Jhonatan Acosta survived in the Amazon by eating worms, drinking urine

A Bolivian man has claimed that he survived being lost in the Amazon rainforest alone for a month by feasting on insects and worms — which he washed down with his own urine.

Jhonatan Acosta, 30, told Unitel TV that he turned to the creepy crawlies and urine as a last resort after he became lost while on a hunting trip with friends on Jan. 25.

“It helped a lot to know about survival techniques: I had to consume insects, drink my urine, eat worms. I was attacked by animals,” Acosta told the outlet on Tuesday.

Acosta also attributed his survival to it raining about half the time he was lost.

“I asked God for rain,” Acosta recounted. “If it hadn’t rained, I would not have survived.”

He was rescued by a search team last Saturday after officials enlisted a specially trained dog name Titan to sniff him out of the jungle, according to CBS News, which translated the Spanish outlet.


Acosta, lies in a hospital bed attended to by a nurse
Acosta, 30, receiving medical treatment after he was rescued from the jungle.
Newsflash

Acosta said after getting separated from his friends on his hinting trip, he had hiked about 25 miles in search of shelter but soon discovered that he was walking in circles.

He also claimed to have been bitten by many animals, some of which he reportedly was forced to tussle with.

Acosta “had to fight with a pig, which is a wild and dangerous animal” as a tiger lurked nearby, his sister told the outlet.

“I am very happy and grateful,” the man said of being rescued and reunited with his family.

His unconfirmed ordeal would make him one of the only people to survive in the Amazon for so long.

In 1981 Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg survived for three weeks in the jungle and pilot Antonio Sena fended for himself over 38 days after crashing his plane there in 2001, CBS said.


A photo of the rescue team that was looking for Jhonatan Acosta, 30, in the Amazon rainforest last month.
A photo of the rescue team that was looking for Acosta in the Amazon rainforest last month.
Newsflash

In 2002, two boys aged 7 and 9 reportedly survived 25 days alone in a Brazilian section of the rainforest on nothing but rainwater.