Abstract:
The tropics are very seasonal. There are times of year
when the carnivores are more numerous, when there is
more sun, when food is more scarce, when there is more
rain. Many tropical plants and animals sit tight and
tough out the hard times·by being unreproductive or
dormant. But many tropical animals get up and move to
more hospitable localities when unfavorable seasons
come along. Such local seasonal movements have long
been apparent to tropical field naturalists and rural residents.
In a tropical dry forest, for example, many butterflies,
bugs, beetles, lizards, monkeys and birds move
into moist and semi-evergreen lowlands and riparian
understory vegetation during the dry season. Then,
when the rains come, the lowland forest understory becomes
a shadow desert and the animals move back onto
the sunny hillsides where the food is. But we have long
been oblivious to a much more dramatic kind of movement
in the tropics.
