A hunter who got stranded in a vast Australian desert has managed to survive for six days without water by eating ants, police said.
Reginald Foggerdy, 62, had
embarked on a hunting trip last week with his brother in the Great
Victoria Desert in Western Australia.
He
went missing Wednesday after setting off to hunt animals in the dry,
sandy wilderness, wearing only a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops,
according to police.
After a
"massive" land and air search, police officers aided by Aboriginal
trackers found Foggerdy "extremely dehydrated, a bit delusional" on
Tuesday, said Police Superintendent Andy Greatwood.
"His
last couple of days of survival were achieved by lying down under a
tree and eating black ants," Greatwood told local radio. "That's the
level of survival that Mr. Foggerdy has gone to."
Greatwood said the hunter was found about
15 kilometers (9 miles) from where he went missing, an area roughly 170
kilometers east of Laverton, the nearest town.
"He's
received treatment -- first aid -- on the ground and it's fair to say
he's now sitting up and talking -- so looking very positive," he said.
Ants and other insects are highlighted as
possible sources of nutrients by survival experts, but it's still
extraordinary that Foggerdy managed to stay alive for so long in a
region where temperatures frequently soar above 90 degrees Fahrenheit
(32 degrees Celsius).
He had "no water whatsoever for six days," Greatwood said.
Foggerdy's wife, Arlyn, said she cried upon hearing the news that he'd been found alive.
"How you can survive without water and food is a miracle," she said, according to the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.
The
Great Australia Desert is the largest desert in Australia. It has "red
sand dunes, stony plains and dry salt lakes" but no permanent surface
water, according to Australian authorities.
CNN
0 comments:
Post a Comment