Miracle in the Amazon: How siblings stayed alive for 40 days

As more details emerged about four children's incredible feat of survival in the Colombian Amazon, it became clear that the ancestral knowledge of the eldest child played a vital role in keeping her younger siblings, including a baby who turned one during the ordeal, alive for 40 days

- Mat Youkee

Lesly Mukutuy, 13, identified edible fruits, found suitable water and avoided dangerous plants and animals thanks in part to knowledge handed down from her grandmother, Fatima Valencia.

"We have to recognise not only her bravery but also her leadership," the minister of defence, Iván Velásquez, said last Sunday after a visit to Bogotá's military hospital, where the children were being treated for malnutrition and minor injuries. "Her three younger siblings could survive by her side, thanks to her care and her knowledge of the jungle."

A Cessna carrying the four children, their mother and two other adults, including the pilot, crashed in a remote and dangerous region on 1 May. A search team found the plane on 16 May in thick rainforest and recovered the bodies of the adults, but the children were nowhere to be found.

Last Friday, the children - members of the Huitoto Indigenous community - were found in a clearing 5km from the wreck, in an area where snakes, mosquitoes and other animals abound.