Flora and Fauna of Perú
Flora
The variety and richness of plants, flowers and trees in Peru is to big to describe here. We have made a summary about it, but it can't reach the variety that is present in the country.
- Desert coast: Some parts almost without vegetation or just some algorobos (acacia sort) and shrubs. More inland cactuses, fat plants and epiphytes.
- In the upper north coast mangroves are to be found.
- Dry Andes valleys: agaves, bromeliads and cactuses.
- Wet Andes valleys: Much variety. Different sorts of orchids and bromeliads. At 4500 meters the rare giant bromeliad Puya raimondi grows, with a stem of up to 10 meters and 20,000 flowers and to die after one time thriving.
- Cloud forest: On the eastern steeps of the Andes. On trees grow many kinds of mosses, ferns, orchids and bromeliads. On branches grow many kinds of usnea. On the ground fuchsias, begonias and bomareas.
- Jungle: 2500 sorts of deciduous trees, of which 80 sorts of palm trees. Against the phylum many sorts of lianas, epiphytes and parasites. Under the trees many sorts of shrubs and ferns.
Some typical cultivation plants in Peru are the yucca and the rubber tree.
Fauna
Also animal life in Peru is very diverse.
Mammals: Many kinds of monkeys: The Venezuelan red howler, the spider monkey, the capuchin monkey, the squirrel monkey, the woolly monkey and the night monkey. The most often seen is the zadelrugtamarin. Other mammals are the armadillo, all three Latin-American ant-eaters, the two-toed sloth and three-toed sloth. In the most inaccessible parts of the jungle the biggest feline of south America lives, the jaguar.
In the Andes: the puma, the jaguarondi, the ocelot, the oncilla, the colocolo, the Andean mountain cat (very rare), the giant otter (very rare), the spectacled bear (very rare) and the skunk.
Four camel-like species live in Peru of which only the vicuña and the guanaco live in the wild. The llama and alpaca are fully domesticated.
Birds
In Peru live approximately 1800 sorts of birds. The most impressive one is the condor, the biggest bird on earth. Other birds are the mountain caracara, the swallow-tailed kite, the Andean cock-of-the-rock (the national bird of Peru), two sorts of toucan, many sorts of macaws and parrots, hummingbirds, many sorts of ardea and in the jungle live five sorts of kingfishers.
Also many sorts of Passeriformes live in Peru. Examples are the nuthatch and the swallow.
There are many sorts of birds in Peru but they are just to many to mention all.
Reptiles and amphibians
The biggest snake of Peru is the anaconda, which can
grow up to 8 meters. Another large snake is the boa constrictor. Also a lot of
venomous snakes live in Peru.
The most ‘common' crocodile in Peru is the spectacled caiman but
also the very rare black caiman is to be found in this country.
Insects
In Peru live hundreds of thousands of insects of which the most striking are the stick insects and the termites.
Fish
One of the biggest fish in the Amazon area is the black white catfish surubí. Also Piranhas live in the Amazon and can be dangerous for people. Not dangerous but curious are the sweet water dolphins. The ‘Paiche' is a primitive sorts of fish that can grow up to 2 meters and a weight of about 80 kilos.
