Colombia is still without news of the four missing children, lost in the Amazon jungle since May 1 after surviving a plane crash. This Thursday, an army dog participating in the search got lost in the forest.
Wilson, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd, “disappeared (…) in the jungles of Caqueta and Guaviare”, in the south of the country, the army announced in a press release. Alongside dozens of other sniffer dogs, Wilson had participated since the beginning of the search in military operations to try to find the little siblings.
A very hostile environment
These four siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, have been wandering the Colombian jungle alone for about 40 days. They survived the May 1 crash of a Cessna 206 plane on which they were traveling with their mother and two other relatives. All three adults died. Their bodies were found by the army at the crash site.
Hailing from the Uitoto indigenous group, the children are used to life in the jungle and know how to survive there, according to relatives. Their chances of survival are diminishing day by day, however, in a very hostile environment where jaguars, pumas, snakes and other predators roam. The region is also an area of strong influence for FARC dissidents.
At the end of May, the army nevertheless claimed to be “very close” to the missing children. It was Wilson who had found the bottle of the youngest of 11 months in the jungle. According to the army, one hypothesis regarding the disappearance of the dog is that “due to the complexity of the terrain, the humidity and the adverse weather conditions, he would have been disoriented”.