In an acre of the forest can be thousands of insects, frogs, and spiders, each making their own sounds and chirps.  For smaller animals, looking for food isn't a big problem.   Many insects feed plants or decaying carcasses left over from a hunt of a jaguar or an ocelot (wild cat similar to the jaguar).  However, insects are prey to many animals; monkeys, anteaters, coatimundis, spiders, and frogs all enjoy an occasional insect such as a termite or a grasshopper.   For this reason, insects have developed many techniques to escape predators.   Grasshoppers and katydids (insect similar to a grasshopper) have powerful hind legs that allow them jump from place to place at incredible speeds.  Many animals use to the camouflage to remain unseen.  A great number of animals, including insects, birds, and wild cats, in the Amazon are able to blend into the background.  Some animals have mechanism that allow it to defend or attack.  An example of such would be the scorpion which can use its stinger to kill a prey or defend itself when under attack.   Monkeys try to stick to the trees.  In the trees, they are able to quickly move about.  When on land, however, they can become targets for jaguars and other wild cats.  Birds also use this technique.  They stick to the trees to find nuts, berries, and insects (larger birds such as hawks prey on smaller birds and fish).  Occasionally, they fly below the canopy of the trees and to the forest floor to find food but can easily become food for other animals such tarantulas the size of large paper plates or snakes such the anaconda.

As you can see, life in the jungle is a constant struggle between different animals, predator and prey.  These relationships were forged hundreds of thousands of years ago and remain intact today.  Predators and prey keep each other in check.  When there are plentiful prey, the predator population surges.  Soon, there are more predators than prey and so the predator population decreases while the prey increases and now we are back to the beginning of the cycle.

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