Agoutis are quick tropical American rodents with long legs, small ears, shiny brown fur, and tiny tails. They live in forests and are famous for burying seeds, which can help new rainforest trees grow.

Anteaters are four living species of unusual mammals from Central and South America: the giant anteater, northern tamandua, southern tamandua, and silky anteater. They have no teeth, but their long snouts, sticky tongues, powerful claws, and excellent sense of smell make them expert hunters of ants and termites. Some walk across grasslands, while others climb through forest canopies with gripping tails.

Apes are tailless primates belonging to the superfamily Hominoidea. Living nonhuman apes include gibbons, siamangs, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. Humans are also classified as apes scientifically, although this page focuses mainly on our nonhuman relatives. Apes vary enormously in size, movement, diet, communication, and social life.

The Asian palm civet is a mostly nocturnal mammal native to South and Southeast Asia. It belongs to the civet family, Viverridae, rather than the cat or raccoon families. A dark facial mask, long body, grasping feet, strong claws, and a tail nearly as long as the body help it move through forests, farms, gardens, and even some towns while searching for ripe fruit and small prey.

The banteng is a rare species of wild cattle native to Southeast Asia. Its scientific name is Bos javanicus. White lower legs, a large pale rump patch, curved horns, and strong differences between adult bulls and cows make it one of Asia's most distinctive bovids. Wild populations have fallen sharply, and the IUCN changed the species' status to Critically Endangered in 2024.

Binturongs are shaggy rainforest mammals with black fur, tufted ears, long whiskers, and a gripping tail. They are also called bearcats, even though they are not bears or cats.

The Burmese python is a very large nonvenomous constrictor native to South and Southeast Asia. Its scientific name is Python bivittatus. Dark brown saddle-shaped blotches camouflage it among leaves, reeds, and swamp shadows. In its native range the species is Vulnerable because of habitat loss and heavy exploitation, yet escaped and released pets created a damaging invasive population in southern Florida.

Caimans are crocodilian reptiles from Central and South America. They belong to the alligator family, Alligatoridae, but they are not the same animals as the two living alligator species. The caiman group contains six living species, from the small Cuvier’s dwarf caiman to the enormous black caiman. Different caimans inhabit rivers, lakes, swamps, flooded forests, marshes, and mangroves, so size, snout shape, diet, and conservation needs vary across the group.

Cassowaries are large flightless rainforest birds with black feathers, bright blue necks, strong legs, and a helmet-like casque on the head. They live in New Guinea, nearby islands, and northern Australia.

Chevrotains are small hoofed mammals in the family Tragulidae. They are often called mouse-deer, but they are neither mice nor true deer. About ten living species occur in tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia, with one species, the water chevrotain, living in central and western Africa. Chevrotains belong to an early branch of the ruminant family tree and combine delicate legs, rounded bodies, large eyes, scent-marking glands, and surprisingly long canine teeth in males.

Frogs and toads are tailless amphibians in the order Anura. More than 8,000 species are recognized, making them the largest amphibian group. Frogs live on every continent except Antarctica and occupy rainforest canopies, ponds, deserts, mountains, underground burrows, fast streams, and even brackish wetlands. Adults usually have short bodies, powerful hind legs, moist glandular skin, large eyes, and no tail, but their size, shape, color, reproduction, and life cycle vary astonishingly.

Fruit bats are Old World bats in the family Pteropodidae, also called flying foxes or megabats. They live naturally across tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. The family includes tiny nectar-feeding bats and huge flying foxes with wingspans wider than a child's height. Most use large eyes and an excellent sense of smell to find fruit, flowers, nectar, pollen, and leaves, helping forests by carrying seeds and pollen over long distances.

Giant anteaters are large mammals from Central and South America with long snouts, huge claws, bushy tails, and very long sticky tongues. They do not have teeth, so they use their tongues to slurp ants and termites.

The Giant Centipede, Scolopendra gigantea, is also called the Amazonian Giant Centipede or Peruvian Giant Yellow-Leg Centipede. It is the world's largest well-documented living centipede and can reach about 30 centimetres in length. Verified native records come from northern South America and southern Caribbean islands. This flattened nocturnal predator hides in damp leaf litter, caves, rotting wood, rock cracks, and sheltered buildings. It uses powerful venom-delivering forcipules to capture insects, spiders, frogs, lizards, mice, and even bats.

Glass frogs are small tropical tree frogs from Central and South America. Many are bright green on top but have translucent bellies, so you may be able to see organs like the heart through the skin.

Harpy eagles are powerful rainforest birds of prey with broad wings, sharp eyes, strong talons, and a bold feather crest. They live in tropical forests from southern Mexico through Central and South America.

Hercules beetles are giant rhinoceros beetles famous for their huge size and dramatic horns on males. They live in tropical forests, start life as grubs in rotting wood, and grow into armored beetles with hard wing covers.

The Indri, Indri indri, is one of the largest living lemurs and is found only in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar. It has dense black-and-white fur, round furry ears, long powerful hind legs, grasping hands and feet, and an extremely short tail. Indris live in small territorial family groups and are famous for long, haunting songs performed by several group members. They mainly eat young leaves, mature leaves, fruit, flowers, and seeds. The species is Critically Endangered because its forest is fragmented and continues to be lost, while hunting and very slow reproduction make recovery difficult.

Jaguars are powerful spotted cats that live in the Americas. They are excellent swimmers, strong climbers, quiet hunters, and the largest big cats found in the Western Hemisphere.

The Jaguarundi, Herpailurus yagouaroundi, is a slender, long-bodied wild cat native from Mexico through Central America and much of South America. It belongs to the puma evolutionary lineage and is more closely related to the Puma and Cheetah than to spotted cats such as the Ocelot. Jaguarundis have small flattened heads, rounded ears, short legs, long tails, and plain coats that may be blackish, gray, brown, yellowish, or reddish. Unlike many small wild cats, they are often most active during daylight.

The Javan Rhino, Rhinoceros sondaicus, is one of the rarest large mammals on Earth. Roughly 50 are thought to survive, all inside Ujung Kulon National Park at the western tip of Java, Indonesia. This solitary rainforest browser has gray skin folded into an armor-like pattern, a flexible upper lip, small rounded ears, and three-toed feet. Adult males usually carry one small horn, while females often have no visible horn or only a low knob. The entire species depends on one vulnerable population.

Kinkajous are small rainforest mammals with golden-brown fur, big eyes, sharp claws, and long prehensile tails. They live mostly in trees at night and are sometimes called honey bears because they enjoy sweet foods such as nectar and fruit.

The Margay, Leopardus wiedii, is a small spotted wild cat from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Its huge eyes, flexible ankles, broad paws, and remarkably long tail help it travel through forest trees at night. It resembles an ocelot but is smaller and more lightly built, with climbing adaptations that let it descend trunks headfirst and hang beneath branches.

Ocelots are medium-sized wild cats with golden coats covered in dark chains, spots, and rosettes. They move quietly through forests, wetlands, and thick scrub from the southern United States through much of tropical America. Ocelots usually explore alone and do most of their hunting after sunset, when their sharp hearing, sight, and sense of smell help them find prey beneath dense vegetation.

“Panther” is a common name with several meanings, not the scientific name of one animal species. Most people who say black panther mean a black-coated leopard from Africa or Asia or a black-coated jaguar from the Americas. Both cats still have rosette patterns beneath the dark pigment, and each keeps the body shape, behavior, habitat, and conservation status of its actual species.

Poison dart frogs are tiny, colorful amphibians that live in rainforests of Central and South America. Their bright colors warn predators that they may be poisonous, so these frogs are beautiful but should never be touched in the wild.

Potoos are seven species of nocturnal birds in the family Nyctibiidae. They live from Mexico and the Caribbean through Central and South America. By day, mottled feathers and a stiff upright pose make a resting potoo resemble a broken branch. After dark, its enormous eyes, wide mouth, and quiet aerial attacks help it catch moths, beetles, and other flying insects.

Pudus are tiny South American deer with compact bodies, short legs, rounded ears, and shy forest habits. Current mammal taxonomy recognizes three living species: the southern pudu, northern pudu, and Peruvian Yungas pudu. They occupy very different regions, from cool temperate rainforest in Chile and Argentina to high Andean cloud forest, páramo, and Yungas habitat farther north.

Red-eyed tree frogs are colorful amphibians from Central American rainforests. They are famous for bright red eyes, green bodies, orange feet, sticky toe pads, and eggs laid on leaves above water.

The saola, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, is an extraordinarily rare wild cattle relative found only in the Annamite Mountains of Vietnam and Laos. Scientists announced its discovery in 1992 after unusual horns and skulls were found in local homes. No saola lives in captivity, the last confirmed camera-trap image was taken in 2013, and the exact number surviving is unknown.

Sloths are slow-moving mammals that live mostly in trees in Central and South America. They hang from branches with long claws, eat leaves and fruit, sleep a lot, and move slowly to save energy.

The Sumatran rhino is the smallest living rhinoceros and the only Asian rhino with two horns. Reddish hair covers much of its folded skin, giving it a wonderfully prehistoric look. Yet this shy Indonesian forest animal is Critically Endangered, so every calf and every protected patch of connected habitat matters.

Tapirs are shy hoofed mammals with heavy bodies, short legs, small tails, and flexible snouts that work like tiny trunks. They live in forests and wet places in Central and South America and Southeast Asia.

Tenrecs are a family of small mammals found naturally in Madagascar. Millions of years of evolution produced an amazing collection of shapes: some are furry, some are spiny, some burrow, and one swims. Although several look like hedgehogs or shrews, tenrecs belong to a different branch of the mammal family tree.

Uakaris are unusual New World monkeys from the Amazon region. They are known for shaggy fur, short tails, bald-looking faces, and in some species, bright red faces that stand out in the green rainforest.