The most common and known toucan is the Toco Toucan! The Toco Toucan is also recognized by its scientific name, Ramphastos toco! The meaning of that name is “large beak”. You commonly see toucans a lot of the time in zoos, or you may sometimes see then in cartoons. There are about 50- 60 species of toucans that are known flying all over the world. Toco Toucan status is not threatened, or not even endangered. When, a lot of people think of toucans or colorful birds they think of rainforest. Well, Toco Toucans do live in tropical rainforests. Their range is from Guineas, through Brazil, then all of the way to Northern Argentina. They also live in the eastern part of South America. Toco’s live in the canopy level of the high trees in the rainforest. When Toco’s live in the wild, sometimes they prefer some areas that are not so tropical. Such as, more of an open habitat like woodlands, river forests, plantations, and even palms grooves. Even though a lot of toucans are wild, some can be seen in zoo's all around the world. When a kind of animal lives in a zoo that is its environment / habitat.

 

Another thing that is a very important asset in a Toco’s life is its diet. The toucans are known for being omnivores, and or being frugivorious. Meaning that they eat fruits. But, sometimes they might occasionally eat bird eggs, small birds, rodents, insects, or even a small lizard every now and then. In one year a Toco Toucan can consume at least 100 different species of plants and trees, (but only if they live in the wild). In the wild their bill is very, very efficient, it helps them a lot for picking fruits from the branches. Also, it helps them with picking fruit that is really small. Their tongue works together with the bill. After picking the fruit the tongue wraps around the fruit and flings it into the mouth for chewing and swallowing.

 

Since their population isn’t endangered they must be reproducing pretty well. The Toco Toucan reproduction is doing great! The Toco Toucan reproduces sexually. They fly in flocks; they mate within the flocks too. Toco’s’ mate and lay eggs usually only once a year. They build their nests high in hollow trees. Every year the birds make a new nest, but they might favor one certain nest and come back to it every several years. This bird only lays about two to four eggs at a time. These eggs are known to be white, and they hatch in about 16- 20 days. The developments of the little toucans are very slow!! When they are born, they have pads on the bottom of their feet! This helps them to protect them from of the nest. Those pads come off in about six to eight weeks. The baby toucan’s bill grows, and gets their color in about several months. They are able to leave the nest in about six weeks of age. The typical life span of a regular toucan is about 10 years of age!

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The Toco Toucans’ physical description is amazing!! The Toco has the largest beak out of its entire family of toucans. They are known for their beak and bill. It is about 20 cm long, and really colorful. Their bill has a variety of colors, like orange, red, yellow, or blue. A lot of people think that their beak is really heavy, but it’s actually not. It isn’t heavy, because it is made up of honeycomb and bony material! Toco’s bodies are about 20 inches long. Most of its body is black; it may have a little bit of orange or red in it. It's throat, chest, and shoulders, are white. Males and females all look the same so you can’t really tell the two apart. Its tongue is long and narrow. It is singularly frayed on each side. A lot of people mistook its tongue as a feather. So that is it for the physical description.

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Since a lot of people focus on the Toco’s beak, nobody really knows about its behavior and adaptations. For behavior, the Toco’s get clean by bathing in rain holes. They travel in flocks for protection from birds of prey. They are very noisy member of the jungle! They also give each other food within flocks. For adaptation, to defend them from birds of prey, they gather around each other and chord very loudly. It tells the other birds to go away! They sleep in nesting holes. To do this they twist their head back, put their wing over their beak, and fold up their tails. In conclusion, the Toco Toucans are pretty amazing. Now for their kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Their kingdom is Animalia, phylum is chordate, subphylum is vertebrata, class is Aves, order is pidformes, family is ramphastidae, genus is ramphastos, and their species is Ramphastos toco. The Toco Toucan is the largest toucan of 50- 60 species. A lot of people recognized them by their bill. So that is it for the Toco Toucan!!

 

Author: Corrina T

Date Published: April 2006

 

Sources:

Jones, Jeremy A. “The Toco Toucan Page.” www.whozoo.org/anlife99/jerejones/tocotoucan2.html Watkins, Ron. “Toucan, Toco Page.” www.aviary.owls.com/index.html,2006. Marek, Lorri R. “The Ramlastos Toco (Toco Toucan) page.” www.animaldiversity.umm2.umich.edu/site/account/information/Ramphastos_toco.html, 1999. The Big Zoo. “Toco Toucan Page.” www.thebigzoo.com/Animals/Toco_Toucan.asp, 2006. Bristol Zoo Gardens. “The Toco Toucan Page.” www.bristolzoo.org.uk/learing/animals/birds/toucan Compton’s Encyclopedia. “The Toucan” The Compton’s Encyclopedia. Pg.217.