. At night they sleep in the trees, wedged between branches.
They are undemanding regarding their habitat and can thus be found
in many differing
areas. Potential predators include jaguars,
cougars, jaguarundis,
coyotes, tayras, snakes, crocodiles,
and raptors, although there has only been one
published observation of a predator taking a capuchin in the wild.
The main predator of the tufted capuchin is the Harpy
Eagle, which has been seen
bringing several capuchins back to its nest.
The diet of the capuchins is more varied than other monkeys in
the family Cebidae. They are omnivores, eating not only
fruits, nuts, seeds, and buds,
but also insects, spiders, birds' eggs, and small vertebrates.
Capuchins living near water will also eat crabs and shellfish
by cracking their shells with
stones.
The southern tamandua, Tamandua tetradactyla, also
called a collared anteater, or lesser anteater, is a species of
anteater from South America.
It is a solitary animal, found in many habitats from mature to
highly disturbed secondary forests and arid savannas. It feeds
on ants, termites and bees.
It has very strong foreclaws that can be used to break insect
nests or to defend itself.
Anteaters, also known as antbears, are the four mammal species
of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue")
commonly known for eating
ants and termites.Together with the sloths,
they compose the order Pilosa. The name "anteater"
is also colloquially applied to the unrelated aardvark,
numbat, echidnas, and pangolins.
Extant species include the giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla,
about 1.8 mlong including the tail; the silky anteater, Cyclopes
didactylus,
about 35 cm long; the southern tamandua or collared anteater,
Tamandua tetradactyla, about 1.2 m long; and the northern
tamandua Tamandua mexicana of similar dimensions.
The tamandua is mainly nocturnal but is occasionally active during
the day. They nest in hollow tree trunks or in the burrows of
other animals,
such as armadillos. They are solitary, occupying home ranges that
average from 100 to 375 hectares, depending on the local environment.
Southern tamanduas eat ants and termites in roughly equal proportions,
although they may also eat a small quantity of fruit. They locate
their food by
scent, and prey on a wide range of species, including army ants,
carpenter ants, and Nasutitermes. They avoid eating ants that
are armed with strong
chemical defenses, such as leaf-eating ants. Tamanduas are also
thought] to eat honey and bees and, in captivity, have been known
to eat fruit and
meat as well. Anteaters extract their prey by using their extremely
strong forelimbs to rip open nests and their elongated snouts
and rounded tongues
(up to 40 centimetres in length) to lick up the insects.
Although it has the same diet as the giant anteater, both animals
are able to live alongside one another, perhaps because the southern
tamandua is able
to reach nests in trees, while its larger cousin cannot.
From
a Panorama of the Iguazu waterfalls from Brazil
Photo: Martin St-Amant
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Bush
dog, Speothos venaticus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bush_dog.JPG
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A
young Ring Tailed Coati, Nasua nasua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coati_roux_Amiens_4.jpg
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The bush dog, Speothos venaticus, is a canid found
in Central and South America, including Panama, Colombia, Venezuela,
Bolivia, Peru ,
Ecuador, the Guianas, Paraguay, northeast Argentina (Misiones
province) and Brazil (from the Amazon rainforest to the state
of Amazonas).
In spite of its extensive range, it is very rare in most areas
except in Suriname.
The bush dog has soft long brownish-tan fur, with a lighter reddish
tinge on the head, neck and back and a bushy tail, while the underside
is dark,
sometimes with a lighter throat patch. Adults typically have 55–75
cm of head and body, plus 13 cm of tail, a shoulder height of
20–30 cm
and weigh 5–8 kg. Legs and snout are short relative to body
length: the typical height is only 25–30 cm.
Bush
dog pack hunting freshwater turtle
BBC Natural History Unit
Audio: Master Tracks,
Granada Wild,
Natural FX, The British Library Sound Archive
BBC Natural History Sound Library
www.arkive.org
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It is a carnivore and hunts during the day, preferably in wet
savannahs and tropical and equatorial forests. Its typical prey
are the paca, Cuniculus paca, agouti, and capybaras, all
large rodents. Although it can hunt alone, the bush dog is usually
found in small packs. The dogs can bring down much larger
prey, including peccaries, rhea, even a 250 kg tapir hunted by
a pack of 6 dogs. When hunting paca, part of the pack chases it
on land, and part wait
for it in the water (where it often retreats). The bush dog appears
to be the most gregarious of the South American canid species.
Bush dogs have skin
growing between their toes, which allow them to swim more efficiently.
It uses hollow logs and cavities (e.g. armadillo burrows) for
shelter. Pack-mates
keep in contact with frequent whines, perhaps because visibility
is poor in the undergrowth where the animal typically hunts. During
the consumption of
large prey, parents position themselves at the ends of the animal,
facilitating the disembowelment of the prey by pups.
The South American coati, Nasua nasua, or ring-tailed
coati, Nasua nasua, is a species of coati from South America.
In Brazilian Portuguese it is
known as quati. It is native to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.
It is the southern replacement of its very similar cousin, the
White-nosed Coati. Weight in this species is 3.4–6 kg and
total length is about 1 m,
half of that being its tail.
South American coatis are diurnal animals, and they live both
on the ground and in trees. They typically live in the forest.
They are omnivorous and
primarily eat fruit, invertebrates, other small animals and bird's
eggs. Coatis search for fruit in trees high in the canopy, and
use their snouts to poke
through crevices to find animal prey on the ground. They also
search for animal prey by turning over rocks on the ground or
ripping open logs with
their claws.
South
American coati - overview
BBC Natural History Unit
www.arkive.org
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Females generally live in large groups, called bands, consisting
of 15 to 30 animals. Males, on the other hand, are usually solitary.
Solitary males were
originally considered a separate species due to the different
social habits and were called "coatimundis", a term
still sometimes used today.
Neither bands of females nor solitary males defend a unique territory,
and territories therefore overlap.
Group members produce soft whining sounds, but alarm calls are
different, consisting of loud woofs and clicks. When an alarm
call is sounded,
the coatis typically climb trees, and then drop down to the ground
and disperse. Coatis typically sleep in the trees. Predators of
the South American
coati include foxes, jaguars, jaguarundis, domestic dogs, and
people.
Also you can find Cebus red howler monkeys, Alouatta guariba,
a tree-climbing armadillo, the greater naked-tailed armadillo,
Cabassous tatouay,
giant anteater, Myrmecophaga tridactyla, crab-eating raccoon,
Procyon cancrivorus, capybara, Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris,
giant otter,
Pteronura brasiliensis, La Plata otter, Lutra platensis,
neotropical otter, lontra longicaudis, jaguar, Panthera
onca, ocelot, Leopardus pardalis,
tiger cat, Leopardus tigrina, jaguarundi, Puma yagouaroundi,
white-lipped peccary, Tayassu pecari and lowland tapir,
Tapirus terrestris.
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Black-fronted
Piping Guan,
Pipile jacutinga
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Vinaceous-breasted
Amazon,
Amazona vinacea
Photo: Chad Bordes
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Brazilian
Merganser,
Mergus octosetaceus
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The Black-fronted Piping Guan, Pipile jacutinga,
is a bird in the chachalaca, guan and curassow family Cracidae.
This species occurs in Atlantic
Forests in south-eastern Brazil and adjacent Argentina and Paraguay.
It has become quite rare in recent decades due to hunting and
habitat destruction.
It is a large bird, some 63–74 cm in length, and similar
in general appearance to a slim turkey with thin neck and small
head. Pipile jacutinga is mainly
black with a bluish gloss; it has a conspicuous white wing patch
bearing 3 neat rows of tiny black dots. The large crest is whitish,
and it has a red throat
wattle with a dark blue patch at the front. Its naked whitish
eye-ring and black-feathered face and forehead are unique in its
genus. The legs and feet
are red.
No other piping guan is found in its range, though the Gray's
Piping Guan (Pipile cumanensis grayi) approaches it in Paraguay.
This bird has a pale
bluish pendulous wattle, a smaller wing patch, and an entirely
naked white face and white forehead.
The Vinaceous-breasted Amazon, Amazona vinacea,
is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family. It is
found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland
forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and plantations.
It is threatened by
habitat loss. The Vinaceous-breasted Amazon is colourful parrot
30 cm long. It is mostly green, with a red forehead, bluish nape,
and a vinous-maroon breast.
Brazilian Merganser, Mergus octosetaceus is a duck in the
typical merganser genus. It is one of the six most threatened
waterfowl in the world
with possibly fewer than 250 birds in the wild and none kept in
captivity. The origin of its name is from its long, sharp-edged
beak that has a great
number of teeth-looking edges.
This merganser is a dark, slender duck with a shiny dark-green
hood with a long crest, which is usually shorter and more worn-looking
in females.
Upperparts are dark grey while the breast is light grey, getting
paler toward the whitish belly, and a white wing patch is particularly
noticeable in flight.
It has a long thin jagged black bill with red feet and legs. Although
females are smaller with a shorter bill and crest, both sexes
are alike in color.
The slender ducks range in size from 49 cm to 56 cm as an adult.
Young Brazilian Mergansers are mainly black with white throat
and breast.
The Brazilian Mergansers are generally silent birds, but may make
barking calls in certain situations. Four calls have been recorded.
A harsh krack-krack acts as an alarm call emitted in flight. Males
make a barking dog-like call, females make a harsh rrr-rrrr and
the contact
call is a soft rak-rak-rak. Ducklings give a high pitched ik-ik-ik.
Info about animals and birds
are from various Wikipedia-pages. |
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