The emergent layer is where the tallest treetops stick up out of the sea of green. This is a rugged place to live--buffeted by wind, at the mercy of sun and rain. Very light animals live in this layer, and so do birds, from raptors to exotic parrots. One small animal that makes its home in the emergent layer is the pygmy glider. It protects itself from eagles by feeding at night on insects, buds and tree sap. It can move around easily by using flaps of skin that stretch between its front and back legs to glide from branch to branch. It has tiny treads on its feet for a better grip--and sharp claws on fingers and toes for safe landings. During the day, the pygmy glider sleeps in a group in a leaf-lined hole in a tree, invisible to its hungry neighbors.
The canopy layer of the rain forest probably contains half the world's species, according to scientists, but we know less about it than we do about the oceans. We lose species we never even knew existed as acres of rain forest are cleared for cattle farming and development. One creature who lives in the canopy is the sloth. Sloths are extremely slow moving, seldom leave their trees and may not come down to the ground for decades. They hang upside down using large claws and very long arms. Sloths eat fruit, leaves, buds and young twigs, but their metabolism is so slow that they need very little food. They are nocturnal and sleep curled up in a camouflaged position that hides them from predators like the jaguar.
Macaws are the largest and among the most colorful of the parrots. Their vivid feathers and long graceful tails, and their social personalities, make them popular pets, a fact which is contributing to their diminishing numbers in the wild. Macaws eat nuts, fruits and seeds, which they seize with their sharp claws and crack with their powerful hooked beaks. They can use their feet, with front- and back-facing claws, to bring food to their beaks and to grip branches tightly in a heavy rain storm or wind. Macaws sleep and nest in holes in trees and spread their long, angled wings to fly swiftly in both the emergent and canopy levels of the rain forest.
