The Jungle of Gold
The Poisoned Dart Frog hopped alongside Capybara, who trudged grumpily to the Jaguar’s vine circle meeting place. The vain Macaw was touching up her colourful feathers while Dung Beetle was rolling up a little snack for the meeting, which soon began.
“Animals of the Peruvian Jungle,” the Jaguar started. “As you all must have heard, we are in great danger.” At this a babble of squawking and ribbiting ascended. “Quiet!” roared the Jaguar, “There’s more. Come forward, Macaw,” said the Jaguar. “As you know, Macaw has been listening to the humans and has heard something very important.”
“Yes, I picked up some human language,” said the Macaw, “I have found out why the humans are destroying the jungle! They…are looking for GOLD.”
“What’s gold?” asked the Poison Dart Frog, cowering behind Capybara.
“All I heard them say about it,’ continued Macaw, “is that it’s very valuable.”
“It’s hard and yucky, if they eat it they must have very sharp teeth and no tongues!” the Dung Beetle exclaimed.
“Maybe you use it to attract a mate? I bet it’s not as beautiful as me, though,” boasted the preening Macaw.
“Do they use it to defend themselves?” asked the cautious Dart Frog.
“If they are going to destroy the jungle, we might as well die now,” grumbled the bad-tempered Capybara.
“Well, if they’re digging up our rainforessst, then why can’t we usssse it too?” hissed a voice from the hanging vines. The creatures looked up and saw the Snake, hanging between trees.
“Goodness, we thought you were a vine!” Macaw squawked attempting to smooth her ruffled feathers.
“What use do we have for this shiny material?” asked Jaguar. “We already have all that we need in this rainforest, from the emergent layer, to the forest floor. We use our natural beauty to find mates.” He nodded to the Macaw. Now, looking at the Frog, he added, “We are surrounded by plants to provide shelter and we each have special talents to keep us safe.” At this the Dart Frog gave a contented ribbit. “We have a great life without this GOLD.”
“Yeah, who wants an inedible rock anyway?” the Dung Beetle pitched in.
As the sun set, the animals made a plan to save the jungle.
The next morning, Macaw flew to the desk of the head of the mining company. When she got there, she placed one of her golden feathers in front of the grim manager and squawked, “Very valuable, very valuable!”
With that, the Macaw flew back to the vine circle.
“Mission accomplished, Macaw?” asked the Jaguar.
“Yep, I did pretty well, if I say so myself,” the bird bragged.
Meanwhile, the manager was thinking over what the macaw had said. Is this the real beauty of the jungle? he thought. How did I never notice? He held the feather up to the light. Maybe we don’t need to mine gold here after all.
Soon the jungle was safe and the animals celebrated – even Capybara didn’t look so grumpy.
Wren Price-Evans, 8.