Introduction

In this module, we have examined the various different types of vertebrates found in tropical forests. These range from the hugely charismatic, such as elephants, jaguars and leopards, to the tiny and obscure. We have attempted to cover all the main groups, including many that are not normally covered in standard textbooks on forest ecology, such as bats and fishes.

Studying vertebrates in tropical forests requires skill and patience. New techniques, such as camera traps are being increasingly used, but it still requires skill to know where to install these. Many species are difficult to study: they may be naturally rare, present in only inaccessible parts of the forest (such as the upper canopy or underground), nocturnal, or exceptionally shy. Generally, studies focus on a single species, to the exclusion of all others, and this can result in potentially valuable casual observations being lost. The importance of this is emphasized in the accompanying course, in which we look at species interactions in detail.

Identification skills are important in tropical ecology, yet many people are trained in the identification of only one or two groups. There are large numbers of ornithologists, but fewer mammologists, and even fewer herpetologists. However, identification guides are getting better and more widely available, making it easier to identify vertebrates that are encountered in the forest. The era of general naturalists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace is long gone, but to really understand the ecology of tropical forests, it is important to be able to identify the organisms in question. In this module, we have not attempted to train you to identify individual species. Rather, the objective has been to familiarize you with the range of species that may be present, and to provide a reference to resort to when groups are mentioned that you have not previously encountered.