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Scarlet Macaw
Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt
A scarlet macaw is caught munching a snack in Brazil's Amazon rain forest. These birds are best known for their loud cackles, four-toed feet, and brilliant plumage.
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Costa Rica Capuchin Monkeys
Photograph by Wolfgang Kaehler/Alamy
Baby white-faced capuchin monkeys play in a Costa Rican rain forest. Unlike these familiar faces, the majority of rain forest species are yet to be named, formally described, or analyzed.
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Red-Eyed Tree Frog
Photograph by Medford Taylor
Red-eyed tree frogs, like this one found in a rain forest in Panama, eat mainly insects. Good thing. Rain forests have more insect species than any other ecosystem.
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Leafcutter Ants
Photograph by Thomas Marent/Minden Pictures
Some studies estimate that ants make up an amazing 30 percent of the total biomass of Earth's tropical rain forests, far exceeding that of mammals. Here, two leafcutter ants dismantle a leaf in Peru's Manú National Forest.
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Anaconda
Photograph by Ed George
Anacondas, like this one near a Venezuelan riverbank, are particularly large members of the boa family. Found only in South American jungles, they can reach 29 feet (9 meters) in length, weigh more than 550 pounds (230 kilograms), and measure more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) in diameter.
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Tapir
Photograph by Roy Toft
Tapirs are indigenous only to South and Central America and Southeast Asia. Though partial to the lowland forests of these regions, some are known to live above the snow line in the northern Andes. Here, a Baird's tapir forages in a clearing in Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park.
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Piranha
Photograph by Joel Sartore
The notoriously voracious piranha lives only in the rivers of South America, primarily the Amazon and Orinoco. Here, a young black piranha in Brazil's Pantanal shows off the source of its notoriety: a mouthful of flesh-tearing teeth.
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Kinkajou
Photograph by Mattias Klum
Kinkajous, like this one pausing between sips of balsa blossom nectar in Panama's Soberania National Park, are indigenous only to the tropical forests of Central and South America. These photogenic tree-dwellers have the appearance of a bear and the agility of a monkey, but they actually belong to the raccoon family.
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Jaguar
Photograph by Claus Meyer/Minden Pictures
Third largest in the feline family after tigers and lions, jaguars, such as this one in the undergrowth of the Brazilian rain forest, are found only in the New World. This elusive, endangered predator roams forests and swamps from Argentina to northern Mexico.
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Capybaras
Photograph by Claus Meyer/Minden Pictures
Even the world's largest rodents can have a tender moment. Here, a baby capybara nuzzles its mother in a Brazilian swamp. Averaging 120 pounds (50 kilograms), these tropical giants are at home on land or in water and feed on aquatic plants and grasses.
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Blue Morpho
Photograph by Michael and Patricia Fogden/Minden Pictures
Blue morpho butterflies, inhabitants of Central and South America's dense forests, can be up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) wide, and the male's iridescent sheen can been seen by humans up to a thousand yards (one kilometer) away. Here, a female floats through a cloud forest in Costa Rica.
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