Chronicles Of The Jungle
by Charles Brewer-Carías
Part 3
by Charles Brewer-Carías
Part 3
Naturalist, explorer and a Polymath, he is the author of thirteen books on Venezuelan nature and designer of the survival knife "Brewer-Marto", which is used by various armies around the world.
Since 1960, Brewer-Carías when he lived among and learned the language of the Makiritare Indians (Ye´kwana), he has dedicated himself to exploring the jungle and thanks to his experience and the knowledge he has gathered from the Ye´kwana and the Yanomamö Indians with whom he has lived; He has prepared a book on Survival Techniques titled “Naked in the Jungle”, of which he has promised to deliver a weekly article for HOLIDAY for two years. This is another one of them
Since 1960, Brewer-Carías when he lived among and learned the language of the Makiritare Indians (Ye´kwana), he has dedicated himself to exploring the jungle and thanks to his experience and the knowledge he has gathered from the Ye´kwana and the Yanomamö Indians with whom he has lived; He has prepared a book on Survival Techniques titled “Naked in the Jungle”, of which he has promised to deliver a weekly article for HOLIDAY for two years. This is another one of them
THE ANT AND THE SERPENT
After the Twenty-Four Ant had poisoned me a second time, I decided to investigate how relatively powerful its poison was, comparing it to the poisoning produced by a scorpion and a viper.
Another Bite
With fifteen "Venticuatro" ants that had been sent to us from the Yecuana town of "Culebra" in the Amazon Territory, we decided to experiment and observe how this poison acted as the curare to
poison arrows and could paralyze the muscles of respiration of a mouse. The information we now had on the composition of the great ant poison explained several of the symptoms that I had observed in myself when I was poisoned for the second time, since that was different from what I experienced when that first stung me. once in a stream of the Erebato River. It was during Easter 1981, when another Twenty Four bit me in the abdomen, on the left side of the navel. It was late and we were resting after one of those days when we made that quixotic walk through the jungle of the Guarampín River in Bolívar State and that led us to penetrate unarmed on the lands of a neighboring nation, but then the politicians on duty called ( and still some call) "Territory of the Essequibo in Reclamation".
The stinger nailed me when I tried to knock it off me. I had clearly heard the high-pitched screech this Paraponera clavata produces when excited, but it was such a high-pitched sound that it became untraceable. I thought that during the process of preparing the hangers for the fifty young people who accompanied me, we had surely disturbed one of the nests that are established at the base of the trees, but the ant was closer than estimated and as I was shirtless, alone I felt it when it had gone over the belt. I confess that unlike my first experience, this time the local pain was very tolerable and I could see that the stinger had got me in the left side of my navel. Within a few minutes the rectus abdominis muscles, on the same left side, began to contract gently. Without knowing it then, I observed that the first symptoms coincided with the action of the poison that Dr. Sevcik from the IVIC Biophysics and Biochemistry laboratory had discovered; that is, causing muscle paralysis by blocking the nerve impulse before it reaches the muscle fiber. Perhaps about five minutes later, the corresponding muscles on the right side of my abdomen also began to contract rhythmically, almost causing me to force exhales. Minutes later, the muscle contractions had already spread to the diaphragm muscle and began to compromise the rhythm of breathing.
The stinger nailed me when I tried to knock it off me. I had clearly heard the high-pitched screech this Paraponera clavata produces when excited, but it was such a high-pitched sound that it became untraceable. I thought that during the process of preparing the hangers for the fifty young people who accompanied me, we had surely disturbed one of the nests that are established at the base of the trees, but the ant was closer than estimated and as I was shirtless, alone I felt it when it had gone over the belt. I confess that unlike my first experience, this time the local pain was very tolerable and I could see that the stinger had got me in the left side of my navel. Within a few minutes the rectus abdominis muscles, on the same left side, began to contract gently. Without knowing it then, I observed that the first symptoms coincided with the action of the poison that Dr. Sevcik from the IVIC Biophysics and Biochemistry laboratory had discovered; that is, causing muscle paralysis by blocking the nerve impulse before it reaches the muscle fiber. Perhaps about five minutes later, the corresponding muscles on the right side of my abdomen also began to contract rhythmically, almost causing me to force exhales. Minutes later, the muscle contractions had already spread to the diaphragm muscle and began to compromise the rhythm of breathing.
Above photo - " In Easter 1981, while being Ministrer of Youth affairs and Sports of the Venezuelan Government, we made an intrusion walking 50 kilometers inside the “Claimed area ” neighbourin Venezuela also considered by Guiana their homeland, in order to show that we were actually claiming those territories. The result was such an international boundary dispute soar and reaclamations were so strong, that our president asked me to cease the official designation as Minister of Youth affairs.." - Charles Brewer Carias
Above photo - " In the Jungle camp with our hammocks hanging amidst the trees, at the Essequibo river basin at the actual Guiana territory, about an hour before being stung seriously and almost killed by the Twenty Four ant sting, Bullet ant or Tucandeira." - Charles Brewer Carias
Above photo - "Jungle and a helicopter, the jungle we walked through and made camps to sleep in hammocks under the canopy" - Charles Brewer Carias
Above photo - " How ithe jungle looks from under the canopy" - Charles Brewer Carias
This Poison Is No Joke
Although I am not allergic to wasp or bee stings, this poisoning, which presented itself with little pain, was causing very strange reactions. I did not feel the sensation of suffocation, or suffocation due to the closure of the glottis, as would happen if I were suffering an allergic reaction; Instead, at an unforeseen and uncontrolled rhythm, a contraction would appear that compressed me below the ribs, attacking my diaphragm and making me expel the air almost against my will. The last thing I remember before losing consciousness is that I felt like I was filled with cold sweat, like when one is very hungry, and that I had asked Luís Alberto Carnicero for something to eat, since I knew that he had some hidden cookies.
I was awakened by the light that pointed directly at my right eye and I was careful to wait to see where I was, so as not to repeat that: - "Where am I?" - which the fainted people in the movies always say when they recover. It had taken me a few seconds to locate myself, even though I couldn't remember or see well in which direction I had hung the hammock. This, perhaps because of the dazzling that someone moved a flashlight so close to my eye, that I felt the heat of the bulb on my face.
I was awakened by the light that pointed directly at my right eye and I was careful to wait to see where I was, so as not to repeat that: - "Where am I?" - which the fainted people in the movies always say when they recover. It had taken me a few seconds to locate myself, even though I couldn't remember or see well in which direction I had hung the hammock. This, perhaps because of the dazzling that someone moved a flashlight so close to my eye, that I felt the heat of the bulb on my face.
I also heard someone say: - "He's alive ..." - but at the time I didn't think he was referring to me, because I still didn't know that I had been in a deep coma for more than two hours and had no pupillary reaction to the light. In a few moments I could make out the doctor (Enrique Suárez, who is now a famous eye surgeon) next to me who was camping with us, with the unpleasant dazzling lantern still in his hand and who was repeating something like: "He's coming ...". I could also make out near me the faces of my friends Luís Alberto Carnicero, Enrique Martín and Luís Altamirano who seemed to be crying or sweating. They had stayed by my side the whole time; They were witnesses of what happened to me and those who told me that I had woken up at the moment when they had already left me for dead.
Twenty-four, Scorpion or snake, which has the worst poison?
My nephew Jimmy Brewer Lemoine and his classmate Erick Fuhrmeister Goetz, were the ones who helped me to know how powerful the poison inoculated by Ant Twenty-Four was, when I helped them to prepare some experiments that served as theses they presented for their graduation at School.
I had already experimented with "Terminator", that same ant that we brought from the Maturacá Canal and that Juan Carlos Ramirez had kept alive in his house for a year and a half. This ant had surprised us by the effectiveness of its poison when we made it bite a mouse. After having poisoned the latter in the abdomen, an almost instantaneous paralysis of the two hind limbs occurred in the mouse, followed by a total contraction of the body that raised all the hairs. He died with a tremor in the diaphragm area in just forty-three seconds.
On this occasion in which the two young graduates had brought a yellow scorpion of the species Tityus discrepans, which is one of the few considered mortal to man, a Rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus terrificus) 60 cm long, accompanied by a good dose of white mice and the twenty-four ants of the Amazon; We set out to test what we arbitrarily thought could be considered a "Fatality Index".
For this we take into account the time it would take for a mouse to die and the relative body weight of each of the three poisonous animals that we would use.
As the rattlesnake did not want to spontaneously bite the mouse, Javier Mesa held it with his left hand, while with his right hand he brought the head of the reptile that he had cleverly grasped by the neck. The snake's mouth was open and moments before the mouse was held by those opaline hooks, the glow of a cloudy drop of venom that began to grow at the apex of one of the fangs made us know of its anger, so later it was difficult for us to dissuade the snake from releasing its prey. Then we left the mouse free to walk if it could and thus study its behavior. Then we did a similar procedure with the scorpion, and we also had to force the ant to bite the mouse, because in all three cases, the poisonous animals and the mouse avoided entering into confrontation.
On this occasion in which the two young graduates had brought a yellow scorpion of the species Tityus discrepans, which is one of the few considered mortal to man, a Rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus terrificus) 60 cm long, accompanied by a good dose of white mice and the twenty-four ants of the Amazon; We set out to test what we arbitrarily thought could be considered a "Fatality Index".
For this we take into account the time it would take for a mouse to die and the relative body weight of each of the three poisonous animals that we would use.
As the rattlesnake did not want to spontaneously bite the mouse, Javier Mesa held it with his left hand, while with his right hand he brought the head of the reptile that he had cleverly grasped by the neck. The snake's mouth was open and moments before the mouse was held by those opaline hooks, the glow of a cloudy drop of venom that began to grow at the apex of one of the fangs made us know of its anger, so later it was difficult for us to dissuade the snake from releasing its prey. Then we left the mouse free to walk if it could and thus study its behavior. Then we did a similar procedure with the scorpion, and we also had to force the ant to bite the mouse, because in all three cases, the poisonous animals and the mouse avoided entering into confrontation.
This was the result of the experiment:
When inoculating mice weighing 15 grams each with the venom of three known poisonous animals, the result ordered according to our "Lethality Index" was the following:
1.- Tityus discrepans (Scorpion) weighing 2 grams: The mouse died 75 minutes after being stung.
2.- Crotalus durissus terrificus (Rattlesnake) weighing 205 grams: The mouse died 15 minutes after being bitten.
3.- Paraponera clavata (Twenty-four Ant) weighing 0.2 grams: The mouse died 13 minutes after being poisoned.
1.- Tityus discrepans (Scorpion) weighing 2 grams: The mouse died 75 minutes after being stung.
2.- Crotalus durissus terrificus (Rattlesnake) weighing 205 grams: The mouse died 15 minutes after being bitten.
3.- Paraponera clavata (Twenty-four Ant) weighing 0.2 grams: The mouse died 13 minutes after being poisoned.
In this experiment, although the Twenty-four Ant did not kill the mouse in the forty-three seconds, as we had observed before, and although it is probable that this experiment, which was photographed and filmed, does not serve to draw definitive conclusions; we were able to appreciate that in an absolute way, the venom of the Ant Venticuatro showed to be more toxic for the mouse than the The poison of the rattlesnake or that of the scorpion, and that when comparing the weights of the poisonous animals against the time it took the mouse to die, the effect of the ant venom was shown to have a "Lethality Index" 1,280 times higher than that of the Rattlesnake viper and 75 times higher than that of the scorpion.
(Third and last of the Chronicles on the Twenty-four Ant)
(Third and last of the Chronicles on the Twenty-four Ant)
Above photo - "At the left a new species of scorpion found in the Esequibo river basin named after Brewer: Tityus breweri is the largest scorpion and most lethally in northern south america. At right side: the Tiyus discrepans, reputed also to be lethal to man, used in the experiment to compare the lethality of the inoculated poisons of the ant and the scorpion." - Charles Brewer Carias
Above photo - " The rombic designs in the body and the skin covered scales with a ridgid crest sure enough to know that it is a rattlesnake Crotalus durissus. It sure would be also a sound identification, but to close to be safe, the alarm rattling of the tip of it´s tail." - Charles Brewer Carias
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Bibliography
Brewer-Carias, Charles 1992. La Hormiga Venticuatro, el animal mas temido de la Selva. Revista Feriado No 487 . pp.12-13. Julio 5, 1992 . Diario El Nacional. Caracas. Venezuela.
Brewer-Carias, Charles 1992. El Veneno de la Hormiga Venticuatro. Revista Feriado No 488 . pp.12-14. Julio 12, 1992. Diario El Nacional. Caracas. Venezuela.
Brewer-Carias, Charles 1992. La Hormiga y la Serpiente. Revista Feriado No 489 . pp.12-13. Julio 19, 1992. Diario El Nacional. Caracas. Venezuela.
Brewer-Carías, Ch. 1997-a. Im Labyrinth der Schwarzen Wasser. pp. 254-299 in: Inseln in der Zeitt, Venezuela-Expeditionen zu den letzten weiben Flecken der Erde, Uwe George (Ed.) GEO im Verlag 365 p. Hamburg. ISBN: 3-570-06212-0.
Brewer-Carías, Ch. 2014-a. Desnudo en la Selva, Supervivencia y Subsistencia. Libro publicado con asistencia del Banco Exterior. Imprenta Altolitho, Caracas. 220 p. y 500 fotografías. ISBN 978-980127088-1.
Sevcik , C. and C. J. Hernandez 1990. Some findings on neurotoxins from the venom of the giant ant, Paraponera clavata In: Applied Myermecology pp 461-471 .. Edited by Robert K. Vaner Meer, Klaus Jaffe and Aragua Cedeno. Westview Press. Boulder.
Smith, Jim E. "Combat Fighting Knives" 1987, The Brewer-Marto knife is considered the top knife in the Combat/ Survival category (pp 81). EPJ & H Enterprises, Inc. Statesboro, Georgia . USA.
Spruce, Richard. 1908. Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes. (Two Volumes). Johnson Reprint Corporation New York and London 1970. (on Vol. I, page 362, Spruce writes in August 15th. 1853 :
Effects of Ant Stings. (After being stung by a “Tucadéra” ).
Brewer-Carias, Charles 1992. La Hormiga Venticuatro, el animal mas temido de la Selva. Revista Feriado No 487 . pp.12-13. Julio 5, 1992 . Diario El Nacional. Caracas. Venezuela.
Brewer-Carias, Charles 1992. El Veneno de la Hormiga Venticuatro. Revista Feriado No 488 . pp.12-14. Julio 12, 1992. Diario El Nacional. Caracas. Venezuela.
Brewer-Carias, Charles 1992. La Hormiga y la Serpiente. Revista Feriado No 489 . pp.12-13. Julio 19, 1992. Diario El Nacional. Caracas. Venezuela.
Brewer-Carías, Ch. 1997-a. Im Labyrinth der Schwarzen Wasser. pp. 254-299 in: Inseln in der Zeitt, Venezuela-Expeditionen zu den letzten weiben Flecken der Erde, Uwe George (Ed.) GEO im Verlag 365 p. Hamburg. ISBN: 3-570-06212-0.
Brewer-Carías, Ch. 2014-a. Desnudo en la Selva, Supervivencia y Subsistencia. Libro publicado con asistencia del Banco Exterior. Imprenta Altolitho, Caracas. 220 p. y 500 fotografías. ISBN 978-980127088-1.
Sevcik , C. and C. J. Hernandez 1990. Some findings on neurotoxins from the venom of the giant ant, Paraponera clavata In: Applied Myermecology pp 461-471 .. Edited by Robert K. Vaner Meer, Klaus Jaffe and Aragua Cedeno. Westview Press. Boulder.
Smith, Jim E. "Combat Fighting Knives" 1987, The Brewer-Marto knife is considered the top knife in the Combat/ Survival category (pp 81). EPJ & H Enterprises, Inc. Statesboro, Georgia . USA.
Spruce, Richard. 1908. Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes. (Two Volumes). Johnson Reprint Corporation New York and London 1970. (on Vol. I, page 362, Spruce writes in August 15th. 1853 :
Effects of Ant Stings. (After being stung by a “Tucadéra” ).