Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
very large Elephant Bird once inhabited Madagascar, but it is now extinct. Smaller
ground birds include Guinea Fowl, Francolins, and the Congo Pea Fowl.
Predatory and scavenger birds have probably been responsible for the antipre-
dator adaptations, such as large group behavior, seen in other birds and in prima-
tes. The Crown Eagle is a major predator of monkeys and hunts a range of other
mammals and birds. In Madagascar, the Henst Goshawk preys on small lemurs.
Other raptors specialize in snakes, lizards, and even wasps. A few owls hunt at
night. Shelley's Eagle Owl, the largest of the African owls, captures large nocturnal
flying squirrels as its primary prey. Although New World vultures play important
roles in American rainforests, no Old World vultures occur in the African rainfor-
est, even though they are abundant in woodlands and savannas.
Birds, along with other animals of the African rainforest, are subject to the
impacts of deforestation, land conversion, and increasing human populations.
Healthy populations of many of these tropical birds rely on intact rainforests that
are quickly disappearing. The commercial bird trade is also responsible for the loss
of African birds, particularly parrots.
Reptiles and Amphibians
The warm climate of the African tropics makes it an ideal home for cold-blooded
reptiles and amphibians. A great variety of lizards, crocodiles, turtles, chameleons,
and snakes, as well frogs, toads, and a few caecilians dwell in the rainforests. Pre-
liminary checklists, brief species descriptions, and notes on natural history provide
some clues into the diversity of the herpetofauna, yet little is really known about
these species, their evolutionary relationships, or their biogeography. Intensive
research in the forest is often difficult because of limited accessibility.
More than a hundred different snakes live in the tropical rainforests of Africa.
These rainforests hold the largest, the smallest, and reportedly the fastest snakes in
the world. The rock python is reported to be the largest snake in the world, even
larger than the anacondas of South America. One rock python found in the rainfor-
est in C
ote d'Ivoire measured 33 ft (10 m) in length. Pythons are constricting
snakes, literally squeezing the life out of their prey. Other pythons, including the
burrowing python and royal python, are found in the rainforest.
Some of the smallest snakes in the world are the worm or blind snakes of
Africa. These snakes grow only 6 in (15 cm) in length and have a diameter similar
to earthworms. They eat invertebrates and live in termite nests.
Many dangerous snakes inhabit the African rainforest, but most are usually dif-
ficult to find. Poisonous snakes belong to the viper, colubrid, or elapid families.
The many vipers include golden vipers, rhinoceros vipers, bush vipers, mole vipers,
night adders, puff adders, snake eaters, quill-snouted snakes, and tree snakes. The
boomslang is a venomous colubrid snake that lives in the trees of the African rain-
forest. It is the most venomous of the colubrids. Of the elapids, the forest is home
to water cobras, forest cobras, and the black spitting cobra, which can atomize its
highly poisonous venom and shoot it a distance of 20 ft (6 m).
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