Animals of the tropical belt

Between the North Tropic (Tropic of Cancer) and South (Capricorn) in Africa there is a vast forest zone. Almost in this climatic zone the change of seasons is not noticeable, as the average air temperature and precipitation are almost constantly on the same level. Therefore, animals of the tropical belt do not need to migrate in search of places suitable for life. They always have enough food and water, so the animal world of this region is extremely diverse.

What are the animals of the tropical belt alone - hippos! If you translate this name from the Greek language, they can be called "river horses". This almost three-ton giant travels for most of his life in the water. But it's difficult to swim a hippopotamus - with such and such a figure and weight! Therefore, he simply goes into the water at such a depth to reach the bottom with his feet, and sinks almost completely.

These amazing tropical animals have nostrils that are provided with closing membranes, and eyes with protruding superheads. Therefore, even almost completely under water, this machinel carefully watches that no one dares to offend her dear babies - children. And just try to approach them! Delicate parents immediately turn into unruly aggressive assassins. But at the same time hippos are extremely peaceful animals. After all, they do not belong to predators and feed only on plants and their fruits.

And such predatory and cruel animals of the tropical belt, like crocodiles, can inspire fear to any mammal. These descendants of ancient dinosaurs have practically not changed since those distant times. Despite the fact that these reptiles can move quite quickly over land, they still prefer to stay in the water for most of their time. Adult individuals can be under water for almost an hour without surfacing.

Crocodiles breed by laying eggs on the ground, dug near the pond. And while the embryos are in the shell, the mother watches them vigilantly, guarding the masonry. After all, at any time there can be an evil lizard - a large predatory lizard, which simply loves to eat the eggs of its closest relatives.

When the embryo comes to be born, it breaks the shell with a special device - a horn located on the head. After a while this build-up disappears by itself.

Hatching, the crocodiles race to the water. However, they are everywhere in danger. They are not even immune from such a terrible death, how to be eaten by their own parent - there is absolutely no maternal feelings for these cold-blooded predators.

The mouth of the crocodile is "decorated" with huge sharp teeth. But they do not need a predator at all to chew food, but to kill their victim and tear off pieces that he swallows whole.

In order for the food to become softer, the predator often drags the victim down under the water and hides it somewhere under the driftwood. When he begins to feel hungry, then he takes out a dish from his "storerooms".

Extremely diverse and amazing are also other animals of the tropical forest: monkeys, lori, tigers, leopards, panthers, giraffes, okapis, tapirs and thick-skinned: rhinos, as well as elephants.

Monkeys are especially widely represented here. This is the chimpanzee, and gorilla, and orangutan, and nosach, and macaque. There are among them such small species, the cubs of which hardly reach the size of the thumb of the human hand. The weight of a large specimen can be equal to 70 grams. And there are real monkeys and real giants, almost two and a half centners!

Entertaining are the animals of the tropical belt, which can not be found on any other continent, like the relatives of giraffes - okapi. These extremely timid herbivores spend the bulk of their life in shrub thickets. Adult individuals reach a height of two meters and gain weight of about 250 kilograms. These animals prefer to live alone, except that only mothers who raise their cubs.