The Rainforest, Animals, and Plants?

Question

How many different species of plants and animals are there in the rainforests?

How many (number) animals and plants inhabit rainforests.

#1 is more important.

Answer 1

Hello.

Yes, go with mavster. There is no actual figures, only estimates. It's all anyone's guess. There are so many creatures that have yet to be discovered, some may be going into extinction without notice and some may be flourishing even though we have not discovered them.

Also, think about which rain-forest as well, since things may and most likely will vary. Some creatures, as the ones not yet discovered, may inhabit only in rain-forests while others inhabit only other areas, and other species will live in rain-forests and other habitats.

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

-Edward Abbey

Answer 2

The short answer is that nobody really knows, and that is especially the case for #2. One estimate for #1 is that approximately 50% of the plant and animal species in the world live in rain forests. That's a really rough estimate, given that scientists do not know how many plant and animal species there are with certainty. For example, we think there are approximately 225000 to 260000 species of angiosperms (flowering plants), but we do not know the exact number. The uncertainty associated with estimates of the number of insect species is dramatically higher. There are probably about 750000 to 900000 species of insects, of which a good third are beetles. For mammals, the situation is a fair bit better, and the number is approximately 4500 species. So, to take a rough stab at it, somewhere between 600000 and 1000000 species of plants and animals live in rain forests.

Thinking more locally, a four-square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 2250 species of flowering plants (of which about 750 species are trees), 125 species of mammals, 400 species of birds, 100 species of reptiles, 60 species of amphibians, and 150 species of butterflies.

You can find out more here:

http://www.rainforestlive.org.uk/index.c...