151 Jungle Tales

A hunter came to a forest and saw a fox, sleeping on the top of a big rock. The hunter thought, ‘If I kill that fox and sell the skin, I’ll make a fortune.’ Then, taking a heavy stone in his fist, the hunter thought, ‘With that money I shall buy some seeds, and I […]

Once, the queen of the forest invited her subjects to a grand feast. She had arranged for four large tables and said, “The wild buffalo, the elephant, the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros will head each of the tables. They will in turn share the food with the smaller animals.” At the buffalo’s table, there was

Once, a vulture noticed that his feathers were falling off. When he asked other birds, they said, “You are losing feathers. Don’t worry; new feathers would grow soon.” However, the vulture was very upset. Soon, he became thin and sickly with worry about his feathers. The other birds pitied him and each of them gave

Long ago, all zebras had eyes in the front of their heads. A female zebra always praised herself, “I am so beautiful! Look at my lovely stripes and tail!” However, her favourite thing to boast about was her eyes. “Aren’t my eyes so perfectly placed in the front of my head?” she said. All the

When hippopotamuses lived on land, there was a hippo king named Lionel. He had a beautiful wife and seven children. The king loved to give big feasts but strangely no animal knew his name except for his wife. During one feast, Lionel said to his guests, “You all have attended many of my feasts and

A leopard and his wife were invited to a jungle party. They both wanted to look very special. So they decided, “Since each of us has a plain yellow coat, let’s paint something on it.” The leopard brought a pint of black paint but could not decide what to paint on their bodies. After a

This was the time when the tortoise did not have shells on its body. One such tortoise was running a race with a deer. Suddenly, he tripped and fell down from a deep, rocky hill. When he woke up, he was spinning on his back! He felt dizzy. He also felt a lot of pain.

A group of monkeys always troubled the animals that came to drink from the lake of the forest. One day, a herd of zebras was drinking water from the lake. As usual, the monkeys started throwing twigs at them. One of the mares came with her little foal. The twig hurt her leg badly. As

Long ago, all the animals in the forest looked the same. Even Mother Earth who had created them could not tell the difference. So, she sent out a message, “I am going to change how everyone looks like. So, all animals are requested to come and see me!” A platypus was under the water, playing

Long ago, swans had graceful bodies and short necks. On the other hand, ducks had big and bulky bodies. One day, an argument started between the swans and the ducks. The proud swans said, “We will swim first as we are more beautiful.” The ducks angrily said, “We should swim first because the last time,

A hungry hyena stood under a dove’s nest and demanded, “You had better give me one of your chicks or I shall fly up and eat all of you.” The poor dove was scared! Weeping, she gave the hyena her chick. After the hyena had left, a parrot came to visit the dove. The dove

A proud lioness felt that only the ostrich was her equal match and made friends with her. One day, she said, “Ostrich, will you come with me to catch prey?” The ostrich agreed. They saw some quails and ran after them. The lioness caught one quail but the ostrich killed many by striking them with

Once, a traveller saved a snake. The sly snake tried to bite him. The traveller shouted, “Please stop! Let a wise person decide this for us.” Just then, a jackal came along. The traveller asked him, “I freed this snake when she was under the stone and now she wants to bite me. It is

A swan and a crane lived on the different sides of a lake. Every day, they went out in search of food and returned in the evening. Their life had become very boring. To make life more interesting, the swan decided to be friends with the crane. However, the crane said, “Your legs are short