A Bolivian who claimed to have been missing in the Amazon rainforest alone for a month on Tuesday recounted eating insects and worms, collecting water in his boots and drinking his own urine to stay alive.
If confirmed, this could make Jhonatan Acosta, 30, one of the longest-ever lone Amazon survivors.
"It helped a lot to know about survival techniques: I had to consume insects, drink my urine, eat worms. I was attacked by animals," he told Unitel TV.
Acosta was reported missing by his family at the end of January. He had been on a hunting trip with four friends in the Amazon rainforest but got separated from his party on Jan. 25.
Exactly a month later, last Saturday, he was found by search and rescue teams. Earlier this month, officials had enlisted a specially trained dog named Titan to help search for Acosta, the station reported.
Acosta told Unitel it rained half the time he was lost. He used his rubber boots to collect whatever rainwater he could.
But when the skies dried up, he said he had to drink his own urine.
"I asked God for rain," Acosta recounted. "If it hadn't rained, I would not have survived."
Disoriented, he had walked about 25 miles in search of civilization, Acosta said, but soon discovered he was going around in circles.
Exposed to the elements at night, he said he was bitten by all sorts of different creatures.
His sister, Miladde Acosta, told Unitel TV that her brother "had to fight with a pig, which is a wild and dangerous animal" and a tiger lurked nearby.
"I am very happy and grateful," Acosta told the station after being reunited with his family.
In another well-known case in Bolivia, Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg survived three weeks in the Amazon in 1981, a feat which inspired the movie "Jungle" starring Daniel Radcliffe.
In Brazil, pilot Antonio Sena survived 38 days in the Amazon after crashlanding in 2021. The following year, two brothers aged 7 and 9 were rescued after spending 25 days lost in the Brazilian part of the rainforest. The BBC, citing local media, reported the two boys told their parents they had eaten nothing while lost and had had only rainwater to drink.
