Lost... In the Jungle of Doom (11 page)
Read Lost... In the Jungle of Doom Online
Authors: Tracey Turner
I
t 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
.
I
n 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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to return to the beginning and try again.
Click
here
to find out more about Brazilian wandering spiders.
• 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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to return to your adventure.
Y
ou 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.
• 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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to return to your adventure.
P
anicked 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
.
I
t 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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here
.
Y
ou 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.
Click
here
.
Click
here
to find out more about the Amazon River manataee.
• 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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to return to your adventure.