Young brothers aged 6 and 8 found in Amazon forest after going missing for almost four weeks

Two young brothers who got lost in the Amazon during its rainy season, when moving in the jungle is even more difficult than usual, have been found four weeks later.

Glauco and Gleison Ferreira, eight and six, got lost trying to catch small birds in the jungle near Manicoré, Amazonas state, on 18 February.

But Reuters now reports that the young boys were found on Tuesday, March 15 by a local tree cutter.

After the boys disappeared, hundreds of residents spent weeks looking for them.

But lost during the rainy season of the Amazon, they were nowhere to be found and emergency services decided to call off the search on 24 February.

Almost four weeks later, the boys were found by a man cutting wood 6 km (3.7 miles) from the village of Palmeira in the Lago Capanã protected land reserve where the boys live with their parents, local newspaper, Amazônia Real reported.

One of the boys shouted for help when he heard the local man hitting the trees nearby. Following the calls, the man found the two boys lying on the rainforest floor, hungry and weak, with many skin abrasions.

According to local media, the two boys told their parents they had eaten nothing while lost and had had only rainwater to drink.

The boys have now been flown to a hospital where they are being treated for shock and malnourishment and are expected to make a full recovery.

This is not the first time people have gotten lost in the Amazon rainforest.

In January 2021, pilot Antonio Sena spent 36 days lost in one of the remotest parts of the Brazilian Amazon after his aircraft crashed.