Into the Jungle. The jungle. We ve all heard about it. It is cool. It is diverse. It is hostile and dangerous!

Transcription

1 Daniel 1 Daniel D. N/A English 8 27 February 2017 woodsylifemn@gmail.com Into the Jungle The jungle. We ve all heard about it. It is cool. It is diverse. It is hostile and dangerous! Trying to survive in the jungle with large and dangerous animals around you, and being only armed with a knife, is pretty rough on it s own. But being hunted by a crazy big game hunter and his pack of hunting dogs at the same time has got to be just plain unnerving! Lots of people have been to a jungle, and lots more even live in one! Whether it s a river boat tour, a plane ride overhead, or a hike through the forest itself, there are so many cool things to see. But those cool things can also be the death of you. Poisonous frogs, snakes, spiders, swarms of ants or bees, crocodiles, large cats, toxic plants, the list goes on. If you somehow get lost, you need to be prepared. First, know how to find (and cook) food that is nutritious and not poisonous. Your body will need all the carbs and proteins you can get. Salt helps preserve meat, so keep some near you if possible. Also keep a supply of fresh water (you NEED to stay hydrated). Second, Keep a sharp tool handy (knife, machete, spear, etc.). You will need one for working with food and hacking your way through trees and vines. It can also be used as a weapon. Third, Try to avoid large animals: jaguars, boars, anacondas, etc. If you have a knife or spear, it will come in handy if you bump into one.

2 Daniel 2 Lots people have gotten lost in a jungle, and even fewer ever find their way back. Knowing how to navigate the jungle is critical. If you know how to find north or south, then you d better get going! The problem is, the forest canopy can be as high as 150 feet (46 meters), so if you want to build a signal fire or use a signal flare, find an area mostly clear of trees so passing aircraft can see. Next, when traveling, whatch out for hidden deathtraps, like quicksand, sinkholes, and wasp and ant nests. Finally, NEVER cross a river more than knee deep unless in dire need! There are countless hidden monsters in the water, like schools of piranhas, crocs, and snakes. Some people are turned into hardened, gruff people by the experience of being lost. Others are emotionally broken down by the it and have PTSD afterwards. Others are taught to appreciate even the simplest luxuries of life. One example is Yossi Ghinsberg s story. He is an israeli who survived three weeks in the bolivian jungle. He started out on a jungle hike with three other men, Karl Ruprechter, Marcus Stamm, and Kevin Gale. When he and Gale were riding a raft down the Tuichi River, they were thrown over a waterfall. Gale swam to shore, but Ghinsberg was caught in the rapids for twenty minutes. When he finally scrambled to shore, he went looking for Gale, but gave up after four days. He survived a late night encounter with a jaguar by making a flamethrower with a lighter and bug-spray. He lived off fruit and birds eggs. At first he thought he would be fine, but that didn t last long. There was a terrible flood. I was almost drowned, and then on two occasions nearly sunk in a bog. The last week was the toughest because I was physically drained. I was just skin and bone. There was no food left to scavenge and I couldn t walk because my

3 Daniel 3 feet were so bad. At one point, I shook a tree full of fire ants on my head just to have some pain to distract me from my aching feet so that I could continue to walk. Meanwhile, his friend Kevin Gale organized a search party for him, but after three days of searching the river they gave up. They beached their boat to turn around, and it happened to be at the exact spot where Ghinsberg collapsed unconscious. It was three weeks since he had been declared missing, and he spent three months in the hospital recovering. Again, lots of people who get lost don t ever come back. Those who barely escape with their lives are the extra fortunate ones. Another extraordinary survival story is about two 34-year-old french men named Loic Pillois and Guilhem Nayral. In February of 2007, they both survived in the jungle part of French Guiana for seven weeks! They originally started on a jungle walk with no GPS device, and only a compass and a map. When they got lost, they spent three weeks lighting signal fires so that nearby planes and helicopters could see them, but to no avail. To survive, they ate turtles, frogs, centipedes, and. Ugh! Giant bird eating spiders! I was so hungry that I even had a go at the turtle s shell and tucked into his claws, Guilhem later said. Loïc Pillois also said, After three weeks we started walking again, three hours a day. It rained so much that we had a lot of trouble with marshes. We ended up stopping because Guilhem began to feel bad. Then I heard a plane and said to myself, we are a day or two s walk from Saul, so I ll try to get there. He left Nayral behind and reached Saul, organized a search party, and found his friend four hours later. One man said, we found him on the ground, completely out of breath, extremely emaciated and dehydrated. Nayral s brother, Gilles, said, He looked like he d just

4 Daniel 4 come out of a concentration camp. Doctors said that Mr. Nayral would have died within three days without proper medical help. Apparently he had been poisoned by a poorly cooked spider, and was infested with parasites, but amazingly, his partner Mr. Pillois was in fairly good health. In the story The most Dangerous Game, the main character, Sanger Rainsford, is stranded and hunted on a jungle island by a man named General Zaroff. First off, it is obvious that human hunting is not only illegal, it is inhumane. People who do it are either very sadist or just out-of-their-mind crazy. Next, there are so many hidden killers in the rain forest, from mosquitos to poison dart frogs to snakes, that in reality, Rainsford probably would have died the first day from natural causes, unless he was very skilled, which the story says he was. But there was still jungle disease to worry about. General Zaroff, however, having live on the island for quite some time, probably developed immunities to things like malaria or yellow fever. Last but not least, if you do happen be stranded in the jungle with a psychopathic killer stalking you, your chances of survival are ZERO! In conclusion, even though the rain forest/jungle might be a spectacularly diverse environment, it also means there are thousands of things that can kill you. If you can elude snakes and large cats, the forest might throw insects or deadly frogs at you. Or you might get sick. All of this makes the rain forest/jungle one of the most hostile and dangerous environments on earth.

5 Daniel 5 Works cited survivor - story.com/two-frenchmen- survive -seven-weeks-in-the-amazon- jungle / amazon - jungle wikipedia.org/ jungle - survival - tips