MOUNTAIN GORILLAS
Mountain gorillas are the largest living primates on earth! Along with chimpanzees, orangutan, and bonobos, they are the closest living relatives of humans, with mountain gorillas having the most developed brain of the four. They live primarily on the lush mountain sides of national parks in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. Mountain gorillas live in groups of roughly 30 members, with one dominant, male troop leader called a ‘silverback’ for the silver color in his coat.
BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY
With its brilliant, iridescent blue wings, the blue morpho butterfly flutters through the rainforest canopy. The many “eyespots” on its brown underside trick predators into thinking the butterfly is a large predator.
OKAPI
The striking okapi—the closest living relative of the giraffe—lives in the dense tropical Ituri Forest of Central Africa. A master of camouflage, its striped hindquarters and brown hide helps it “disappear” into the filtered light of the forest.
BROWN-THROATED-THREE-TOED SLOTH
The slow-moving sloth, weighing only eight or nine pounds, lives exclusively in trees, feeding on leaves, twigs, and fruit. It moves so slowly that its fur takes on a green tinge from the algae that grows on it. It can take a month to digest a single meal.
JAGUAR
Jaguars are famous for their beautiful spotted coats, which help them hide amongst the grasses, bushes, and trees where they live. The rare, all-black (melanistic) jaguar is what we commonly refer to as a black panther. Jaguars are known to eat more than 85 species of prey, including armadillos, peccaries, capybara, tapir, deer, squirrels, and birds and can even snatch fish, turtles and young caiman from the water.
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