Lost... In the Jungle of Doom (3 page)
Read Lost... In the Jungle of Doom Online
Authors: Tracey Turner
I
t gets darker as you walk, until you can hardly see anything at all. Sharp thorns stab and tear at you in the darkness,
and every few steps you find yourself stumbling over a tree root or a fallen branch. Mosquitos whine in your ears. It’s still pouring with rain, and the ground has become extremely
slippery.
You scramble over the trunk of a fallen tree. To your horror, the ground falls away in front of it. You try to grab hold of a branch to stop your fall, but it’s dead
and snaps off! You hurtle down a steep bank, crashing into trees as you fall, whacking your head on a rock as you tumble down. You lose consciousness . . . and don’t wake up again.
The end.
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to return to the beginning and try again.
Y
ou heave yourself up onto the first branch of a tall tree, then scramble up to a higher one. You look up and see that
there is still a very long way to go, and already you’re feeling tired in the clammy heat of the rainforest. This is going to be harder than you thought. You’re considering whether to
abandon the climb, when you catch sight of something that makes you freeze: coiled around a branch in a patch of sunlight, its head half a metre away from you, is an enormous snake.
The snake is well camouflaged against the tree, greenish brown with a spotted pattern. Its body looks thicker than your thigh! The snake’s coils wrap around the tree
branch – it must be at least twice as long as you are tall. The snake seems to be asleep and doesn’t move. Neither do you, as you stand frozen to the spot, deciding what to do . .
.
If you decide to step around the snake, and carry on climbing, click
here
.
If you decide to get down from the tree, click
here
.
Y
our heart pounds as you stare, transfixed, into the jaguar’s eyes. You scream, turn and run away as fast as you
can through the trees!
It’s a matter of seconds before the jaguar catches up with you and brings you crashing down onto the jungle floor, at the same time biting down on your skull with its
powerful jaws. You die instantly.
The end.
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to return to the beginning and try again.
Click
here
to find out more about jaguars.
• It’s never a good idea to run away from a large predator such as a big cat. This will make you seem even more like prey, and the animal will almost
certainly be able to outrun you.
• Jaguars are South America’s biggest cats. They’re also found in Central America.
• Jaguars used to be quite common, but are becoming increasingly rare, and are now only found in remote regions.
• They vary in size, and can weigh from around 45 kilograms up to 120 kilograms. The biggest are nearly two metres long.
• Out of any big cat, jaguars are least likely to attack people – but it has happened.
• They are good swimmers, and eat Amazon River animals such as caimans and turtles.
• A jaguar’s jaws deliver the most powerful bite of any big cat in the world – it’s capable of biting through a turtle’s shell!
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to return to your adventure.
P
etrified with fear, you manage to tear your eyes away from the jaguar, incase it interprets your stare as a threat. You
look down at the forest floor and keep still. After a few moments, you shrink back behind a tree. You risk a glance at the animal and see that it hasn’t moved, and still looks as though it
could pounce at any moment. You want to run away, but you know that this will make the big cat more likely to see you as prey, and attack. You wait another few moments. Then you cautiously start
to back away, very slowly, making sure you are still facing the jaguar. After a while, when you are out of sight of the animal, you hear the big cat moving off in another direction, perhaps in
search of easier prey. You’ve been sweating, and this reminds you that you need to find drinking water . . .
If you decide to get your water from bamboo, click
here
.
If you decide to find a river, click
here
.
If you decide to get your water from a pool in some tree roots, click
here
.
Click
here
for tips on finding water in the rainforest.
You might think this should be pretty easy – after all, this is a rainforest. But finding water might not be as simple as you think...
• Rivers and streams are obvious sources of water. Remember that fast-flowing water is more likely to be good to drink although it may be more difficult to
get to.
• If there are animal tracks around a water source, it’s best not to drink from it. As well as drinking, the animals might well have pooed and weed in
it too!
• Water can be obtained from bamboo.
• You can wait for rain and collect it in a container. Rain water should be safe to drink without boiling.
• Don’t drink directly from any water source as there could be small organisms or bacteria in it. There have also been reports of people bending to
drink from a pool or river in the Amazon, only to have the tip of their nose nipped off by piranha!
• Stagnant water is to be avoided. Microscopic parasites and germs might have bred in it, and it could be home to small creatures you can barely see.
• Digging a hole near a water source, then waiting for water to filter up into it, will get rid of some of the impurities that might be lurking in the water.
You can also use a piece of material as a filter. But it’s always worth boiling water before you drink it – see
here
for tips on boiling water.
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here
to return to your adventure.
Y
ou cut down a huge bunch of the purple fruit, which look like very fat blueberries or blackcurrants. Tentatively, you
try one. It’s absolutely delicious! Surely nothing this tasty could be poisonous as well? You sit down on a log and eat until your stomach stops rumbling.
You were foolish to eat a fruit you didn’t recognise, but luckily for you these berries are not poisonous. They are acai berries, one of the thousands of edible fruits
of the Amazon, which include figs, pineapples, passion fruit, avocados and coconuts.
You spot a shrub-like plant not far away. It has round spiky seed cases, a bit like the conker cases on a horse chestnut tree, with what look like mottled beans inside. Do
you still feel hungry? Should you try the new plant too?
If you decide you’re not hungry any more, click
here
.
If you still feel peckish and decide to eat the beans, click
here
.
Click
here
for tips on how to test fruit for poison.
Instead of gorging yourself on the berries and hoping for the best, you should have tested for poison in a much more careful and scientific way.
• Don’t eat any plant that has mildew on it.
• Crush the fruit and sniff it. If it smells of almonds or peaches, don’t eat it!
• To be on the safe side, don’t eat any plant with white sap as many of them are poisonous.
• Put some juice on your skin. If it irritates your skin, don’t eat it.
• Try a tiny amount of juice on your lips. If it tingles, or feels sore or unusual in any way, don’t eat the fruit.
• Try a little juice in the corner of your mouth and wait for any reaction. Then try some on your tongue, under your tongue, and finally chew a small piece
then spit it out. Wait a few minutes between each stage to make sure you don’t get a reaction.
• If the fruit has passed all of the above tests, swallow a small piece of the fruit. Wait several hours, without eating or drinking anything else. If you
feel fine, then the fruit is safe to eat.
• Remember that you’ve only tested one part of the plant. The stems, leaves and roots might not be safe to eat and will need to be tested too.
• Remember, these tests aren’t fool proof!
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to return to your adventure.
C
autiously, you place one foot slightly closer to the snake in order to climb up to a higher branch. The snake opens its
huge jaws, lunges towards you then retreats, very quickly. In a panic, you slip and fall, grasping on to the branch closest to the snake.
The snake lunges for you again, and this time it bites! You feel its sharp teeth holding you firmly and painfully by the shoulder. Quickly and purposefully, its body uncoils
from the branch and wraps around your body. You feel it start to squeeze . . .
Unfortunately for you, the snake is a constrictor, a green anaconda, which kills its prey by squeezing it tighter and tighter until it can no longer breathe. You are soon
dead.
The end.
Click
here
to return to the beginning and try again.
Click
here
to find out more about green anacondas.