Man claims he drank 'own urine, ate worms' while lost in Amazon jungle

A Bolivian man who claimed to have been lost in the Amazon for a month alone has described how he survived by consuming worms and insects, collecting water in his boots, and drinking his own urine.

If verified, Jhonatan Acosta, 30, would rank among 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,” he told Unitel TV on Tuesday, adding that he was attacked by animals.

Around the end of January, Acosta's family reported him missing. He was travelling with four friends on a hunting excursion across the Amazon rainforest when, on January 25, he lost contact with them.

Last Saturday, exactly one month later, he was discovered by search and rescue personnel, The Guardian reported.

Acosta told Unitel that he gathered what rainfall he could with the help of his rubber boots. It rained half the time he was lost. He was forced to drink his own urine as well when the sky dried up.

Acosta said that if it had not rained, he would not have survived the vast jungle. 

“I asked God for rain."

Acosta claimed he had wandered for almost 40 kilometres (25 miles) in search of civilisation before realising he was travelling in circles. During his struggle, he reportedly lost 17 kg and dislocated his ankle.

He also claimed that while out in outdoors at night, he was bitten by a variety of different animals. He had a struggle with a pig, a wild and dangerous animal, and a tiger was lurking nearby too, his sister Miladde Acosta told Unitel TV, according to CBS.

He told the station that he was very happy and grateful to be reunited with his family.

Another well-known incident in Bolivia included Israeli explorer Yossi Ghinsberg, whose three-week survival in the Amazon in 1981 served as the model for the Daniel Radcliffe film Jungle.

After crash-landing in Brazil in 2021, pilot Antonio Sena spent 38 days in the Jungle. The next year, two boys, ages 7 and 9, who had been lost in the Brazilian rainforest for 25 days, were found and saved.