Size: 20-45 meters in height

Life span: Strangler figs can live for hundreds of years.

Revised by:Maricarmen G.

Predators:  Figs are eaten by birds and mammals.
Adaptations:  
The rainforest ground level has little light and water so the strangler ficus has found a way to avoid that.  It grows on top of trees to get the sun and competes with its host to get the soil and water it needs.  
How is it helpfull to animals:
Hundreds of animals like pigeons,parrots, hornbills, toucans, monkeys, gibbons, and fruit-eating bats, feed on the sweet fruit of the fig tree.
Figs are considered a "keystone" species because they are so important to the animals of the rainforest. This is so because figs bear fruit several times a year. Different species of figs fruit at different times so that there is always a supply of food for animals that depend on fruit as a major part of their diet. 
How they attack:
The strangler fig has an aggressive growth habit that insures its survival in the rainforest. The seedlings grows slowly at first, getting their nutrients from the sun, rain and leaf litter that has collected on the host. The stranglers send out many thin roots that snake down the trunk of the host tree or dangle as aerial roots from its branches. When the roots reach the ground they dig in and put on a growth spurt, competing with the host tree for water and nutrients. They also send out a network of roots that encircle the host tree and fuse together. As the roots grow thicker they squeeze the trunk of its host and cut off its flow of nutrients.
Interesting Facts:

• The strangler fig is called strangler because it grows on top of a tree and slowly squeezes it to death until it stays with a hollow log.
• This fig competes with its host and that is another way the host dies.
• The strangler tree is called matapalo in spanish which means killer tree because of the way it kills trees.
• There are close to 1,000 different species of Figs, which can be found in every major rainforest, tropical continent and islands around the world. 
• In some forests up to 70% of its animal's diets depend on figs,
  and the number of fruit-eaters determines the number of predators of fruit-eaters. 
• Strangler figs are tall canopy trees which can grow to 148 feet in height.

Bibliography:  (go to MLA site)
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/plants/worldplants/picpops/tropical_fig.shtm> 
                
<http://www.szgdocent.org/ff/f-stfig.htm>

<http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/strangler_figs.htm