Lost... In the Jungle of Doom Read online

  • Your design can be as simple or as complicated as you like. The important thing is that it floats! In a survival situation, the simpler the better. But ideally, you should attach some cross poles to the underside of the raft to make it sturdy. Attach the poles at right angles to the base of the raft.

  • Don’t forget that you need to build your raft either right next to the water’s edge, or actually in the water. You don’t want to manoeuvre a heavy structure across the forest floor.

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  You can’t resist picking up the cute little frog, which is no bigger than your thumb. But that turns out to have been a very bad idea indeed!

  The frog is brightly coloured for a reason – it’s very dangerous. It doesn’t bite or inject venom, but it is highly poisonous. In fact it’s a poison dart frog. This one isn’t the most deadly, but it is still highly toxic.

  You are blissfully unaware of this, though, and, after studying the little frog, which hops about on your hand for a bit, you gently return it to its tree-root home.

  Unfortunately, the frog’s poison is entering your bloodstream through the various tiny cuts and insect bites on your hands. And because you don’t know that the creature could be poisonous, you’re not being careful about hygiene. When you get another cut on your hand from a thorny vine, you wince and suck at it to make it feel better in exactly the same spot that the frog deposited some of its lethal poison. In your weakened state, it is enough to kill you.

  The end.

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  Click here to find out more about poison dart frogs.

  Poison Dart Frogs

  • Poison dart frogs are so called because Amazonian people sometimes use their toxic secretions to poison the tips of their darts for hunting.

  • All species of poison dart frog are small (just a few centimetres in size), and all are very brightly coloured, warning predators that they are poisonous (but not you, unfortunately).

  • Three species of these frogs are dangerous to humans. The most poisonous is the golden poison dart frog, which is probably the most poisonous creature on earth. It is only five centimetres long, but its skin contains enough poison to kill ten adult humans.

  • Many species of this type of frog are endangered.

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  You float swiftly down the river, carried by the current. You wonder why you didn’t do this before – it’s so much easier than making your way on land! There are no snakes to look out for, no thorny vines ripping your clothes, and no tree roots to trip over. Out of the forest and moving quickly, there are fewer biting insects, too. It feels great to be resting! You watch the trees and the muddy bank slide past you.

  It’s not long, though, before you begin to feel very hot. In the rainforest you were protected from the sun – now it beats down relentlessly, with no trees to offer shade. Maybe you should make your way to the bank, stop, and find some way of making a sun shelter? On the other hand, it might be best just to keep going. You can put your waterproof coat over your head, and who knows what other hazards you might find on the river bank.

  If you decide to stop the raft and make a shelter, click here.

  If you decide to keep going, click here.

  You find a long, stout stick and sharpen the end with your Swiss Army knife, trying to make as little noise as possible. You must be downwind of the tapir, because it doesn’t seem concerned, and carries on rooting about on the forest floor. With your sharpened stick, you creep slowly and carefully towards the animal. A twig snaps and the tapir lifts its head, alarmed. You freeze. After a moment the animal goes back to feeding. You creep forward again, your spear raised . . . you are just within range and you lunge forward for the attack . . . At the same moment, the tapir looks up and bolts, running straight at you in its panic and knocking your legs from under you as it does so! You fall forward and the sharpened stick breaks underneath you, its tip sinking painfully into your leg.

  The wound is deep and bleeding heavily. You are in extreme pain but force yourself to think – what should you do? You could make a bandage from your clothing but your clothes are very far from being sterile, and you might end up causing a fatal infection. Maybe you should try and find some clean water, then wash the wound.

  If you decide to go in search of clean water, click here.

  If you decide to apply a bandage, click here.

  You are suffering from warm water immersion foot, which is much, much worse than a few blisters.

  Your feet get more and more painful. Eventually, even though you want to keep going, you can’t. You’re forced to lie down. You’re hot and exhausted, and by now in extreme pain. You pass out. Unfortunately, not looking after your feet has spelled your doom . . .

  The end.

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  Click here to find out more about warm water immersion foot.

  Warm Water Immersion Foot

  • Warm water immersion foot is very similar to tropical immersion foot, which was common in American troops during the Vietnam War, when soldiers were constantly wading through paddy fields in army boots.

  • It’s also similar to trench foot, which people can get in wet, cold conditions. Its name comes from the trenches of the First World War, when soldiers had to live in cold, muddy trenches dug into the earth for long periods of time.

  • If any of these conditions aren’t treated, the results can be very serious, and even result in amputation.

  • Symptoms can include burning, numbness, swelling, thickening and softening of the skin. The skin might also turn white or grey.

  • One sufferer, Yossi Ghinsberg said warm water immersion foot made his feet so painful that he tipped fire ants over his head so that their painful bites would take his mind off the agonising pain in his feet!

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  Walking in the humid heat of the rainforest, you soon feel worse. You deeply regret eating that fruit. You stagger onwards, getting weaker by the minute. You’re in desperate need of water, and gratefully drink the rainwater as it falls – but it’s not enough to rehydrate you. You collapse and, eventually, die.

  The end.

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  It takes a bit of punting with your stick to get over to the riverbank, making you feel even hotter and more exhausted. You’re pouring with sweat, so you find some water to drink in a bamboo stem before you start work.

  You find a couple of large sticks to push in amongst the bamboo stems to form a simple tepee structure, then cover it with big, broad leaves. It looks a mess, but it’s not too heavy and it will provide you with shade, which is all that matters.

  You push out into the river again, and soon nod off to sleep under your sunshade. You wake with a start! You’ve drifted over by the bank, into shallow water, and something is snorting just under the surface right in front of you! It looks like a small hippo. Your heart starts to race. Should you get out of the water, or steer your raft around the creature – whatever it is?

  If you decide to move back into the river on your raft, click here.

  If you decide to get out of the water, click here.

  In fact this spider isn’t a tarantula at all. It’s a Brazilian wandering spider, and you’ve just woken it up! Alarmed, it scuttles towards your hand and bites you twice.

  You cry out in pain and surprise. You are sure that tarantula bites aren’t dangerous but this bite feels very painful and your hand soon starts to swell up. You notice you have started sweating even more than usual, too. You decide to ignore it, but the pain gets worse, your hand gets more and more swollen, and your activity is helping the spider’s venom to move around your body. Eventually, you collapse and die.

  The end.

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  Click here to find out more about Brazilia
n wandering spiders.

  Brazilian Wandering Spider

  • The Brazilian wandering spider was first discovered in Brazil but turns up all over the world inside bunches of bananas. For that reason, they’re also known as banana spiders.

  • These spiders are nocturnal, and use their venom to prey on insects, lizards and mice. They hide in dark places during the day, then come out at night to hunt.

  • Brazilian wandering spiders are sometimes mistaken for tarantulas because they’re quite big, up to about 12 centimetres across, and hairy.

  • The spiders are dangerous because they often live near people, either in towns and villages or on plantations, and hide in dark places during the day.

  • They are probably the most venomous spiders in the world. They are also aggressive, and can jump. Despite this, there aren’t many human deaths from the spider’s bite. There’s an antivenom available, so if a bite victim can get to hospital in time they will probably be all right.

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  You watch as the monkeys sit in the branches high above you. They’re eating, and a couple of them drop pieces of fruit and leaves, before swinging off through the trees into the distance.

  You go to examine the fruit the monkeys dropped. It looks a bit like avocado. Some pieces have bites taken out of them, but some are whole. Maybe you should eat some? But only the whole pieces, you don’t know what diseases the monkeys might be carrying. After all, you and the monkeys are pretty closely related, so if it isn’t poisonous to them, it shouldn’t be poisonous to you.

  If you decide to eat some of the monkeys’ fruit, click here.

  If you decide not to, click here.

  Click here to find out more about the monkeys that live in the Amazon.

  Amazon Monkeys

  • The monkeys that live in Central and South America have prehensile tails, which they can use to wrap around branches, helping them swing from tree to tree. The monkeys in Africa and Asia don’t have such a useful tail.

  • There are hundreds of monkey species in the Amazon. The largest (and loudest) are howler monkeys.

  • There are lots of different species of tamarin monkeys, most of which are about the size of a squirrel. The most recently discovered species is Mura’s saddleback tamarin, discovered in 2009.

  • Spider monkeys are thought to be some of the most intelligent monkeys of the New World. They’re up to about 65 centimetres tall, and have very long arms, legs and tail, which is why they got their name.

  • The smallest monkeys in the world live in the Amazon. They’re pygmy marmosets, which are only 15 centimetres long and up to 140 grams in weight.

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  Panicked by the monkeys, you go crashing away from them in the opposite direction, careless of where you’re heading. Sharp thorns rip at your skin and clothes.

  You come to a sudden and painful stop when you trip over a tree root, bashing your legs and falling to the ground. You stagger to your feet and look around you. The green rainforest canopy shows no signs of the monkeys. Your heart pounding, you decide to rest.

  Click here.

  It isn’t long before you spot another sign that people are about and this one makes you even more hopeful! You see that there’s a small hut on the riverbank, made from rusting corrugated iron. You start to punt towards it. As you get closer you see that there’s a boat tied up to a rickety wooden jetty.

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  You jump from your raft onto the bank, suddenly panicking that the creature might be able to get out of the water and chase you! You climb into the branches of a tree and watch. The animal is under the water, but you can still see the outline of its massive bulk. You wait a while, watching, but the creature doesn’t move at all. You’re tempted to get back on your raft and move on, when a huge, bristly face emerges out of the water, takes a great gulp of air, and goes under again. You can see it a bit more clearly now and notice that it looks like an enormous seal! It certainly doesn’t look aggressive.

  As the animal submerges, you decide to risk it. You clamber back onto your raft and use your stick to push away as calmly as you can. Soon you’re out of the shallows and away, not realising that you’ve just been lucky enough to have a close encounter with an Amazon River manatee.

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  Click here to find out more about the Amazon River manataee.

  Amazon River Manatee

  • Manatees are the Amazon’s largest aquatic mammals, also known as sea cows because they’re big, gentle, and eat grass. They feed on underwater plants and algae.

  • They never leave the water, but need to come up to breathe air. They can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes!

  • Amazon river manatees are the smallest of three species of manatee (the other two are marine and live in the Caribbean and Africa) but they’re still huge – up to 2.8 metres long and a whopping 500 kilograms in weight!

  • The only vegetarian underwater mammal, manatees only have molar teeth for chewing on plants. The teeth are replaced throughout their lives as the old ones wear down.

  • Manatees were once hunted for their meat, oil and bones. Because of this they’re now quite rare.

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  You’re feeling shaky after your encounter with the otters and before long you’re hot and thirsty again, as you continue down the river in the hazy sunshine. You start looking for a place to stop on the riverbank to find drinking water. As you search, you see something amazing! Barely visible under some low-growing trees, there’s a small, battered-looking rowing boat!

  Should you go over to the boat, which is moored in a tricky position, or stop a couple of hundred metres ahead, where there’s a beach. After all, the boat looks old and could have been abandoned there.

  If you decide to stop at the boat, click here.

  If you decide to carry on, click here.

  The tributary narrows and soon you have to use your stick as a punt as the current isn’t strong enough to carry your raft along. It’s tiring work. Should you stop for a rest, and then turn around and go back the way you came? Or is it better to continue even though you’re hot and tired?

  If you decide to stop, click here.

  If you decide to carry on, click here.

  You tie up your raft on the riverbank, then swim towards the otters, which are calling noisily to one another. As you get closer, you realise they’re much bigger than any otter you’ve ever seen before. In fact, they’re huge – the size of an adult human! There are eight or nine of them in the group and some of them are babies. Three of the adults are heading your way, swimming swiftly and strongly, making a low growling sound. You start to panic – maybe they’re worried about their young?

  They’re still some distance away. You turn and swim as fast as you can towards the raft, and clamber gratefully on to it. But the otters are still heading your way! They circle the raft several times as you punt away from them, as calmly as you can.

  These are giant river otters, which can be aggressive and have been known to attack and kill dogs. Although they’re not usually dangerous to humans, you were absolutely right to get away from them as fast as you could!

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  Click here to find out more about giant river otters.

  Giant River Otters

  • Giant river otters are only found in South America in the Amazon, Orinoco and La Plata river systems.

  • They look very similar to a European otter, with one major difference – they are up to 1.8 metres long!

  • The otters feed mainly on fish, but also eat crabs and snakes, and the occasional small caiman.

  • They are also known as ‘river wolves’, and sometimes hunt together as a pack.

  • Giant otters do sometimes attack dogs, but they’re not usually a danger to people.

  • These otters have a lot more to fear from people than we do from them. They’ve been hunted so much tha
t they are now extremely rare.

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  You sit down on a log feeling weak and sorry for yourself. After a while, you feel a bit better. You spot a stand of bamboo not far away and decide to find some water in the stems to quench your thirst.

  You’re shaking the stems, listening out for a sloshing sound that tells you there is water in the bamboo, when you spot a big, hairy spider only ten centimetres or so from your hand. You think it’s probably a tarantula, and you know they aren’t aggressive. Even if they do bite, their venom isn’t dangerous.

  If you decide to ignore the spider and carry on your search for water, click here.

  If you decide to go in search of some other bamboo, click here.

  You continue down the river on your raft, looking out for signs of habitation as you go. You’re sure that if you carry on downstream for long enough, you’ll find people.