The Jungle

       Although most of us understand the word "jungle" a jungle is as foreign to us as a city is to the jungle native. If the jungle native visited the city, he probably would be mystified, afraid, and lonely. Would you feel the same if you visited his home in the Amazon jungle of South America?

       To make this visit, the river would be your highway through the jungle. You would have to beware of rapids, whirlpools, hidden rocks, and perhaps alligators, anacondas, or piranhas. When you landed on the bank, hostile-looking plants would seem to have joined together to keep you from entering the jungle. You can see no welcoming pathway into the mass of vegetation. Shrubs, grasses, roots, vines, and ferns thrive in a tangled web, and you would have to cut your way with a machete (jungle knife).

       After this struggle you would find yourself in the tropical rain-forest, a dark gloomy place where great trees, close together, have grown straight and tall, spreading out only at the top to form a huge canopy of leaves and flowers. Under the great trees there is a second forest of smaller trees also fighting each other for space in this overcrowded place. Stretching among these trees are scrambling and twining vines twisted around trunks and branches or hanging in loops from the treetops.

       But you can walk more easily here than in the tangle, for the giant trees have kept the sun and rain from reaching the jungle floor so that undergrowth cannot flourish. The air is hot, close, and still. You are awed by the silence. You know that there are many kinds of animals living here, but you cannot hear or see them. The birds and monkeys are hiding in the treetops. The snakes, scorpions, and caterpillars are camouflaged among the fallen leaves and twigs. Larger animals, like the tapir and the jaguar, are concealed in the thicket.

       You seem to be alone when, suddenly breaking the still air, there is a startling scream as an animal pounces on a victim or the cry of a bird awakened by the threat of danger. But after any sound there is again the silence until the end of the day. Then the jungle comes to life. The monkeys chatter and howl, the toucans bark, the pigeons coo, the parrots shriek and cry, the frogs and crickets croak and chirrup, and the bats squeak.

       There are some animals that never seem to sleep but are always on duty. These are the insects‚ millions of them, some still unnamed. Despised pests are the gnats and mosquitoes and ants. Ants are everywhere. They manage to get into the food, bed, and clothing of the disgusted traveler.

       The jungle day always begins bright, clear, and hot. But soon clouds gather and there is a short but heavy downpour of rain. In the rainy season it rains hard and long and everything is drenched.

       To a city-dweller or to a person who does not like to be alone the jungle might seem like a nightmare where he is a tiny, lost, powerless creature who will slowly be smothered by huge unknown shapes that in their strength and strangeness can destroy him. To a naturalist, a person who never feels alone when he is among plants or animals, the jungle is a fascinating world of excitement and satisfaction where any discomforts are soon forgotten in the search for and discovery of unknown living things. Buchwald.

Read even more about the jungle:

• Jungle Animals
• People Who Live in The Jungle
• The Jungle "Maloca"
• The Jungle Hunt
• Jungle Farming and Foods 
• Jungle Medicine Past and Future 
• The Jungle Dance 
• Jungle Crafts

"Watch our jungle is a tropical rainforest" and
visit National Geographic youtube channel to see more.

• 25 Facts About the Amazon Rainforest