Children Lost in Amazon Jungle for 40 Days ‘Hid in Tree Trunks’ to Survive

Relatives of the children who were lost in the Amazon jungle for 40 days have revealed some of the hardships they endured.

The siblings, aged 13, 9, 4, and 11 months, went missing after their plane crashed on May 1. The crash claimed the lives of three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother. It was recently disclosed that their mother survived for about four days after the crash.

After their rescue on Friday, the children were taken to a hospital in Bogotá, Colombia, where they are expected to stay for at least two weeks.

Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two youngest children, shared that the oldest of the survivors, 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, told him their mother was alive for around four days post-crash. Before she passed, the mother likely urged them to leave the crash site in order to survive.

Ranoque highlighted how the indigenous population is trained to navigate the jungle, saying, “We proved to the world that we found the plane… we found the children.”

The four children were discovered in a forest clearing, about three miles from the crash site. One of the uncles, Fidencio Valencia, mentioned that the children were beginning to talk and revealed that they hid in tree trunks to protect themselves in a jungle teeming with snakes, animals, and mosquitoes. Though exhausted, the children have started eating again.

Another uncle, Dairo Juvenal Mucutuy, shared that one of the children expressed a desire to walk again, saying, “Uncle, I want shoes, I want to walk, but my feet hurt.” He assured the child, “When you recover, we will play soccer.”

The children survived by eating cassava flour, seeds, and utilizing their knowledge of the rainforest’s fruits. As members of the Huitoto indigenous group, their familiarity with the jungle played a crucial role in their survival.

General Pedro Sanchez, who led the rescue mission, noted that rescue teams had passed within 20 to 50 meters of the children’s location on several occasions but had missed them.