About May 17, 2007

 

Information about Jungle Photos, our mission and history

Thank you for your interest in Jungle Photos. If you have a question that is not answered below, please contact Jungle Photos. First check our FAQ page. If you’re looking for photos or information please search Jungle Photos first. If you have suggestions, you are invited to complete our on-line survey. We respond to all e-mail enquiries.

Jungle Photos Mission

Jungle Photos provides accurate information and excellent images to inspire people to support wilderness conservation and education. Jungle Photos is dedicated to conservation of our natural world through inspiring people to educate themselves. The Amazon rainforest is the main vehicle for our mission, while web pages on the Galapagos Islands and Africa provide visitors an opportunity to learn about these areas. The Jungle Photos web pages provide free photos and information that are accessible to all.

Jungle Photos Users

Students, teachers and travelers will enjoy learning about specific regions or about particular topics relevant to each region. Students can use the site as a resource for school projects and assignments, whereas teachers can get source material for lessons. The lesson plan sections provide specific themes around which to provide students curriculum-based lessons. Travelers to the regions can browse the site get an idea of what these places are like, and a feel for what to expect. Use Facebook or Twitter to connect with Roger Harris, creator of this site and author of two Amazon travel and nature guides, to ask questions about the site, suggest improvements and swap pictures and information with other users.

Jungle Photos History

Jungle Photos first went on-line on November 13, 2000. It was begun primarily as a showcase to present the photographs of Roger Harris, from his travels while leading tours to the Amazon rainforest since 1992. Since then it has evolved into an educational website with a wide range of images and information on the Galapagos Islands and Africa, as well as the Amazon rainforest. You can get an idea of what the early versions looked like at the Way Back Machine Internet archive.

The Jungle Photos project is on going. The website is constantly revised and updated to meet visitors’ needs. Focus has been on building a robust expandable architecture, with a modular structure that is readily adaptable to incorporating additional content. The present goal is to develop a fully functional CMS to facilitate a range of activities, including content development, interactivity and building partnerships. In particular, we provide news regularly with relevant items from across the World Wide Web, and our Twitter posts are available as an RSS feed on the home page. The additional information pages that are linked to each image page are frequently revised as new information, or print or electronic publications become available.

Jungle Photos Visitor Statistics

Jungle Photos traffic has grown consistently. Since going online in late 2000, the website has welcomed over one million visitors. Early traffic when the site first went on-line in 2000 was around 100 to 200 unique visitors per day. Present traffic is about 5,000 to 6,000 unique visitors per day.

Jungle Photos Intellectual Property

The Jungle Photos website is a unique learning system, based on initiating interest with appropriate imagery, and then providing tools for further learning. As such, the Jungle Photos model constitutes proprietary technology and remains the Intellectual Property of the creator. Likewise, all material content including images, icons, written content, design and layout are the sole property of Jungle Photos, and may not be used without permission.

What is jungle?

According to Wikipedia, “jungle” means a forest. The word originated from a Sanskrit word jangala, that means wilderness. Mostly it used to refer to a to a tropical forest with densely tangled vegetation, vines and creepers.

In most speaking countries, it has a generic meaning of tropical rainforest. However, in many languages of the Indian sub-continent, such as Hindi (jangal), it is used mean any wilderness.

In English, the first record of the use of the word, in the sense of land with a wild tangled mass of vegetation, dates from 1849.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle

The word jungle has been used in association with other concepts, notably that of the “concretejungle” used to describe modern cities, generally in a sense of dangerous and unpleasant (quite unlike real jungle!).

Some sources cite Bob Marley as having coined the term with his reggae classic “Concrete Jungle” on his 1973 album Catch a Fire. However, the term’s popular usage probably originated with British zoologist Desmond Morris who wrote “The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo” in his book, The Human Zoo first published 1969 by Jonathan Cape. Morris may well have derived the term from Upton Sinclair who coined the phrase “asphalt jungle” in his novel The Jungle published 1949.

Jungle gym was a name trademarked in 1923, by Jungle Gym Inc.,Chicago, U.S., used to refer to a children’s play structure comprised of vertical and horizontal rods (usually wood or metal).

Want to know more about Jungle Photos?

Please visit our FAQ page to see if your question is answered there or contact Jungle Photos for more information. We welcome your interest and will respond to all enquiries.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge…”

— Albert Einstein