Lost... In the Jungle of Doom (4 page)
Read Lost... In the Jungle of Doom Online
Authors: Tracey Turner
• The green anaconda is the biggest snake in the world and can measure up to nine metres long and weigh up to 230 kilograms!
• Like other constricting snakes, such as pythons, anacondas don’t have venom. They kill their prey by coiling around it and squeezing, until the animal
can’t breathe.
• Green anacondas are good swimmers and live near water. Like crocodiles, they can lie in wait for prey in water with just their eyes and nostrils above the
water.
• Anacondas prey on fish, birds, capybara, turtles, caimans, deer and wild pigs. They can even eat large animals whole because their jaws can stretch wide
open. After a big meal they might not eat again for months!
• Reticulated pythons, found in Southeast Asia, can be even longer than green anacondas, but their bodies aren’t as thick and heavy.
• Although large anacondas are capable of eating an animal the size of a human, there are very few reports of the creatures attacking people, and no records
of fatal attacks.
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to return to your adventure.
T
here’s a stand of bamboo not far away. Luckily, you know just how to get water from it . . .
Tap the bamboo stems – the ones that sound denser are likely to have water in them. You might even be able to hear the water sloshing about when you shake the stem. Cut
the stem and collect the water in a container. It should be safe to drink, but if you want to be extra careful you should boil it. You need to be careful when you make your cut in the bamboo
stem, because split bamboo can be extremely sharp.
You drink until you’re no longer thirsty.
Click
here
.
S
omething glints on the forest floor ahead of you. As you get closer you see it’s a pool of water, like a very
large puddle, but it seems to be quite deep. You’re hot and clammy and the pool looks so inviting. It’s also a good opportunity for a much-needed wash . . .
If you decide to take a dip in the pool, click
here
.
If you decide to keep going, click
here
.
Y
ou walk for half an hour or so. Ahead of you, through the trees, it’s getting brighter and brighter and it’s
not long before you hear the sound of moving water.
When you find the water’s edge it’s as though a light has been switched on! After the gloom of the thick tree canopy, you blink bleary eyed in the light. The
river is wide, sluggish here at the edge of the water, but moving swiftly along in the middle. This must be either the Amazon River itself, or one of its many large tributaries.
Click
here
.
Click
here
to find out about the amazing Amazon River.
• The Amazon is the world’s biggest river by volume. It’s in competition with Africa’s Nile River for the World’s Longest River
record. This depends on how you measure where the river begins and ends, and there’s a lot of argument about it. The Amazon is at least 6,200 kilometres long. It starts as a trickle in
the Andes Mountains of Peru, and flows across South America all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
• The mouth of the Amazon, where it flows into the Atlantic, is 32
2
kilometres wide. Even if you travel more than 1,500 kilometres upstream
(that’s more than the distance between London and Rome!), it’s still more than ten kilometres wide.
• There are no bridges across the Amazon at any point. It’s either too wide, or in the middle of the rainforest. You’ll have to swim or raft
across it.
• Every second, 209,000 cubic metres pour into the Atlantic Ocean from the Amazon River.
• The Amazon River has more than a thousand tributaries. Seventeen of them are longer than 1,500 kilometres, making them some of the longest rivers in the
world.
• More species of fish live in the Amazon than in any other body of water on Earth!
• Most people of the Amazon live near a river. If you follow a river downstream for long enough, you should find people.
• The largest city along the Amazon River is Manaus in Brazil and is home to 1.7 million people.
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T
he tangled roots of a huge tree wind around one another at the tree’s base to make what looks like an enormous
bird’s nest. There are plenty of small pools of water amongst them. You cup a handful of water. It looks clear and smells fresh. Surely it can only be rainwater?
You’re very thirsty and don’t have any easy way of making a fire. You could go about the laborious process of hunting for dry wood, making a fire and boiling the
water but this will take some time and hold you up in your quest to find help. Or you could just drink some. It looks very tempting and you’re in dire need of a drink.
If you decide to boil the water, click
here
.
If you decide to risk it and drink the water without boiling it, click
here
.
Y
ou collect a couple of handfuls of the beans and eat them. Unfortunately, you have just made a BIG mistake. The plant is
a castor oil plant, and its seeds (which look like beans) contain a lethal toxin called ricin.
You carry on walking through the forest, but after a couple of hours you start to feel burning in your mouth and throat. You have to stop. Your stomach hurts, you feel
increasingly weak, and you get diarrhoea. You’re dead within a few days.
The end.
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to return to the beginning and try again.
Y
ou feel refreshed after your drink of clean water. But your stomach’s rumbling and you spot a plant you think you
recognise.
There’s more light where a large tree has fallen, creating a gap in the tree canopy, and there are lots of smaller shrubs growing there, taking advantage of the light.
One of them is a small tree with oval-shaped fruits hanging from it. Some of the fruit is orangey-yellow, some green. You are almost sure these are papayas, or paw paws.
But you’re in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, not your local supermarket! Could these be poisonous fruit that look very similar to papayas?
Using your Swiss Army knife you cut open the orange fruit. Inside, the golden flesh smells delicious and leaves your mouth watering. There are black seeds in the middle. This
is just how you remember papaya fruit.
It’s a dilemma. You’re starting to feel weak with hunger, you haven’t seen any other edible plants that you recognise, and you’re pretty convinced
that these fruits are safe. On the other hand, you haven’t eaten papaya very often. Is it possible that you’re just convincing yourself that these fruit are the same just because
you’re so very hungry?
If you decide not to eat the fruit, click
here
.
If you decide to eat the fruit, click
here
.
Click
here
to find out about surviving without food or water.
As long as you have enough water to drink, you can survive without food for quite a long time – probably a month or more – but how long depends on
different factors:
• Some people use up energy more quickly than others, so this will make a difference to how long you can survive without eating. It will also depend on how
much physical work you’re doing.
• If you’re strong, fit and healthy, and neither very old nor very young, you’ll survive longer.
• Carrying a bit of excess fat will be an advantage too as the extra fat on your body can be used as fuel.
Surviving without water is entirely different. Certain factors make a difference – it will depend on how fit you are, the temperature (which in the Amazon is
generally pretty hot), and how much exercise you’re doing. However, you won’t survive for long without a drink whatever the circumstances. After three days without water you’ll
be in serious danger of death, and it might be sooner than that if you’re hot and working hard.
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to return to your adventure.
H
onestly! Haven’t you been paying any attention at all? It’s never a good idea to drink stagnant water!
Tiny parasites and bacteria can thrive in pools of stagnant water like the one you have very foolishly drunk from, without boiling it first. Water-borne diseases include
typhoid, Weil’s disease and schistomiasis, or snail fever.
Unfortunately, you have caught cholera from the contaminated water. You continue on your journey through the rainforest for a while, but it isn’t long before you start
to feel ill. Soon you have terrible diarrhoea and vomiting. You’re unable to find enough water to replace the liquids you’re losing. With no chance of getting medical help, you
die.
The end.
Click
here
to return to the beginning and try again.