How do you survive in the jungle at night?

golok

golok

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Oct 20, 2000
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The jungle is very dark after 5pm and the creatures that inhabit it crawl, creep and slither out to look for food after dark.

If a man were to find himself lost in a hostile environment like the jungle, how does he survive the night to see the breaking of dawn?

Where does he sleep? Where does he find shelter?
 
I've spent a few nights in the jungle and you must get off the ground.If you have no bivy or tent what most do as I do is to build a bed.You do this with 4 forked sticks and several saplings to form the bed itself and then lay palmeto branches down for the bedding.This helps stop the ants and such keep off you.This bed is also helpful in swampy areas or on inclines where you can build the bed level.
 
Marsupial is right. In that environment, you just cannot spend the night on the ground---your physical and mental health will start deteriorating quite rapidly.

Everyone who spends time in the jungle ends up using a hammock, mosquito netting, and some kind of tarp/bungee cord system to keep out of the rain (assuming that it is a wet season, there will be a downpour every afternoon). You wear a set of dry clothes to bed and then change into your "work clothes" in the morning. UnderArmor stuff is not a bad way to go for the night clothes stuff.

Obviously there are modern hammock designs that combine all of the above---I have a Hennesy Expedition that I quite like. I'm sure other people here have similar rigs.

You just have to submit yourself to the jungles rhythms and schedule your life around its plan. The threats are mainly to health and hygiene---longer-term threats rather than the "flash" threats you get in those dangerous boundary-zone transition areas where the weather can change on you extremely quickly (hill country of northern England and Scotland, for example) or areas where you can bake/freeze/dehydrate/die very quickly unless you do something.
 
A good strong fire seems to keep the unwanted away.
If your taking about a jungle type environment. You will need to keep the mosquitos away and thats about all. Stay dry. shelter is all around. The jungle is the best resource for shelter needs I know of. God made every place on earth with it's own special challenges. He also made them with their own special ways to solve them. The more time you spend on your own in the wild the more you will understand what I mean.


Later, Jeff
 
What marsupial said build up off the ground, make a fire that will give off smoke to drive away mosquitoes, sleep dry work wet if possible, shake out boots in the morning! There's some big bugs in the jungle and they like to hide in dark damp places. Be very careful with any cuts or scratches infection grows fast in the jungle.
 
Bah... Stay in the truck! You think I would wander out into the jungle on foot? Ha!

If wandering in the jungle knowing you might be out for a while, it would seem smart to already have a plan for shelter in the enviroment.

Me, I always have a radio on me. I'd call for help.

But then I'm wierd.
 
Actually its no big deal. Roll down your shirtsleeves and button them. Blouse your pantlegs in your boots. Button your collar. Apply DEET liberally to hands, face and neck. Wrap yourself in a poncho.

Yes, it would be nice to have a hammock or some sleeping platform to get off the ground. But for an overnight stay they aren't needed. Save your energy.
 
Golok,

In the tropics your main enemies are insects, chronic wetness, and plants that tear and scratch. It can’t be stressed enough how hostile the ground is in a jungle. Really just about any tropical environment is going to be pretty nasty, even to sit down in. Here in Brazil there are more varieties of ants than you can imagine. Where I live we don’t have “Jungle” in the classic triple canopy sense but we do have “Mata Atlantica” which is dense tropical forest. Here you can’t sleep on the ground until you get to the higher elevations and even there it’s got more ants than you care to deal with.

You have to get off the ground and limit the pathways that insects can take to get to you or you will be miserable. You will survive the night, maybe a few nights, but you will not sleep and you will get eaten alive. Add to that the fact that thorny plants will shred your clothes and skin and you can’t dry off. Your health and mental outlook will start to deteriorate real fast.

I carry a lightweight hammock that is about 15 x 10 cm rolled up with two strong ropes to hang it. I also carry a 10-meter cord and a poncho or tarp to rig over it. In my area at least the mosquitoes aren’t that bad. I do get ants that run down my cords and get into the hammock at times.

If I didn’t have these items but had a machete I would build a bedstand and a rain shelter over it and make a real smoky fire to drive off the blood-suckers. I would also consider smearing a thick layer of mud on exposed skin. Seriously though, if you are going to go into a jungle, near a jungle, pass through a jungle in a boat, or fly over one in a plane, you really need to carry the bare minimum to deal with it. Mac
 
Golok:

I think your pulling our leg here.
Your from Malasia, you must have people you know (if you dont) that could tell you how to sleep in the jungle.

Try asking your dad or grand-dad
 
"The Jungle is Neutral" is a book written by F. Spencer Chapman. He was a British soldier who escaped into the Malaysian jungle after the fall of Singapore. He spent 2 years there.

I read this book years ago and just yesterday picked up a new copy at the bookstore. The photos of the Sakai aborigines of Malaya show them wearing loinclothes, nothing else. True, Chapman did not survive on his own but I doubt anyone would, long term, in that environment.
 
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