Officials reported Friday that two Brazilian Indigenous boys, ages seven and nine, had been recovered after spending 25 days lost in the Amazon jungle, where they ate fruit and drank rainwater to remain alive.
Glauco, 7, and Gleison, 9, were found starving and dehydrated but otherwise well, 35 kilometers (22 miles) from where they went missing on Tuesday.
“They are suffering from malnutrition and severe dehydration, but they are gaining weight, with no risk to their lives,” Januario Carneiro da Cunha Neto, an indigenous health official in the northern city of Manaus”
The boys, members of the Indigenous Mura tribe, went missing on February 18, when they left their village in the remote county of Manicore in Amazonas state and went bird hunting in the deep rainforest.
“they survived on rainwater, lake water, and sorva,” a native fruit high in carbs and lipids, according to Carneiro.
The officials had called it a day in their hunt for the lads. However, local Indigenous neighbors continued to search for them until one day, a family member who was out gathering wood by coincidence discovered them, according to Carneiro.
He said that when the younger youngster became too weak to walk, the bigger boy carried him on his back.
The youngsters were transferred to a hospital in Manaus on Thursday and were being treated for injuries and illnesses, but they escaped any encounters with snakes or other wildlife, he added.