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The World's 100 most threatened species [1] is a compilation of the most threatened animals, plants, and fungi in the world. It was the result of a collaboration between over 8,000 scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC), along with the Zoological Society of London . [ 2 ]
African forest elephants in a waterhole Group of African forest elephants digging at a mineral lick A female with her calf drinking from a spring. The African forest elephant lives in family groups. Groups observed in the rain forest of Gabon's Lopé National Park between 1984 and 1991 comprised between three and eight individuals. [27]
A well-known example of a specialist animal is the monophagous koala, which subsists almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves. The raccoon is a generalist, because it has a natural range that includes most of North and Central America, and it is omnivorous, eating berries , insects such as butterflies, eggs, and various small animals.
And unlike the Amazon where everything is larger than life, these forests offer sanctuary to a group of smaller animals. The Kodkod is the smallest cat in the Americas , weighing only about 5 lbs.
An African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), is an example of charismatic megafauna.. Charismatic megafauna are animal species that are large—in the category that they represent [1] —with symbolic value or widespread popular appeal, and are often used by environmental activists to gain public support for environmentalist goals. [2]
They can live for long periods on only one or two kinds of fruits and nuts. They eat the fruits of many big forest trees, and because they swallow fruits whole, the seeds are eventually excreted and fertilized by the feces. Studies show the diet of spider monkeys changes their reproductive, social, and physical behavioral patterns.
Fungi are also very common in rainforest areas as they can feed on the decomposing remains of plants and animals. The great diversity in rainforest species is in large part the result of diverse and numerous physical refuges , [ 25 ] i.e. places in which plants are inaccessible to many herbivores, or in which animals can hide from predators.
The boreal forest/taiga supports a relatively small variety of highly specialized and adapted animals, due to the harshness of the climate. Canada's boreal forest includes 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish, and an estimated 32,000 species of insects. [37] Insects play a critical role as pollinators, decomposers, and as a part of the ...