Animals in Brazil - Lonely Planet Travel Information. Anteaters, armadillos & sloths. Zoologists group these animals together in the edentate order. It tears open ant and termite nests with its sharp claws and laps up as many as 3. You’re most likely to see the giant anteater in cerrado (savanna) habitat. Its meat is prized in some areas of Brazil, and it’s a threatened species.
The collared or lesser anteater, up to 1. Sloths, true to their name, move very slowly. And they’re not, by the look of it, too bright. They hang upside down from branches by their strong arms and legs, feeding on leaves, sleeping up to 1. Surprisingly, they’re good swimmers. You have a good chance of seeing some if you get a bit off the beaten track in Amazonia: from a moderate distance they look like clumps of vegetation high in trees.
Animals in Brazil, find and experience the wildlife and animals of Brazil. See images and photos of animals and their environment - Lonely Planet.
- A selection of portraits from Photo Ark, a project to document the world's animals before they disappear.
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The species you’re most likely to see is the brown- throated three- toed sloth. Brazil’s several species of armadilloare mainly nocturnal and rarely seen. Two of them are threatened.^ Back to top.
Coatis & raccoons. The widespread coati is one of the carnivorous animals that you’re most likely to come across – possibly as a pet, for it’s easily tamed. It’s furry and cute, the size of a small or medium- sized dog, with a long brown- and- yellow- ringed tail, and a long flexible snout that noses around for food on the ground or up in trees. Scientifically the coati is a procyonid – one of the raccoon family. Its distant relative, the crab- eating raccoon, with a ringed tail and black eye mask like the North American raccoon, is found in Amazonia, the Pantanal and in between, always near water, where it seeks out its diet of crabs, fish, mollusks and small amphibians.^ Back to top. Deer, peccaries & tapirs. These animals are all ungulates (hoofed quadrupeds), though this term is no longer used in formal classification.
Crocs like to hang around in pools, lakes and rivers safe in the knowledge that all animals need to drink. One meal can last these prehistoric beasts a long time so. This is a list of zoological gardens around the world. For aquaria, see List of aquaria. For dolphinariums, see List of dolphinariums. For an annoteted list of.
Nocturnal Animals Project Research Sheet - Use this fantastic resource to get your children interested in nocturnal animals! Animals in Ecuador, find and experience the wildlife and animals of Ecuador. See images and photos of animals and their environment - Lonely Planet. Nocturnal Animals Differentiated Word Search - This nocturnal animals themed word search features key vocabulary for this topic. Great for consolidating spelling, you.
In the Pantanal, most people see at least a few deer. The biggest, which is active by day, is the marsh deer, whose antlers can grow to 6. Other species – some found as far north as Amazonia – include the pampas deer, which lives more out in the open than most other deer, and the small (6. Peccaries – looking like small wild boars – are fairly widely distributed in forests. They live in groups, are active by day and feed on fruit, roots, carrion and small animals. The collared peccary, around 1m long and weighing 2. The slightly bigger white- lipped peccary travels in groups of 5.
The Brazilian tapir can be found in most forested parts of the country but is shy and nocturnal. Related to the horse and about the size of a stocky pony (it can weigh 3. It rarely strays far from mud, which it uses to keep cool and control parasites. It is russet- colored, fox- faced and long- legged, grows to about 1m long (plus tail) and has a mane of darker hair on the back of the neck. It’s commonly hunted and is a threatened species.
Other Brazilian members of the dog family include the crab- eating fox and the bush dog, both present in cerrado and the Pantanal. They are pretty rare and in fact you’ll be lucky if you see any of these three. This elusive and splendid big cat – the largest American feline – is widely but thinly distributed in Brazil, occurring in Amazonia, the Pantanal, the cerrado and such easterly national parks as Capara. Yellow with black spots, jaguars can grow to 2. Jaguars hunt at night, covering large distances. They prey on a wide variety of animals, in trees, water and on the ground, including sloths, monkeys, fish, deer, tapirs, capybaras and agoutis – but rarely people. They’re generally solitary and, unusually among cats, good swimmers.
The puma, almost as big as the jaguar and similarly elusive, is the same beast as North America’s cougar or mountain lion. As well as preying on deer, it sometimes attacks herds of domestic animals such as sheep or goats. Brazil’s four smaller wild cats are also widely but sparsely distributed and rarely seen. Three have markings similar to the jaguar.
The largest of the three (up to 1. The jaguarundi is probably more often seen than any other Brazilian feline, because it’s active by day. A good swimmer, it’s also known as the otter- cat, and is similar in size to the margay, with a uniformly colored coat, which may be black, brown or gray.^ Back to top. Marmosets & tamarins. Around 2. 0 species of marmoset and tamarin, small – often very small – primates, are found in Brazil.
Some are fairly common, but the four species of lion tamarin, inhabitants of the Atlantic rain forests with a resemblance to miniature lions, are all endangered. The golden lion tamarin exists only in the Reserva Biol. A campaign to save this species – a squirrel- sized creature with a brilliant orange- gold color – has, amazingly, brought it back from near- extinction. Its population, down to about 1. It’s a symbol to Brazilians of the whole struggle to save the remaining Atlantic rain forest and indeed of conservation in general.^ Back to top. Monkeys. About 8. Brazil, many of them unique to the country.
Some monkeys are hunted deep in the forest by settlers and indigenous people for their meat, and others live harmoniously in and around beach towns, much like squirrels in North American city parks. Some species are quite common and on an Amazon jungle trip you’re very likely to see groups of monkeys moving through trees. The most common primate in Amazonia is the little squirrel monkey, with its pale face, dark nose area, big ears and long tail. It moves in small, noisy groups. The black spider monkey, up to 1.
Amazonia where it isn’t usually hunted. Southeast Brazil’s two species of wooly spider monkey, the southern muriqui and northern muriqui, with their thick brown fur, are the largest primates in the Americas and both are endangered, the northern species critically so and down to a population of under 3.
Howler monkeys are much easier heard than seen: their roar (not really a howl) carries over many kilometers. They’re stocky, up to 1. In Amazonia you’re most likely to encounter the red howler monkey. Further south, including in the Pantanal, the black howler monkey is the local species. The brown howler monkey inhabits the small remaining areas of the Mata Atl. The rumors are true – a howler monkey will try to pelt you with its excrement if it feels threatened, so you may want to listen to its roar from a judicious distance.
The lithe capuchin monkeys are named for the hair atop their heads, which resembles monks’ cowls. They’re dispersed over almost the whole country – even Rio de Janeiro’s Parque Nacional & Floresta da Tijuca – living in groups of up to 2. The usual species is the brown capuchin monkey, measuring up to 1m (half tail). The two types of uakari monkey, the black- headed and the bald, inhabit Amazonian flooded forest. The bald uakari has a red or pink bald head and thick, shaggy body fur ranging from chestnut- red to white (giving rise to the popular names red uakari and white uakari). Bald uakaris are threatened, but if you happen to visit the Mamirau. It inhabits lakes and calm rivers in forests from Amazonia to the Pantanal, usually in family groups of six to eight.
The Alta Floresta district and Reserva Xixua. The smaller southern river otter is also widely dispersed.^ Back to top. Rodents. The widespread capybara is the world’s largest rodent, 1m long and up to 7. It has a guinea pig–like face and a bulky hairy body, but no tail.
It’s vegetarian and at home on land or in water. Herds of up to 4. Pantanal. Smaller rodents – but still up to 6. You can distinguish the paca by its rows of white spots. Porcupines are rodents too: Brazil has several tree- dwelling species.^ Back to top. Caimans. Brazil has several species of caiman, close relatives of the alligator. They eat fish, amphibians, crustaceans and some birds.
In the Pantanal, where caimanssurvived a devastating bout of poaching for their skins in the 1. Paraguayan caiman. Amazonia has four species.
The biggest is the black caiman, which reaches up to 6m long and is still hunted for its skin and meat. The most common Amazonian caiman – the one you may get to handle on nighttime expeditions – is the spectacledcaiman, which can grow up to 2. Caimans lay eggs in nests of leaves and stalks, and these are vulnerable to predators such as coatis and lizards; the hatched young are prey for herons and storks.^ Back to top.
Snakes. The infamous anaconda coils around its victims to crush and suffocate them, then eats them whole. On extremely rare occasions, an anaconda kills a person. It’s not poisonous but can bite viciously. Generally an olive- brown color with black patterning, anacondas grow up to 1. Pantanal. Other constrictor snakes – using the same cheerful coil- crush- suffocate technique – include the boa constrictor, which is 3m to 5m long, generally brown patterned and lives off small animals in varied and widespread habitats; and the handsome green- and- white emerald tree boa. A number of other snakes live in trees, but most are harmless.
Although it is rare to encounter a venomous snake in the wild, Brazil still has quite a few species of them, including rattlesnakes, vipers and coral snakes. The most dangerous in the Pantanal is Wied’s lancehead, a gray, black- and- white patterned viper up to 7. Also to be steered clear of is the highly poisonous Brazilian coral snake, with its rings of red, black and white. It lurks under rocks or logs and only bites when it feels threatened. The various false coral snakes are, lucky for them, nearly impossible to distinguish from the real thing.^ Back to top.