Paul Rosolie shared details about a terrifying wildlife encounter deep in the jungle (Image: Daily Record)
An explorer a mission to safeguard the Amazon rainforest has revealed details about a spine-chilling wildlife encounter deep within the jungle. Fuelled by his childhood passion for forests and wildlife, Paul Rosolie left school to pursue his ambition of witnessing the “wildest place on Earth” as a research volunteer in the Amazon.
This would prove to be merely the start of an extraordinary two-decade career in the jungle. Throughout the years, Paul has developed expertise in threatened ecosystems and, in his mission to chronicle the illicit trade of endangered species, has spent periods journeying with poachers in the Amazon. He has recently released a book detailing his exploits titled Junglekeepers, which shares its name with a non-profit committed to protecting vulnerable habitats in the Amazon.
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Paul has developed expertise in threatened ecosystems (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Paul, who revealed remarkable footage of an uncontacted tribe last month, recently discussed his work in an exclusive interview with us, where he disclosed details of an “intimidating” jungle encounter.Â
When questioned whether he’d ever experienced a dangerous encounter with the local wildlife, Paul recounted a remarkable tale from when he was alone and “lost for two days” in the Peruvian Amazon.
He revealed: “The scariest, one of the most intimidating things that ever happened to me when I was just starting out, I’d gone on a solo expedition, and I was out in the jungle, and I was about five days away from the last village.
Paul said he remained motionless in the darkness (Image: Getty Images)
“And I was camping by myself, and I had been lost for two days walking around in circles, walking deeper into the jungle in the wrong direction, falling down, getting stung by bees, and I hung my hammock and I went to sleep and it was raining and it was just. I was terrified I was never gonna come out of the jungle.
“And that night, this jaguar woke me up in the middle of the night, and she was just sniffing the side of my head, and, you know, through a hammock, you only have a few millimetres of fabric.
“So this jaguar was millimetres from my head. And when I woke up, I moved ever so slightly, and she growled into my ear, and she was so close that I could feel her hot breath and that the sound of her growling vibrated in my eardrums.”
Paul, who compared the sound to “thunder”, remained motionless in the darkness, giving the animal “the time”, and as the jaguar left, it “hardly made a sound” and simply left him alone.
Paul shared an extraordinary story from when he was alone and “lost for two days” (Image: Paul Rosolie)
He continued: “But that was a moment where I really understood the power of the jungle, the command of a big cat like a jaguar and sort of learned a respect that stayed with me for a very long time.”
The jaguar, the Americas‘ biggest cat and instantly identifiable by its striking spotted coat, is classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Paul explained: “Yeah, they’re rare on Earth; they’re not where we are. We have lots of jaguars, but that’s because we’ve protected our forests and there’s lots of prey animals, lots of deer, lots of primary forests, so we have some of the highest jaguar populations on Earth.”