Forests (Yes, I mean forest in its true sense) around the world are home to amazing inhabitants who are struggling everywhere to survive along with the Forest itself.
I don’t see much of any jungle or their inhabitants issue/stories in this forum. I searched the Forum Topics with some very basic words e.g Sundarbans, Kaziranga, Bharatpur/Keoladeo (all are UNESCO World Heritage Sites), Amazon (not Amazon.com), Valdivian, Elephant Corridor, Killing Tiger, Sarus Crane etc but was unable to find almost no topics/posts matching the search. Are we discussing always about the Urban Wild issues? Don’t we visit the Forests?
Topics are becoming more and more academic/technical/Community issue oriented. I know that discussing these issues is very important. But still, I don’t prefer to stay always in the Tech Jungles and Urban issues but sometimes want to be inside the forests spread all over the world viewed in the eyes of the Naturalists, which I may never see with my own eyes in any other way.
Can’t we make a thread where there will be only real jungles, stories of the jungles and their inhabitants?
Well, grizzly bears are being released back into the North Cascades, so there’s that. There’s not much forest news that isn’t rather depressing, though, and that we can help. I try to keep my head down and not think about it too much or I start to despair.
It is possible to hear the sounds in the jungles. Sound files are often posted in iNat. Nothing spectacular like the roar of wild tigers. These are not common I guess. It is usually cicadas which we post once in a while or some jungle birds, katydid sounds, small mammals, monkeys.
In my part of the world, there is no tiger here. However, we try to respect the forest. Any carelessness or due to bad luck, one may lose the life in the worse case scenario. Some venomous snakes exist or sudden increase in water level of some rivers in neighbouring countries. and if we wonder whether a tree have spirit in it. That is, if there is supernatural being residing in the trees especially banana plants. When I move in the forest alone for short 1 - 2 hr trip, I tend to be more careful. When in a bigger group, probably all will be very excited to look for interesting creatures to photograph for iNat.
Not everything is sad.
Here in the forest we see many stories that bring heavenly feelings.
The baby elephant fell asleep while walking. His mother and the rest are not bothering him, waiting for him to wake up, Baby rhinos playfully wrestle as their mothers watch impassively, thousands of guest Pelicans (Rosy/Dalmatian) playing joyfully with the resident Cormorants and storks at dawn, Machli-the tigress Bagheera-the black Panther (shared a link somewhere in this forum), Champion-the Rhino of Chapramari Forest. Tigress Riddhi and her three cubs Vs Arrowhead and her three cubs, Lefty Ganesh of Dooars (An elephant whose right tusk is broken) and many more. Everyone is/was wild. These un-official names are given affectionately for any significant reasons by the forest department or local people.
All the jungles have separate music of their own. A rustling of leaves, a bird’s call or any activity of any insects, a barking deer or a spotted deer’s mating or alert call, the chirping of monkeys, may be the roar of a tiger or call of a hyena in the distance, the almost silent movement of a Leopard– You need not have to give them an ID always, U’ll feel it and experiences will tell you. Whether there is a tiger or not is not very important. Those who are there are as important as the tiger. Yes, in any forest we have to be very careful - respect all animals, do not harm/disturb them, be very careful about ourselves, safety (for all) first.
Adventuring on foot are dangerous as well as illegal in all National parks, WLS, Reserve Forests (excluding some exclusive IBAs etc) in India.
Maybe I don’t understand the issue here, but if you wanted to hear forest stories, I went to one once
I don’t live anywhere with forests, but I went to Costa Rica when I was in middle school. I remember making a short list of species I wanted to see. I don’t remember them all, but I remember I did see them all. The leafcutter ant was the most surprising, since it was everywhere as an urban pest, but then we saw some on our hike through the forest and they’d cleared out a swath of trees and flattened the land in a human way. Another thing on my list was a poison dart frog, which I also remember catching a glimpse of before it was hidden under a leaf. That’s all I remember from my list, but on top of that I remember seeing a jumping pit viper, which the tour guide told us was the most dangerous snake in the world (he liked to tease us, though, so I don’t know if it’s true). I saw a hummingbird that was much bigger than Northern hummingbirds and a Toucan that was much smaller than I expected toucans to be. We also saw Macaws that were bright red, but when I took pictures on my camera, they showed up as a drab brown. On the more technical and alarming side of things, we saw an invasive wild pig and had to take a completely different path to avoid it. I was shocked to see souvenir shops selling plants you need a permit to take from the country with the permits included (you just had to fork over a few extra bucks, no actual knowledge or qualifications required). I wish I could go back again just to witness the invasive species problems there, something I was too young to have a real appreciation for at the time.
If you want to see new and different topics in the forum that you have not found in a search of the site, then post them.
I like forests and try to visit them as much as possible, but I live in suburbanized desert-grassland with rather limited forests around me. So tell me about your forests and jungles.
You got it right, I really enjoyed reading your jungle Story.
Pit Viper is indeed a venomous snake, but the Champion in this regard are the Taipans and runner up-the King Cobra of our country. But do you know our Sundarban people are most afraid of which snake? It’s the Common Krait- because people do not feel any pain in its bite and often does not realize that he has been bitten by a snake. People die within 4 to 8 hours of being bitten by it. Wild Pigs/boars are also quite ferocious. They’re omnivorous in nature.
I think you are not too old yet and you still have a lot of life to see the jungles. Thanks for sharing your Forest experience.
I have tried to tell many stories through my posts in various threads. Tigress Riddhi and her Cubs, Saltwater Crocodile of the Sundarbans, Raja-the Sundarban tiger who lost one of his hind leg by Crocodile bite, Bagheera-the Black Panther cub of a Leopard, Cheetah born in the wild in our country after many many years, Leopard came to observe the motorbike of the Forest Guard, a Tundra Bean Goose who came to our Country for the first time ever, Asian Monitor and Monkeys fighting for free food, Tigers, Rhinos and all other roaming in National Highway during Flood time almost every year, Red Pandas of India, How the Painted and Openbill Storks take care of their chicks etc. Tried to tell the Story of a Tigress who had to leave this world keeping her cubs here (failed, as the topic discontinued). Unfortunately those stories could draw attention of only very very few members of this Forum. I’ll certainly like to tell more about our forests and jungles and like to hear about the Jungles and Forests of other countries as well.
I think perhaps it will work better to draw people’s attention by listing only one or two stories when giving examples, as when faced with longer lists people often skip over things and miss the details that might intrigue them.
I get the impression that each of these brief stories or names you mention have a clear memory attached to them for you, but for those who don’t already know the stories attached (me for example :) it’s hard to tell quite what it might be about. What happened to Arrowhead and her three cubs? After a moments reflection it’s very interesting to me, and I would love to know why Arrowhead has her name, but initially it did not grab my interest.
So perhaps if you hope to have people ask about the things you mention, only mention one or two and add a little detail.
Once I read through the list, one thing that captured my attention was the leopard you mentioned that came to observe the motorbike of the forest guard. I wonder, did it hear the motorbike and think it was another leopard? I do not know much at all about leopards but have often thought that domestic cats sound like quiet motorbikes when they growl.
Although where I live has forests only, I have once visited a jungle. Much like @squidtk, this was before I was into naturalist, and before I began to nature journal (I still don’t do this consistently), so my memories are a bit fuzzy and I have not so much a story as a series of little recollections.
My family and I went to the Daintree, a rainforest in Australia. Australia does not have leopards, tigers, monkeys or other large jungle animals people often think of. It does have crocodiles though, and we went on a river tour to look for them. Many, many logs but only one crocodile, which I turned around too slowly to spot. We also saw a lot of what I think were called tree snakes on the branches overhanging the river, as well as a sleeping family of Tawny Frogmouths. These are owl-like birds which look incredibly similar to sticks when sleeping. And lastly, we saw a rare bird that the guide said a group of birders had come looking for just the day before, but they missed it. We saw it and I cannot even remember it’s name!
There is more, but I think this post is long enough as is, so farewell and good luck finding more jungle stories.
I did just that. A single story or a picture/link (telling a story) in a thread, which was considered relevant to the topic of that thread. Not all the stories/Images in at the same time or in a single thread. They are spread over various threads in this forum at various times. Since there is no ‘read’ sign like WhatsApp, I can’t even understand whether my post has even been read by anybody at all (when not responded). Whether or not someone will pay attention to something is truly his/her personal choice
I’ll re-iterate only one here otherwise the post will be too long and boring.
T-16, aka Machli, (1997-2016) was one of the most famous tigresses of Ranthambore National Park, India. Machli is considered to have been the most photographed wild tigress in the world and was titled Tiger Queen. Several documentaries hv been made on her. After the demise of Machli, the park had emerged with a new showstopper Arrowhead aka T84 aka Machli Jr, who happens to be the granddaughter of Machli. She’s called arrowhead because of the arrow mark on her left cheek, somewhat like what machli, her grandmother, also had. Arrowhead, born in 2014, is about Eleven years old now. The tigress has given birth to cubs four times. Out of them, only two, T-124 i.e. Riddhi and T-125 i.e. Siddhi born in 2019 and three cubs born in July-2023 survived. Possessing an adventurous spirit since childhood, Tigress Riddhi had the sheer audacity to clash with her mother Tigress Arrowhead over territory. Both Arrowhead and Riddhi possess immense courage but Riddhi’s power and her adventurous spirit is one of a kind. She made her territory in her mother’s territory forcing her mother to live in another territory. Now it may often be seen (if luck clicks) that both Arrowhead with her three cubs and Riddhi with her three cubs are wandering like queens in Zone-4 and Zone-3 of Ranthambore NP.
Australia has the highest population of Saltwater (Champion amongst all the Crocodillians in size as well as aggressiveness) Crocodile (Remember Steve Irwin?). But if somebody is interested to observe them, they are always welcome to Bhitarkanika NP of India having the largest density of Salties in Mangrove Creeks (obviously also the Sundarbans but sighting chances are low) during the winters. It is guaranteed that you will see a large number of salties on the shores on both sides of your boat, swimming in front of u etc. There’s also a debate whether a Croc called Mahishasura/Kalia is the largest Croc of the world living in the wild or not- that’s a separate story- Wild Leopard and the Motorbike- any other day…
I think this is enough to borer you today.
Edit: Typo and My Wild English.
PS: Thanks for sharing ur experience. I’ll love to hear more.
In winter, we enjoy driving a few hours north to the Superior National Forest: 3,000,000+ acres, 16,000 km2.
One winter we drove a road in the a.m. and found one of our target species: Spruce Grouse. They were eating grit at the road and would not move out of the way for a driver in a large pickup truck who was late for work apparently. They honked their truck’s horn and yelled but the birds would not budge! So they got out of the truck and had a tantrum at them and the grouse did disperse so that the truck could advance!
A few minutes later, while still driving, we saw another of our target species—but only for 10 seconds: it trotted out of the woods from our left, large and bounding with almost no tail. And we shouted, “Canada Lynx!” We were elated! It loped to the woods on the right and disappeared. Too fast for any photography. We took photos of its large tracks
We enjoyed this adventurous morning
If you want to start a thread on just jungle stories, then call it something like “Just Jungle Stories”. A topic like Call of the Wild can mean so many things - like my morning walk on a nature preserve in Lincoln CA, just north east of Sacramento, where I hear Red-winged Blackbirds, Marsh Wrens, Virginia Rail, Ring-necked Pheasant and an assortment of other birds some of which I can ID and some not. Not a jungle scene, but definitely a pleasure especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings when the automobile noise from the nearby freeway is almost inaudible.
Not as often as I would like. I find it rather sad that our world has reached the point where one’s definition of The Wild is
We have seen stories about pervasive light pollution, so that “dark sky parks” are a rare treasure. In many of our lives, noise pollution is equally pervasive.
But here is my Forest story:
It was my senior year of college, and I was in a “Tropical Rainforests” course, conducted in Costa Rica. It was my first time traveling outside my home country. I had decided on my research project for the course and found a suitable population of what was then an undescribed species (it has since been described as Mickey Mouse taro (Xanthosoma undipes); this observation is of the very population I used in my project). One morning while I was collecting data, I looked up at the cloud forest canopy as a male Resplendent Quetzal alighted in the treetops. He only remained a few moments before flying off, but I rejoiced to have seen this famous denizen of the Central American cloud forests – some people travel to Costa Rica specifically to see it, and here I saw it incidentally while doing something else.
Hmm…but I didn’t change the caption because I want to hear the beautiful birds’ stories also- may be in any wetland/Ramsar/IBA/any out city areas (as described by you) whether they fall under the jurisdiction of any Forest Department or not (very often they come under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department).
After reading your story about the Spruce Grouse and Canada Lynx, I remember many failed attempts of mine to see one very special Cat of our state.
Fishing Cat is the State Bird of my State (West Bengal, India). I have wandered so much in the forests of my state (as well as others) but till today I have never seen a wild Fishing cat anywhere. They’re indeed there in the Sundarbans but I couldn’t spot any yet.
Have you ever been to India? I will be very happy if wise and knowledgeable people like you come to India. Here in the Himalayan region, mangroves, grasslands/jungles/swamps/forests, you could have found out many things that we couldn’t.
I would love to hear jungle stories.
So, what does Jungle mean and where does word come from?
-1776
“dense growth of trees and other tangled vegetation,” such as that of some regions in India, from Hindi jangal “desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground,” from Sanskrit jangala-s “arid, sparsely grown with trees,” a word of unknown origin.
-1849
places overgrown by vegetation in a wild, tangled mass. Figurative sense “wild, tangled mass” of anything is from 1850. Meaning “place notoriously lawless and violent” is first recorded 1906, from Upton Sinclair’s novel. Meaning “hobo camp” is from 1908.
- an impenetrable thicket or tangled mass of tropical vegetation
- a tract overgrown with thickets or masses of vegetation
- a confused or disordered mass of objects
- something that baffles or frustrates by its tangled or complex character
- a place of ruthless struggle for survival
- the city is a jungle where no one is safe after dark—
- electronic dance music that combines elements of techno, reggae, and hip-hop and is marked especially by an extremely fast beat
Now that we know what it can mean, let’s write a jungle book.
Have a nice day
Yusuf
(This is a recap of an earlier post i wrote a couple years ago)
Although such forests typically include trees that are 2000 years old, they may be threatened by climate change. They only grow in a narrow strip along in the coastal fog belt. 96% of old growth redwood was logged as it is a terrific building material. An untold amount thousand+year old trees went into building houses San Francisco and San Jose and other Bay Area cities and towns.
The recent massive, massive fires throughout the West Coast have impressed on me that the few magnificent forests left are at risk of climate change. Though these trees may survive even fierce fires, it is not so clear to me they can survive a warmer dryer climate.
I grew up frequently visiting the giant redwood parks. The giant trees were amazing hobbit houses to us, as past fires hollowed out the giants into room-size hollows. The hollow in this tree is massive - big enough for several adults and more kids.
Video of the interior “parlor” in the Fremont Tree of Henry Cowell Redwoods:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ECZyLAa1Sk&feature=youtu.be
Big Basin State Park with acres and acres of old growth coast redwoods burned up last month in the CZU fire. There is hope that some of the older trees may survive, but all the historic and quaint park buildings are gone.
Henry Cowell came that close to the same fate. You can see the ashes and burnt leaves that from fire have littered the forest… it is a miracle it did not burn, too.
S
I read your article and watched the attached video. Further searched about the present situation of the Park and it has been seen that the Park has been re-opened during 2022. Feeling very sad to presume that we will not be able to get back those ancient giant trees who were witnesses of childhoods of may be a quite long generations, still hoping hat the park will bloom and come back to life again,
Good points… I have not yet made it back to Big Basin park (I usually go to nearby Henry Cowell State* park now to visit old growth redwood forest, which was spared by that horrible forest fire ).
I think I will wait another year or two to give more of the understory growth to recover before I re-visit Big Basin.
*I particularly like visiting the rare specimens of small, albino redwood trees to be found at Henry Cowell. E.g., https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86098441
I don’t understand what the point of this post is. What are you talking about with urban wild issues? A cursory search of the forum’s nature category seems pretty broad and not ‘urban’ specific. Also… you do realize the majority of the population doesn’t live in a rainforest, right? Statistically it’s going to make sense if most posts are about ‘urban wild issues.’
They’re all important. This post seems dismissive and weird to me…
I understand it. Having been to both extremes – trekking off-trail far from civilization and searching for nature in the heart of the city – I can understand the dismissiveness toward urban “wild” places. Doing nature observation in urban environments feels like settling for the scraps. We do it because it’s what we have time and resources for in the struggle to pay the bills. If some of us are dismissive of urban nature, it is because we resent having to settle for it when we have seen what the wild can be.
When we look at the level of activity of the various threads, many of the more active ones are urban focused:
How beneficial is “No Mow May”? – 7.7k views and 54 replies
Planting native is really expensive – 743 views and 47 replies
The unseriousness of industrial carbon capture plants – 583 views and 40 replies
Monitoring gardens and spreading the message – 6.1k views and 188 replies
Where do all the urban birds die? – 693 views and 35 replies
And when I came to reply to this, I noticed the newest thread is also urban-focused: Effects of construction on wildlife. It will be interesting to see how much activity it ends up getting compared with other threads.