CHAPTER 1 Look at the size of that orange spider Ring shouted Theraphosa Blondi said his sister Asia jotting down the scientific name in her field notebook with the date and time Whatever it's called it's as big as my fist Ring started sketching the giant spider in his field notebook It's also called the goliath bird-eating tarantula although it rarely eats birds Asia continued Females can live up to twenty-five years Males live six years Why is that No one knows It would make an interesting scientific study Ring wasn't sure about that but he did think the spider would make an interesting pet It was crawling up a long vine dangling down from a giant tree He reached out for it I wouldn't do that if I were you Asia warned Tarantulas are not that dangerous Ring said
The AMAZON 2 Until they sink their inch-long fangs into you or one of their irritating hairs pokes into your skin Ring hesitated His sister was always ruining his fun and showing off with her encyclopedic memory of scientific names Maybe I'll wait until I have something to put it in besides my pocket Good idea They continued through the shadowy rainforest looking for their mother's research site They hadn't seen her in three days but they weren't worried about her She often went off-grid during her animal studies Sloth poop Ring said He was standing at the base of a massive kapok tree with a swarm of insects buzzing around his head He wore his long blond hair in a ponytail halfway down his back and a red bandanna tied around his forehead to keep the sweat out of his eyes He was eleven and he looked like his mother same hair color same slender physique same bright blue eyes Asia walked toward him stopping short of the insect cloud Dangling around her neck were a pair of binoculars a camera and a compass She prided herself on her preparedness She looked like her father with a stocky strong build short dark hair and brown eyes She was thirteen but an inch shorter than her younger brother We should wait for the sloth to come down to add to that pile Ring said excitedly How many people have
3 The WILDES seen that You could video it We could be waiting here for a week Sloths defecate once every seven days Ring wasn't surprised his sister knew how three-toed sloths bowels worked Must be uncomfortable he said What's to stop them from pooping from where they hang The pile of dung fertilizes the kapok tree Which doesn't answer my question I'm not finished There's a tiny moth that lives in the sloth's fur It lays eggs in the dung pile When the baby moths hatch they jump back aboard the sloth Weird Symbiosis The cycle of life Let's find Mom Still not satisfied with the answer Ring followed his sister deeper into the forest He was thinking about moths symbi whatever and the cycle of life when Asia stumbled over an exposed root and fell flat on her face He laughed then helped her up and brushed her off You okay Like you care Of course I care Ring said indignantly If you broke your leg I'd have to carry you back to camp and it's miles away Asia checked the gear hanging around her neck Nothing was damaged
The AMAZON 4 This is rough ground Ring said You need to look down when you're walking Thanks for the advice Mr. Trailblazer Asia said but she knew that he was right Their mother's research platforms were high up in the trees To find the platforms they had to look for trees that had been climbed We're looking for disturbed tree trunks Asia said I know that Ring insisted Asia still didn't understand why her mother insisted on working alone She and her brother had been around animals their entire lives and could help her if she let them Dr. Jane Wilde was a world-renowned conservation biologist who spent more time in the field than she did at their home near the town of Glen Rose Texas The kids father Dr. Jack Wilde was a veterinarian and the director of a two-thousand-thousand animal park called The Wilds specializing in the conservation of rare and endangered animals The demands of managing three thousand animals kept him close to their home which was built on a high bluff overlooking the park Asia and Ring split their time between The Wilds and their mother's research sites all over the world Right now they were in the Amazon rainforest staying in a rough tented camp near the Xingu River about a hundred miles south of Altamira near where their mother had
