TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Disappearing Opportunities  Home  What's New  About  Contribute  Submissions  Rainforests    Mission    Introduction    Characteristics    Biodiversity    The Canopy    Forest Floor    Forest Waters    Indigenous People    Deforestation    Consequences    Saving Rainforests    Amazon rainforest    Borneo rainforest    Congo rainforest    Country Profiles    Statistics    Works Cited    For Kids    For Teachers    Photos/Images    Expert Interviews    Rainforest News    XML Feeds    Chinese    French    Japanese    Spanish    Other Languages  Pictures  Books  Links  Newsletter  Education  Mongabay Sites    Kids' site    Travel Tips    Tropical Fish    Madagascar  Contact About this site Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more] Species Highly Vulnerable to Extinction · Species with a narrow geographic range: like mountain tops, valleys, islands · Niche species: once their niche is lost they quickly disappear · Species adapted to stable environments: like the shade of the canopy · Endemic (especially island) species: easily decimated by introduced species · Species with naturally small, dispersed populations · Species with few populations · Species with poor dispersal: species that need specific pollinators or dispersers · Species with low reproduction rates: gorillas, indri lemurs, harpy eagles, etc. · Ecologically naive species: species that have been isolated and have no natural predators · Species with a large body size · Migratory species · Predatory species · Species that are used (hunted, harvested, or killed) by humans Continued: Extinction Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [Bibliographic citation for this page] Other pages in this section: Consequences of Deforestation Erosion Loss of Renewable Resources Atmospheric Role - - - - - References References References References References Local Climate Regulation Loss of Species, Disease Climactic Role Extinction - - - - - Kids version of this section - Why are rainforests important? - Climate - Home to wildlife - Water cycle - Erosion control - Extinction what's new | rainforests home | for kids | help | madagascar | search | about | languages | contact Copyright Rhett Butler 1994-2007 "Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. Same for "rainforests" and "rain forests". "Jungle" is generally not used.

Recent news Amazon deforestation rate falls to lowest on record (8/10/2007) Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon for the previous year were the lowest on record, according to preliminary figures released by INPE, Brazil's National Institute of Space Research. Lowland rainforest less diverse than previously thought (8/9/2007) While rainforests are the world's libraries of biodiversity, species richness may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others, reports an extensive new study by an international team of entomologists and botanists. The work, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, has important implications for forest management and conservation strategies. Experts: parks effectively protect rainforest in Peru (8/9/2007) High-resolution satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest in Peru shows that land-use and conservation policies have had a measurable impact on deforestation rates. The research is published in the August 9, 2007, on-line edition of Science Express. More rainforest news