The Colombian Army continues searching for a Belgian Shepherd dog that vanished while helping rescue four children stranded in the Amazon Rainforest after a plane crash.
The miracle rescue of Lesly, 13; Soleiny, nine; Tien Noriel, four; and one-year-old Cristin last week was celebrated by millions across the world closely following their story.
The children spent forty days trapped in the dense Colombian jungle after the light aircraft they were travelling in crashed on 1 May. The children’s mother, the pilot and another adult died in the crash, and with no outside help, Lesly and Soleiny resorted to using their knowledge of the jungle to survive before their rescue.
But one of the key players behind the arduous efforts in “Operation Hope”, a four-legged hero by the name of Wilson, has yet to return home. He got lost on 18 May when he was ordered to go look for the children in the jungle, but Colombian authorities have noted that “no one will be left behind,” and the search for Wilson continues.
“It was quite strange because Wilson is trained to do what he was ordered. He was supposed to come back to his handler,” Special Forces Commander Gustavo Narváez Orozco told Semana in Spanish.“On the day he went missing, he was approaching his handler, then he had a weird reaction and ran away.”
Mr Narváez Orozco said Wilson may be hiding from intimidating animals living in the jungle, such as alligators, jaguars, panthers and water boas. He said he hopes Wilson is able to hunt for survival until he is found.
Members of the army searching the jungle saw Wilson again on 6 June and tried to approach him. They sent another K-9 his way so he wouldn’t feel threatened but the hero dog ran away again, according to Mr Narváez Orozco.
“The officers said he was a bit thinner. They tried to lure him with food, they called for him, and sent a female dog from our unit ... Once he saw them, he ran away and that was the last time we had any type of contact with him.”
As the search continues, army officials are hoping Wilson displays the same instincts that helped the children survive.
The dog has been credited with using his sense of smell to help find the baby bottles the children used and then left behind after surviving the crash. Colombian authorities have previously said finding those items was one of the first signs the children were alive and helped fuel further efforts to continue the search.
From their hospital bed, the children have drawn images of their journey through the jungle, including one in which Wilson was featured.
Damarys Mucutuy told a local radio station that “the children are fine” despite being found with signs of dehydration and insect bites and have been offered mental health services. They are currently being cared for at a military hospital in the capital, Bogota.
In addition to making a camp, Lesly “knew what fruits she can’t eat because there are many poisonous fruits in the forest. And she knew how to take care of a baby”, her grandmother Fatima Valencia told Caracol News.
Ms Valencia added that Lesly’s experience looking after her siblings while her mother was at work also helped. It is thought that this knowledge, combined with food they managed to salvage from the plane’s wreckage and other skills learned growing up in the Huitoto indigenous group, helped the children survive for such a long period.
President Gustavo Petro called them an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history”.
