Most EXTRAORDINARY Jungle Discoveries

The word jungle makes one think of mystery, fear, the unknown and loads and loads of mosquitos – probably the size of your hand! Jungles cover 7% of the land on earth, and its home to roughly half of all living creatures on the planet, many of them still to be discovered. Every once in a while, the jungle reveals some of its many secrets, and we have a look at some of them today.

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7 - An explosive find…
The Congo Basin has been studied extensively over the years, but recently scientists have discovered something quite unusual. Buried just below the surface of the soil is one of the hugest carbon sinks in the world. It’s even bigger than England, making up 56,000-miles in total. It’s estimated there’s around 30 billion tons of carbon there, working out to around 20-years of fossil fuel emissions in the US. The area is jam-packed with peat, which is decomposing organic matter. This carbon basin has been in the making for the past 11,000 years. Peat isn’t all bad, but in this situation it can turn ugly. There’s water above the peat which stops decomposition half-way. If for some weird reason the water disappears, the peat below it will explode, with devastating effects to the rainforest around it. The area is vulnerable to deforestation to harvest palm-oil, so plans are being put in place to protect this area for as long as possible.





6 - The Great Escape…
As we mentioned in the beginning, jungles are pretty scary places but if you had to choose between being a POW or a chance of survival in the jungle, what would you choose? I’m guessing the jungle! Ho Van Thanh took his chances and along with his infant son, escaped into the jungle. The pair lived in the jungle for more than 40-years, and were eventually discovered living 25-miles from the nearest village. They were living in a tree house close to a stream and had made their own tools, like arrows, knives and axes. They had even managed a small sugarcane plantation and made their own fire. They made their own underpants from bark and had forgotten their native tongue. How they communicated, I’m not too sure. The father was 80 when he was discovered and was aging quickly, the son however, was in peak physical condition. The father kept trying to escape the hospital to return to the jungle, but the son has been adjusting nicely.

5 - Secrets unfolding…
The Amaz0nian Jungle has not disappointed, and drones have picked up on something a little bit odd… it looks to be the beginning stages of an Amaz0nian Stonehenge. There are no stones… but it looks like they were just getting ready for the stones, as everything else is the same as Stonehenge. It’s thought the site would have been used for public gatherings or rituals, and it has been confirmed that this site is 2,500 years younger than Stonehenge.

4 - Going underground…
Dr. Damian Evans claims to have discovered entire cities hidden beneath the forests of the jungle. He has traveled from Australia to Cambodia and using LIDAR to shoot lasers into the ground, they’ve mapped out massive cities. He did it back in 2012 when he discovered Mahendraparvata, so we have to be patient to wait for the images to be released.



3 - Tread carefully…
The jungle is brimming with creatures that you’d never like to meet face-to-face, like this insanely huge spider that was spotted by Piotr Naskrecki, an entomologist and photographer, who was exploring the jungles of Guyana. It’s a Goliath bird eater spider, and a bite from one of these guys has been described as, “driving a nail through your hand.”


2 - Cave Man…
You wouldn’t mind having been a cave man in the Son Doong Cave, definitely one of the highlights when it comes to jungle discoveries. This expansive cave was found in Vietnam, and inside the cave is another jungle! Also dubbed “The Garden of Eden”, the Son Doong Cave is between 2 and 5 million years old and was first discovered in 1991 by a local. It only became known internationally when a group of cavers rediscovered the site in 2009. The cave is 3.1 miles long and 490-feet wide. To go on a tour of this incredible cave will cost you around $3,000!


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