A 62-year-old hunter, who got lost in the vast Australian desert managed to stay alive for six days without food and water by feeding himself with black ants.
Reginald Foggerdy went on a hunting trip last week with his brother in the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia.
Foggerdy was on a hunting trip 170 kilometers east of Laverton on Rason Lake Road, when he left the campsite he was sharing with his brother. According to police, it was reported that he only had a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops on, when he went missing last Wednesday. He was supposed to hunt for animals in the dry and sandy wilderness.
A massive land and air search was launched to rescue the missing hunter. Police Superintendent Andy Greatwood said they found Foggerdy "extremely dehydrated, a bit delusional" on Tuesday with the help of Aboriginal trackers .
Greatwood told the local radio that "His last couple of days of survival were achieved by lying down under a tree and eating black ants. That's the level of survival that Mr. Foggerdy has gone to."
Western Australia Police released photos of Foggerdy showing a dust and unshaven man talking to his rescuers under the tree. This was before he was put in a helicopter.
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.
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.
Mr Foggerdy had taken a rifle on the hunting trip, but was not believed to have been carrying food or water supplies.
However Mr Foggerdy's family described him as an experienced bushman. He loves to camp and hunt, that was his recreational time.
He was retired from mining and his youngest son who he spends a lot of time with is only 12-years-old. Getting away on a holiday with his brother was the thing he loved mostly.