What Is A Consumer For The Tropical Forest?

Large areas of South and Central America are cleared and burned for cattle ranching. This is so that farmers can provide cheap beef to consumers in the West.  Medicine produced in tropical forests bring in commercially 30 billion dollars a year.  When you visit a pharmacist, one in every four purchases will have come from a tropical forest.

Consumers are mostly small animals. The forest provides food, shelter in the moss, mild temperatures and humidity, which encourages the growth of many kinds of insects. It is a paradise for mosquitoes! As well as insects, there are small mammals: Voles (tiny mammals like mice), chipmunks, squirrels, and seed eating birds. These eat seeds, grasses, and even mushrooms. Larger animals, such as deer and elk, also find food in this biome.  Secondary Consumers are also at home on the forest floor.  Tiny shrews devour the insects, and frogs catch insects as they fly by.  There are many insect-eating birds as well, some of which, like the woodpecker, are adapted to finding insects in the trees.  Weasels eat small animals, and raccoons eat animals, fishes, frogs, and fruit.  Owls eat voles and chipmunks. Insects live as parasites on other animals.  Large secondary consumers, such as wolves, bears, and cougars, are the only ones who can bring down deer or elk. However, once they have made a kill, smaller carnivores may move in to get a share.  The larger carnivores may also eat smaller ones sometimes.  There are other animals in this food web, such as foxes, beavers, black birds, and porcupines.  Because the plants do so well, animals flourish too.