Rainforest Creatures: Adaptations
Birds, animals and insects which live in the rainforest in Paluma have developed
features which allow them to survive in this extreme climate which receives over
____ metres of rain a year. Rainforests further north receive over ____ metres.
Some Adaptations:
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Colour and pattern to provide camouflage
Luminescence to attract prey
Wing shape to allow silent and sift manoeuvring between trees
Body shape which allows animals to conserve or expel heat
Body parts like legs tails and hands which allow them to climb, forage, hold
on to branches and vines high in the canopy
Beaks and teeth which can break open the hard shells of nuts and fruit
Ability to cope with a lot of water – feather, fur, behaviour, reproduction
Nocturnal to avoid competition for food and heat of the day
It’s Dark
Ferns and other understory plants survive on ________ that peep through the dense
_________.
Rain forest Skinks bask in sunlight to ________ body _____________.
It’s Wet
Rainforest leaves have long pointy ends called___________. This helps keep leaves
cleaner and drier and stops ______________ growing on them.
It’s Cool
Many animals only live up high in the canopy, some only in the leaf litter – down low
and some live in between.
Bellenden Ker Nursery Frog
1400 metres
_____________Nursery Frog
Creaking ____________Frog
400
______ altitude
metres
______ altitude
metres
______ altitude
It’s Green
Leaves in the understory are often ________ than those in the _________. They
need a lot of ______________ to capture what little ________ makes it to the forest
floor.
It’s misty
The floor of cloud forests can be so soggy that some animals that usually live in
creeks and pools can survive in leaf litter: - Name three.
1._____________________________________________
2._______________________________________________
3._______________________________________________
Read the panels and fill in the following table with either the adaptation or how
this helps the animal.
Animal
Adaptation
Benefit
Southern Cassowary
Dark colours
Difficult to see in the dark
shadows
Boyd’s forest dragon
Subtle colours and spikey
outline
Carpet Python
Rufous Owl
Giant White-tailed rat
Stripey Possums
Binocular vision Large
eyes set in front of head
Strong Jaws and teeth
Find small mammals in the
dark
Find animals in the dark
Long lower teeth
Long fourth finger
Long tongue
Pill millipedes
Defence mechanism
Mottled Barred frog
Camouflage in the leaf
litter
Brush footed trapdoor
spider
Dense tufts of hair on feet
Green Tree snake
Smelly secretion
Ulysses Butterfly
Brown Underwings
Camouflage
Northern leaf tailed
gecko
Blends into background
Bird Dropping Spider
So it doesn’t get eaten
Buff Breasted Paradise
Kingfisher
Young birds feed on
termites