Animals of South America

South America is the fourth largest continent on the planet Earth. Among the huge number of beautiful and amazing places on the globe, South America in its beauty takes a worthy place. In its nature there is something fascinating, unique and unrepeatable. Animals of South America are amazing and diverse, like herself.

This continent can be called a land of contradictions. The Tierra del Fuego, divided by Chile and Argentina, lies in the stormy and cold Atlantic Ocean, and the dusty and hot Pampas run through all of Argentina and Uruguay. In the west lie cool valleys and towering insurmountable Andes. In the fertile valleys, coffee grows, and the Chilean Atacama Desert is the driest place on the whole planet. The Amazon River basin is covered by impenetrable jungle thickets.

Until the end of the unexplored wildlife of South America - it's amazing inhabitants of woodlands and savannas, inimitable beasts of moist tropical forests and the Andes. It is not superfluous to mention that the Andes are the longest mountains on our planet. They stretch for 9 thousand km and, very interestingly, occupy six climatic zones. This can not but affect the animals living in this mountain massif.

Speaking of such a continent as South America, the animals here are represented by more than 600 species of mammals and amphibians (over 900 species). Also there are about 1700 species of birds. Mammals are not characterized by large clusters. This is due to the dense vegetation of natural plantations.

The animals of South America are as unusual as the birds of this region. Here lives a large number of different species of parrots, numerous species of hummingbirds. Condor, who used to live in this area, decorated the Colombian emblem. To date, it is found only in two regions of this region and is considered a vanishing species.

The animal world of South America has suffered considerably from the hands of man. The Andean Condor, a huge proud bird with a wingspan of 3.5 meters - one of the long-lived birds of the world, and can live to 50 years of age. Due to the decline in the population, it is listed in the Red Book, and some countries are carrying out programs to increase the number of this rare bird.

Animals living on this continent are so unique that they do not cease to attract the attention of zoologists. For example, in the area of the islands of Titicac, there are the only Titikak whistlers in the world and a wingless chum. Also the only representative is deer pood. His height barely reaches 40 cm, and the weight is only 10 kg. In cold weather, he comes to human settlements, where he is ruthlessly bitten by dogs. It is also listed in the Red Book.

Animals of South America are represented by large endemic families of predators, rodents and herbivores. No less interesting are the broad-eared monkeys, whose habitat is the tropical forest. They are divided into two families - tsebid and gambling. Here, too, there are a large number of spider monkeys, which because of their structure can live on tree branches.

Incomplete teeth are represented by a squad of sloths. These sedentary animals all the time hang on trees. It's very rare to see a sloth on the ground. Excellent climb trees and some types of anteaters.

Animals of South America are also a family of felines: jaguars, ocelots, small jaguarundi. There is also a predatory shrubby dog, which has been little studied.

Animals that hunt for trees are kinkazhu and nosuha.

A few species of ungulates living in hard-to-reach forests are tapir, small spiceless deer, pig-bakers.

Representatives of rodents living in these places are also unique. You will not find anywhere else capybaru, a large representative of rodents, a coanda - a tenacious porcupine and agouti, which causes significant damage to tropical crops.

Opossums and marsupials live in the moist forests of South America. There also live large flocks of bats, some of whose representatives feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals.