Rainforest Wildlife – Amazing Habitats Peru .
The Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru -highest parts of the Andes, the puna, are above treeline and are
covered in dry grassland up to about 5000 m, variably laced with wet meadows, bogs, lakes, and streams.
Above 5000 m, most land is unvegetated rock and snow.
The western (Pacific) coast of Peru is very dry Rainforest.
Most of the coast of central and southern Peru is bare desert, with little or no vegetation other than on lomas and in river valleys.
Lomas are hills near the coast that are high enough to intercept the low clouds coming in off the cold ocean and to
capture, seasonally, sufficient humidity to support more vegetation than the lower, surrounding desert wildlife .
Originally rivers crossing the coast would have supported riparian forest wildlife.
The coastal valleys now are heavily populated, however, and are dominated by agriculture and by cities and towns.
The north coast of Peru wildlife is more humid than are the central and southern sectors.
Remnant deciduous forest is found at lower elevations along the coast and in the Andean foothills, south to Lambayeque;
at higher elevations humid montane forest, similar to that found on the east slopes of the Andes, occurs patchily
south to Cajamarca.
These forested areas on the western slope always were patchy distributed,
but habitat destruction has reduced their extent dramatically, and little intact forest remains.
East of the Andes there is a pronounced dry season (variable, but typically May–October) in central and southern
Peru rainforest wildlife.
Seasonality is much reduced in the northern portion of the Peruvian Amazon.
On the coast, the winter months (May–October) are cool, and skies often are overcast;
however, typically there is little or no rain in central and southern Peru, although fog may “mist” the ground
(especially on lomas).
Rainfall is more frequent in the northwest and tends to occur December–March.
HABITATS OF PERU- RAINFOREST WILDLIFE – Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru .
More detailed descriptions of bird habitats can be found elsewhere. Many of our habitat descriptions are based on
Stotz et al. (1996); habitat names presented here in italics correspond to terms used by that source. wildlife peru.
FOREST- Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru .
As used here, “forest” refers to humid lowland forests, including both tropical lowland evergreen forests and flooded tropical evergreen forests.
Most of the Amazon Basin is covered by these two tropical evergreen forests.
These forests typically are tall (25–40 m, with scattered emergents that can reach 50–60 m).
Forests may be found on upland terraces that never flood (terra firme) or occupy low-lying areas that are flooded
for at least a portion of the year.
These seasonally flooded forests include varzea, transitional forests, and swamp forests, depending upon the
duration of flooding.
In the species accounts we refer to these habitats as “forest,” with the understanding that, in the context of a species
with an Amazonian willdife distribution, the habitat will include the full spectrum of tropical evergreen forests.
We use terms such as “terra firme” or “varzea” for species that are restricted to, or particularly associated with,
these types of forest.
Tropical wildlife lowland evergreen forests of much lower stature are found locally in extreme northwestern Peru, in
Tumbes and perhaps in northernmost Piura.
Amazon Rainforest Wildlife manu park
RIVER-EDGE FOREST -WILDIFE AMAZONIA.
Amazonian rivers are bordered by a variety of lower-stature, successional rainforest vegetation, which may
include grasses and other herbs or a mix of herbs and tall shrubs, such as cane (Gynerium), willow (Salix), and Tessaria,
and low-stature forests (10–25 m tall) that form a narrow band between the river and taller forest in the interior.
These forests often grow in even-aged stands and are dominated by genera such as Cecropia and Ochroma.
The understory of these river-edge forests often is quite dense.
Similar habitats wildlife are found on islands in the larger rainforest rivers, especially in northern and central
Rainforest Wildlife Peru.
MONTANE FOREST -Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru
.We use montane evergreen forest, or humid montane forest wildlife, for the forests that cover therainforest eastern
slopes of the Andes and outlying ridges from about 500 m up to treeline.
It is lower in stature than tropical evergreen forests, rarely exceeding 30 m in height;
forest stature also tends to decrease with increasing elevation or steepness of terrain.
The canopy often is broken, and branches and trunks of many trees are covered in moss, bromeliads, orchids,
ferns, and other epiphytes.
Rainforest wildlife Tree species composition of montane evergreen forests usually changes significantly above
1500–1800 m, above which point epiphytes, including bryophytes, and lichens also become more prevalent.
Below this elevation the montane forest contains significant elements of the lowland flora wildlife and is
transitional between lowland terra firme forest and true montane forest amazonia wildlife .
ELFIN FOREST – AMAZON WILDLIFE PERU.
At the highest elevations (and locally much lower, depending upon soil and wind conditions) rainforest wildlife ,
forests are particularly low and dense rainforest.
These forests, which usually are on ridgetops or at treeline, sometimes are referred to as elfin forests in amazon rainforest peru.
POLYLEPIS FOREST.
Polylepis (Rosaceae) is a genus of low trees with rugged scaly bark.
They grow in more or less open groves at high elevations, typically well above other forest, and so usually are surrounded by scrub or grass.
A small set of bird species is restricted to these unique woodlands in amazonia rainforest wildlife.
DRY FOREST- AMAZONIA RAINFOREST -Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru
Dry forests, or tropical rainforest wildlife deciduous forests, are of variable stature, but rarely exceed 20–25 m in
height.
Most species lose all of their leaves during the dry season, which usually is pronounced where dry forests are found
wildlife, but these forests may contain some evergreen species, especially along river courses or at higher
elevations.
Transitions to more humid forests are referred to as semideciduous forests.
In Peru rainforest dry forests primarily are found on the west slope in northwestern Peru, from Tumbes south to
Cajamarca or to La Libertad, and in dry intermontane valleys (such as the Chinchipe, Marañón, Huallaga, Pampas,
and Urubamba valleys)- Amazonia Rainforest wildlife.
WHITE-SAND FOREST .
Very locally in Amazonian Peru rainforest wildlife there are sites dominated by pure white sands, or a white-sand mixture.
Forests growing on such substrates typically have reduced species richness (although they are rich in endemic or
habitat-specific species) and often are low in stature as well
. Some of these habitats have specific local names, such as varillal (a lower-stature forest type that occurs on sandy
soil) and chamizal (the most stunted white-sand forests, located on sites with poor drainage or occasional natural fires).
A related forest type, irapayal (an open-canopy forest on poor soils with a palm-dominated understory), may occur
on very weathered clays or on soils with a sandy mixture. Streams that drain white-sand areas carry heavy tannin
loads, and the water often is the color of dark tea;
these are referred to as blackwater streams.
Blackwater streams also form downstream from forested swamps, including palm swamps and Ficus swamps.
Forests influenced by sandy soil are found in northern and central
Amazonian Peru rainforest on both banks of the Amazon wildlife .
White sands are most developed, however, on the
north bank of the Amazon wildlife , especially in the drainages of the Río Tigre, Río Nanay (including the Zona
Reservada Allpahuayo-Mishana), and the lower Río Morona. White-sand sites south of the Amazon are fewer but
are
located at Jeberos (between the lower ríos Marañón and Huallaga); on the east bank of the lower amazonia
rainforest wildlife peru .
RIO UCAYALY – RAINFOREST WILDLIFE ;
and on both sides of the Río Blanco (a tributary of the Río Tapiche). There is a set of bird species associated with
these habitats that is most diverse in forests on pure white sands, but some portion of which also occurs in other
nutrient-poor habitats in amazonia wildlife .
MANGROVE FOREST . Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees that form low, dense forests in warm-water coastal
lagoons. In Peru they are restricted to Tumbes and to northwestern Piura.
SECOND GROWTH. Second growth refers to regenerating forest.
Most second growth is the result of human disturbance, but second growth also is a feature of naturally disturbed
habitats, such as landslides.
Second-growth forests differ in species composition from adjacent undisturbed forests and are dominated by a
small number of rapidly growing species rainforest.
We treat the successional habitats created by river dynamics as a separate habitat. in amazonia wildlife peru
SCRUB -Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru
Scrub is a variety of plant communities that are dominated by shrubs, scattered low trees, and, in some areas,
cactus or terrestrial bromeliads.
Dry scrub (arid lowland scrub) is widespread in northwestern Peru, and dry or semihumid scrub (arid montane
scrubs and semihumd/humid montane scrubs) also is characteristic of the west slopes of the Andes and of
intermontane valleys.
In some areas in the Andes, semihumid or humid scrub may persist in areas where the soil and climate would
support montane forest in the absence of human disturbance (for example, around Cuzco).
Scrub is present very locally in Amazonia Rainforest wildlife as well. The largest such site is at Jeberos, in northern
Amazonia between the lower ríos Marañón and Huallaga, where habitats are a mosaic of small patches of
grassland
bordered by a semidry scrub, varillal forest, and taller terra firme forest. T
his habitat may be maintained in part by human activity. Similar scrub is found along the upper Río Mayo, a
tributary of the Huallaga amazon peru rainforest
SAVANNA .
Savanna in Peru rainforest is found only on the Pampas del Heath, an open grassland with scattered patches
of trees, shrubs, or groves of Mauritia palms, and penetrated along streams by tongues (gallery forest) of the
surrounding evergreen forest.
These pampas are the terminal extension of a much more extensive savanna found in adjoining Bolivia. They are
maintained by fire, including fires set by humans.
PUNA .Dry or semidry grasslands often cover high elevations in the Andes and are known as puna. Also
characteristic of many puna sites are cushion plants, which may form broad mats. Woody vegetation is scarce in
puna, apart from (local) patches of Polylepis (see discussion above).
GLOSSARY OF BIRD TOPOGRAPHY AMAZON RAINFOREST WILDLIFE .
PARAMO.
Paramos, also known in Peru as jalcas, are humid montane grasslands.
We use this term for humid grasslands that occupy a narrow strip along the crest of the east slope of the Andes
amazonia rainforest wildlife , at and just above treeline.
Paramo often consists of a mosaic of grasslands with scattered shrubs and small patches of trees.
MARSH -Rainforest Wildlife -Amazing Habitats Peru
Marshes are areas with standing or very slow-moving water, filled with aquatic vegetation rainforest such as
grasses,
sedges, and cattails. Marshes may be freshwater or brackish.
They are most common in coastal lagoons, at high elevations in the Andes, and along the edges of oxbow lakes and
river channels in Amazonia wildlife .
BEACH .
Coastal beaches and mudflats are an important habitat for waterbirds, especially for boreal migrants from North
America.
Sandy beaches predominate along the coast south to central Peru, but in southern Peru amazon rainforest rocky
beaches become more common.
Sandbars and the sandy margins of rivers are similar habitats in Amazonia rainforest .
LAKES AND PONDS – RAINFOREST JUNGLE.
Freshwater lakes and ponds may be found throughout Peru, including oxbow lakes in Amazonia and rainforest ,
and
lakes (sometimes quite large, such as lakes Junín and Titicaca) in the Andes.
Natural lakes and ponds are scarce in western Peru wildlife , although reservoirs approximate this habitat in the
jungle wildlife peru .
ALKALINE LAKES- RAINFOREST . Locally in the southern Andes are shallow (seasonally dry), brackish
lakes.
The most important such site in Peru is Salinas, in Arequipa.
BOGS .Bogs are poorly drained, perpetually damp sites that in Peru are found only in the high Andes peru rainforest .
In addition to the major habitats, several “microhabitats” are mentioned in the species accounts:
amazon wildlife peru.
BAMBOO – JUNGLE WILDLIFE .
Several bird species are largely or entirely restricted to bamboo, which is found locally in the understory of humid
montane and tropical evergreen forests or (less commonly) forms large, dominant stands.
Bamboo typically goes to seed at long intervals (from several years to up to 20 or so years), after which the bamboo
dies (and may or may not be replaced by a new generation) rainforest jungle .
Consequently at least some birds associated with bamboo are nomadic.
Bamboo (primarily Chusquea) is widespread in montane forest along the entire length of the Andes, especially at
disturbed sites, although it may be absent from some localities. Tall Guadua bamboo is relatively common in
southern Amazonian Peru rainforest , but is very rare in central and northern Peru amazonia wildlife .
TREEFALL GAPS. Treefalls in continuous forest create gaps in the forest canopy; these small forest openings
facilitate the growth of dense, low vegetation, often including many vines in the rainforest .
ARMY ANTS AMAZON RAINFOREST WILDLIFE .
Army ants (primarily Eciton burchellii and Labidus praedator) form large swarms on the floor and lower
vegetation
of tropical forests jungle rainforest.
Several species of birds are “professional” or “obligate” army ant followers: these birds follow columns of army ants
and capture arthropods and small vertebrates that attempt to flee the ants. Many other species of birds display
similar foraging behavior opportunistically but do not follow army ants on a regular basis.
Other species of ants,
including some that occur in the Andes, also swarm, but species other than Eciton burchellii and Labidus
praedator
are smaller-bodied, form smaller swarms, or are active at night, and usually do not attract ant-following birds
amazon rainforest wildlife .
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