The Toucan

Kingdom: Animalia
Family: Ramphastas Swainsonim

The Toucan is a brightly coloured bird with a long bill, that is commercially famous and one of the most well known of the animals in the Tropical Rainforest. Its main diets consists of tree fruits, which the hollowed out bill helps to eat, as well as sometimes shrubs or smalls snakes and lizards seen on the forest floor. It makes its nest in holes in trees, usually around some type of watering hole.
Climate change affects trees. In simple terms as the temperature increases it causes a higher need for hydration for trees and their leaves, buds and seeds to hydrate themselves. Except this higher temperature causes the land to be drier. Meaning the amount of rain fall in the area decreases Therefore as the trees die off so do the available habitats for the Toucan. The biggest issue though is deforestation. True not specifically related to climate change but it is a partial cause for it. With the amount of trees deteriorating, the levels of CO2 can rise as the masses of trees in Tropical Rainforest play a huge part in reducing those levels. So really it all relates back to each other. If deforestation occurs, the habitats of the Toucan will decrease meaning their population will have to lower itself to be able to accommodate all the creatures living in the area. But the Toucan is very important to the ecosystem in the Tropical Rainforest because of simply its feeding habits. When a Toucan eats a fruit from the tree as it flies or perches on the branches, it disperses seeds onto the ground below allowing for mammals on the ground to have more food pickings, helping out other populations, but more importantly allowing for more plants to take seed. So if there's less trees for them to live, resulting in a lower population there will be even less trees replacing the ones and continuing on the growth and feeding cycles in the Tropical Rainforest because there will be less Toucans to spread them around. So in turn not only will the Toucan be affected but the vegetation in the area, the healthiness of the soil, which will further affect the vegetation as well as the herbivores that feed on these plants. Already this can be seen happening. The Toucan is native too the American Tropics and is only found there, but in Panama there has been a crippling decline in the population of the Toucan.
Another thing to think of is the fact that the Toucan is one of the most commonly known creatures in the Tropical Rainforest. It pulls on the heart strings of thousands of millions of people with such characters as 'Toucan Sam', the Toucan representing the children cereal 'Froot Loops'. With this beautiful bird gone, who can really saw how much revenue and support would be lost for the Tropical Rainforest. The Toucan is vital to saving more than just the Tropical Rainforest itselfs, but in gathering more supporters.


Sarah Wilkins