Amazon Miracle: How 13-year-old elder sister's courage, intelligence helped Colombian children survive in the jungle

The children who were rescued after surviving 40 days in the Amazon jungle following a plane accident appear thin and weak. But despite being malnourished and having insect bites, none were in critical condition. Ample courage and honed jungle smarts have been hailed as the main reasons the four Indigenous children managed to stay alive in Colombia’s Amazon jungle for 40 days after surviving a plane crash. Colombian president Gustavo Petro praised them, saying, “They’ve given us an example of total survival that will go down in history.” Also Read: How 4 children survived for 40 days in the Amazon jungle after plane crash Against all odds, siblings Lesly, Soleiny, Tien Noriel and Cristin — ages 13, nine, five and one respectively — were found weak, but alive, on Friday after a massive search by some 200 soldiers and Indigenous jungle experts. The children had been travelling with their mother, who died in the aftermath of the crash on 1 May that killed the two other adults on the small plane. This is what the experts have to say about the youngsters’ survival , dubbed a “miracle” by hardened military general Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the search. Sister act For the first days after the crash, the children stayed near the plane wreck, eating cassava flour and other food they had found on board. The children’s grandfather, Narciso Mucutuy, revealed how 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy cared for her younger siblings during the harrowing incident in clips published online by the Colombian defence ministry. “When she looked and saw that her mother was dead, she saw the foot of her youngest sister and she pulled them out… The baby Cristin survived because of her older sister feeding her slowly from the bottle until the bottle ran out,” he said, according to CNN, adding that she had also given the baby water. A Colombian special forces official said eating cassava flour extracted from the root of the yucca plant, helped keep children alive. The children ate “three kilogrammes of farina,” a coarse cassava flour commonly used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon region When their food dwindled, the children decided to try and find a way out of the rainforest, a place teeming with wild animals and armed guerrillas. The youngsters were also able to eat fruit because the jungle was in harvest. On their odyssey, the children ate “chontaduro (palm fruit) and wild mango… fruits from the jungle,” said Sanchez. [caption id=“attachment_12729802” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Colombian president Gustavo Petro said Friday that authorities found alive the four children who survived a small plane crash 40 days ago and had been the subject of an intense search in the Amazon jungle. AP[/caption] Search team member Luis Acosta of the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia said they had also grazed on seeds, roots and other plants they were able to identify as edible. It was enough to keep them alive, though the children were very weak when found, with Tien Noriel no longer able to walk. Lesly brought a soda bottle with her from the plane and followed a path never far from the river so they would always have something to drink, said another Indigenous search party member, Henry Guerrero. It was not clear whether the children had found or consumed any of the food and water the army had air dropped into the jungle for them. Leaving behind signs  The children had initially waited near the crash site for four days, hoping to be rescued, their grandfather said, but they moved and left signs at places where they slept, hoping that someone would find them. Along with the bottle, Lesly brought from the crash site, she also packed a suitcase with a tarpaulin, a towel, a flashlight and some clothes, said Guerrero. The children had used these to build a rudimentary shelter which they moved several times. They slept on the towel on the ground. They took two cellphones, which they probably used “to distract themselves at night” until the batteries died, said Guerrero. There is no signal in the rainforest for the children to have made any telephone calls for help. In the suitcase, Lesly also carried a toy music box. Courage and know-how Officials lauded the eldest sister for her bravery and knowledge of rainforest survival. Her advice was important in guiding the siblings through the difficult path. [caption id=“attachment_12729822” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Members of the Colombian Army check one of the four Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon rainforest following a plane crash in San Jose del Guaviare during their transfer to Bogota. AFP[/caption] “It is thanks to her, her courage and her leadership, that the three others were able to survive, with her care, her knowledge of the jungle.” According to Guerrero, Lesly is clearly “very intelligent” given her selection of items for the suitcase. “This is an untamed forest, dense and perilous,” warned John Moreno, an Indigenous leader from the nearby Vaupés region. “To endure, they must have relied on ancestral wisdom.” Acosta said the older children know the jungle “very well.” They are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group, whose children learn the ways of the rainforest from a young age. “They know what to eat and what not (to eat). They survived because of that and because of their spiritual strength,” he added. In addition to eluding jungle predators, the children weathered fierce storms, all while being mindful of the presence of armed groups in the area. The search by dozens of people and several dogs was hamstrung by difficult conditions in the jungle: rainfall that lasted 16 hours a day lowered visibility and made it difficult to track the children’s trail. The rescuers covered more than 2,600 kilometres (1,615 miles), only to finally find the children some five kilometres from the wreck. The siblings are receiving medical and psychological care. Astrid Caceres, director of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute said Monday children were catching up on sleep, and the two eldest were battling spikes of fever. Their recovery was going “as expected… the prognosis is still two to three weeks” of hospitalisation in Bogota, said Caceres. With inputs from AFP Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .