Lost... In the Jungle of Doom by Tracey Turner

that it looks like an enormous seal! It certainly doesn’t look aggressive.
    As the animal submerges, you decide to risk it. You clamber back onto your raft and use your stick to push away as calmly as you can. Soon you’re out of the shallows
    and away, not realising that you’ve just been lucky enough to have a close encounter with an Amazon River manatee.

    Click here .
    Click here to find out more about the Amazon River manataee.

Amazon River Manatee
    •  Manatees are the Amazon’s largest aquatic mammals, also known as sea cows because they’re big, gentle, and eat grass. They feed on underwater
     plants and algae.
    •  They never leave the water, but need to come up to breathe air. They can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes!
    •  Amazon river manatees are the smallest of three species of manatee (the other two are marine and live in the Caribbean and Africa) but they’re still
     huge – up to 2.8 metres long and a whopping 500 kilograms in weight!
    •  The only vegetarian underwater mammal, manatees only have molar teeth for chewing on plants. The teeth are replaced throughout their lives as the old ones
     wear down.
    •  Manatees were once hunted for their meat, oil and bones. Because of this they’re now quite rare.
    Click here to return to your adventure.

Y ou’re feeling shaky after your encounter with the otters and before long you’re hot and thirsty again, as
    you continue down the river in the hazy sunshine. You start looking for a place to stop on the riverbank to find drinking water. As you search, you see something amazing! Barely visible under
    some low-growing trees, there’s a small, battered-looking rowing boat!
    Should you go over to the boat, which is moored in a tricky position, or stop a couple of hundred metres ahead, where there’s a beach. After all, the boat looks old and
    could have been abandoned there.

    If you decide to stop at the boat, click here .
    If you decide to carry on, click here .

Y ou tie up your raft on the riverbank, then swim towards the otters, which are calling noisily to one another. As you
    get closer, you realise they’re much bigger than any otter you’ve ever seen before. In fact, they’re huge – the size of an adult human! There are eight or nine of them in
    the group and some of them are babies. Three of the adults are heading your way, swimming swiftly and strongly, making a low growling sound. You start to panic – maybe they’re worried
    about their young?
    They’re still some distance away. You turn and swim as fast as you can towards the raft, and clamber gratefully on to it. But the otters are still heading your way!
    They circle the raft several times as you punt away from them, as calmly as you can.
    These are giant river otters, which can be aggressive and have been known to attack and kill dogs. Although they’re not usually dangerous to humans, you were absolutely
    right to get away from them as fast as you could!

    Click here .
    Click here to find out more about giant river otters.

Giant River Otters
    •  Giant river otters are only found in South America in the Amazon, Orinoco and La Plata river systems.
    •  They look very similar to a European otter, with one major difference – they are up to 1.8 metres long!
    •  The otters feed mainly on fish, but also eat crabs and snakes, and the occasional small caiman.
    •  They are also known as ‘river wolves’, and sometimes hunt together as a pack.
    •  Giant otters do sometimes attack dogs, but they’re not usually a danger to people.
    •  These otters have a lot more to fear from people than we do from them. They’ve been hunted so much that they are now extremely rare.
    Click here to return to your adventure.

Y ou sit down on a log feeling weak and sorry for yourself. After a while, you feel a bit better. You spot a stand of
    bamboo not far away and decide to find some water in the stems to quench your thirst.
    You’re shaking the stems,