A real-life Mowgli claims he was raised by jaguars in the jungle after going missing when he was eight years old.
Aelcio Alves do Nascimento said he got marooned after a fight with his brother over a toy car at Christmas time in 1978.
He claimed to local media: “My father, very strict, took a biriba stick, beat me, and I ran until I fell into a river.
“I swam to a certain point, but then I got lost.
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“I spent a night in the jungle, afraid to try to go back home, so I kept walking.”
Aelcio, now 53, says he had to sleep in armadillo burrows during the rainy season.
To survive, he ate roots, fruit, piassava coconuts, raw freshwater prawns, and even larvae from rotten wood.
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He recalled: “There was a time when I went to get a root, and I spent two days drunk.”
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Aelcio also told of the time he came face-to-face with a terrifying jaguar during one of his wanderings.
He said: “I hid in a hole from the jaguar, and it stayed outside, trying to catch me with its paws.
“There was no way out. I said to myself, ‘If I get through this, I won’t sleep on the ground anymore.’
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“Then it got distracted with another animal and calmed down. When I came out, I climbed the first tree I saw.
“From then on, I never slept in a hole again.”
Aelcio now works as a lifeguard in the village of Baixio, part of Esplanada municipality in Bahia state, north-eastern Brazil.
He said: “As I spent a lot of time in the woods, my voice became a grunt. I understood very little.
“That’s why I still stutter today. I imitated the animals a lot, saw how they lived, and adapted.”
One of his last memories from the jungle was when he saw a jaguar and jumped from tree to tree to avoid it.
But while fleeing, he lost his grip, rolled down a hill, and fell into a swamp, where he was spotted by a farmer after three years when he was 11.
The farmer mistook him for a caipora — a mythical, mischievous forest dweller represented as a small, dark-skinned, naked child
Aelcio recalled: “He thought I was a caipora and set a dog on me.
“When I came out, he shouted, ‘It’s not a caipora, it’s a boy.’ That’s how I was found.”
Aelcio was then taken into a town, where he was recognised by his godmother.
He said: “When they gave me regular food, I smelt a terrible odour. It took me a while to eat again.
“I took a long time to get used to cooking food. I ended up in the hospital sick.”
These days, Aelcio tries not to romanticise his experience.
He said: “I don’t recommend this life experience to anyone because spending time in the woods, living like an animal, is not easy.
“My relatives thought I was dead. They couldn’t find me anymore.
“It’s something I don’t recommend, but it’s also an experience that no one can take away from me.
After re-adapting to normal life, Aelcio went on to have two daughters and four grandchildren.
He said: “I went back into the woods a few years ago. But it’s sad. A lot has changed.
“Where I used to pass, there are now houses, eucalyptus plantations, most of the trees have been cut down.
“If it were today, they wouldn’t have taken me out of the woods. I would have stayed there to defend everything.”
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