Lost... In the Jungle of Doom (9 page)
Read Lost... In the Jungle of Doom Online
Authors: Tracey Turner
• Black caiman are big! They grow up to five metres long and can be 400 kilograms in weight.
• They are mainly nocturnal and their dark colouring helps to camouflage them at night.
• They prey on fish, and also on mammals at the water’s edge such as capybara (which is a bit like a giant guinea-pig and is the world’s biggest
rodent).
• There have been a few human deaths caused by black caiman, but their habitat means that they don’t often come into contact with people.
• Humans hunted black caiman until they nearly died out. Nowadays, black caiman are protected, but some people still hunt them illegally for their leather and
meat.
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Y
ou’re on the lookout for other creatures as you continue. Every so often there’s a high-pitched cry, a
squawk, or a hoot! You’re almost getting used to the sounds of the rainforest now. But it’s a constant reminder that the place is full of life. As well as the tapirs you’ve just
seen, there are probably countless other animals that you can’t see, camouflaged in the rainforest.
You’re passing underneath a tree when something makes you look up; you find yourself staring straight into a sad-eyed, upside-down face. The creature’s scruffy
brown fur is tinged with green, and it hangs from the tree from its long, hairy arms and legs. You realise this creature is a sloth.
The creature has one of the cutest faces you’ve ever seen. But should you be alarmed? Are sloths dangerous?
If you decide sloths are harmless, click
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.
If you decide to run away, click
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.
Y
ou keep your eye on the water, looking for signs that gave you the unsettling feeling earlier on. But it doesn’t
look as though there’s anything in the water here.
Feeling less worried about the river, you carry on along the trail, which becomes narrower and narrower. Eventually, it runs out. What now? You don’t want to go back
into the forest. The river itself should be a lot easier to navigate and faster too. You could spend some time making a raft. Or you could just swim for it, letting the current carry you. After
all, you’ve heard that someone swam the entire length of the Amazon!
If you decide to swim, click
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.
If you decide to make a raft, click
here
.
Y
ou soon realise it’s going to be impossible to follow the monkeys. When they move, they move fast! But one of the
monkeys is acting oddly. It starts to make an eerie howling cry, and suddenly comes crashing down from the trees towards you!
These monkeys are howler monkeys, which are not usually aggressive towards people. However, you have been extremely unlucky, because this particular howler monkey has been
infected with rabies, possibly from a vampire bat, and the disease is making him behave aggressively. The monkey swings down from a tree in front of you, delivers a vicious bite, and then quickly
swings off.
The bite is painful, but far worse, you are now infected with rabies. It takes a while, but because you’re far away from medical help, you die of the disease.
The end.
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to find out more about howler monkeys and rabies.
• Howler monkeys are the largest monkeys in the Americas. They can be up to a metre tall, with a tail the same length, and weigh up to about ten
kilograms.
• They are also the loudest monkeys and one of the loudest animals in the world! Male howler monkeys have a special voice box, which they use to make a
guttural cry that can be heard five kilometres away. They howl at dawn and dusk to warn other troops of howler monkeys that this is their territory. There are 15 different species of howler
monkey.
• The monkeys tend to stay up in the trees and are active during the day. They eat leaves, fruit and flowers.
• Howler monkeys, like the many other species of monkey in the Amazon, are not usually dangerous to humans.
Rabies is most commonly transmitted by bats, dogs, and monkeys. The disease has some horrible symptoms, and, if it’s not treated early, it’s fatal . .
.
• A few weeks after being bitten you feel pain around the cut. During the next few days you start to feel anxious and sensitive to light and loud noises.
• Within another week or so, you find it increasingly difficult to swallow and become afraid of water. You become more and more paranoid and start to
hallucinate.
• You find it very difficult to swallow saliva, and have periods of thrashing about, biting and spitting.
• Soon you are completely paralysed, fall into a coma and die.
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I
t is true that someone swam 5,268 kilometres along the Amazon! It was record-breaking marathon swimmer Martin Strel in
2007 but he probably wasn’t as weak, exhausted, and covered in insect bites as you are. Your swim starts off all right but as you move into the centre of the river the current is just too
strong for you and you struggle for air in the churning water. You bash your head painfully on a piece of driftwood, swallow too much water, and drown.
Maybe it would have been better to build a raft after all.
The end.
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Y
ou’ve been lost in the rainforest for a while now but you’re no closer to finding help. It must make sense
to find a river, because you know that’s where the people of the Amazon are most likely to live. You decide to make it your priority, and then make a raft and float downstream. Eventually,
you’ll find help that way.
It’s not long before you hear the trickle of water – a stream! You follow it downstream as it widens, and flows into a bigger stream. You follow this until it
joins a wide river.
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.
T
he sun beats down as you glide through the water. You’re very hot, but you’re making such good progress that
you’re glad you didn’t bother stopping. You keep the sun off your skin with your clothes so you won’t get sunburnt.
After a while, you start to feel sick and faint, and you’re sweating more than ever. You become dizzy, and you realise you should stop and try and find some water to
drink, but you’re just too tired and confused.
You’re suffering from heat stroke and it’s not long before you lose consciousness. With no one to help you, you don’t wake up again.
The end.
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to return to the beginning and try again.
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to find out more about heat stroke.
• Heat exhaustion, which can make you feel faint and sick, occurs when the body rises above its normal temperature of 37 degrees Celsius up to 40 degrees
Celsius. If it’s left untreated, it can become heat stroke.
• At a body temperature of above 40 degrees, you have heat stroke, which is extremely serious (as you have just found out).
• The body overheats, dehydrates, its cells break down and its organs can no longer work properly.
• Symptoms include rapid, shallow breathing, confusion, heavy sweating that suddenly stops (because there’s no more water in the body), and loss of
consciousness.
• If heat stroke isn’t treated, it can lead to organ failure, brain damage, and death.
• Treatment involves cooling the patient and giving them plenty of water or sports drinks, however avoid anything with caffeine in it.
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