Animals of Brazil
Brazil is a great place for plants and animals. It has 60% of the Amazon rainforest, with the Amazon Rainforest having one tenth of all the species in the world!!! Brazil also has the greatest biodiversity of any country on the planet. That means it has plains, mountains, valleys, forests, all kinds of different habitats! This all adds up to a whole lot of animals in Brazil.
Brazil has the most known plant species of any country on the planet (55,000) the second highest of amphibians (517) the second highest of butterflies (3,150) and it’s third for birds (1,622) and reptiles (468) If you scroll down you can see some of the animals that live in Brazil, such as the Toco toucan and poison dart frog. (You can see many of these animals at the bottom of the page.
Brazil is home to this many animals because of it’s huge size and its biodiversity. It’s habitats include
Amazon Rainforest (rainforests)
savannas
shrub land
wetland
Atlantic Forest
and Cerrado
There are many threats to the animals and plants in Brazil. The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed and 1/5 of it is already gone. This is called deforestation. Another example of deforestation is in the Atlantic forest, where 93% of it has already been cleared. This doesn’t just harm the trees and plants in the forest, it harms the animals too. If the forest is destroyed, they have nowhere to live. Of the 202 endangered animals in Brazil, 171 of them were in the Atlantic Rainforest…and 93% of it has been cleared. Some of these animals may survive deforestation only to be killed by poachers. The main reason the Atlantic forest was cut down was to farm sugar cane for ethanol, which is a major part of Brazil’s economy and transportation. (See more about that on next page.)
Brazil has the most known plant species of any country on the planet (55,000) the second highest of amphibians (517) the second highest of butterflies (3,150) and it’s third for birds (1,622) and reptiles (468) If you scroll down you can see some of the animals that live in Brazil, such as the Toco toucan and poison dart frog. (You can see many of these animals at the bottom of the page.
Brazil is home to this many animals because of it’s huge size and its biodiversity. It’s habitats include
Amazon Rainforest (rainforests)
savannas
shrub land
wetland
Atlantic Forest
and Cerrado
There are many threats to the animals and plants in Brazil. The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed and 1/5 of it is already gone. This is called deforestation. Another example of deforestation is in the Atlantic forest, where 93% of it has already been cleared. This doesn’t just harm the trees and plants in the forest, it harms the animals too. If the forest is destroyed, they have nowhere to live. Of the 202 endangered animals in Brazil, 171 of them were in the Atlantic Rainforest…and 93% of it has been cleared. Some of these animals may survive deforestation only to be killed by poachers. The main reason the Atlantic forest was cut down was to farm sugar cane for ethanol, which is a major part of Brazil’s economy and transportation. (See more about that on next page.)