Watch: Colombian Children Found Alive in Amazon Jungle 40 Days After Plane Crash

Four children were found alive in the Colombian jungle after surviving a deadly plane crash on May 1. 

After deploying more than 100 soldiers to comb the terrain, Lesly, 13, Soleiny, nine, Tien Noriel, four, and baby Cristin, who celebrated his first birthday in the jungle, were found malnourished, covered in bites, but alive, the Daily Mail reported.

The children had survived 40 days in an Amazon jungle amongst jaguars, pumas, snakes, and armed drug smugglers. Belonging to the indigenous Huitoto group, the children relied on ancestral knowledge of plants and terrain to survive. 

The children’s grand mother, Fatima Valencia said the eldest was used to taking care of her younger siblings while her mother was at work. 

“I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free,” Valencia said.

The four children board the Cessna C206 with their mother, 33-year-old Magdalena Mucutui Valencia and a religious leader from the “southern town of Araracuara en route to the northern part of Colombia,” Fox News reported.

Authorities found the remains of the mother, pilot, and religious leader two weeks after the crash. The children were nowhere to be found. This deployed a search mission consisting of military personnel and indigenous people as they picked up clues that the children were still alive. 

“We have a 100% expectation of finding them alive,” Gen. Pedro Sánchez, commander of the Joint Command of Special Operations,  said to The Associated Press. “We found elements that are very complex to find in the jungle. For example, the lid of a baby bottle. If we’ve found that, why don’t we find the rest? Because the children are on the move,” Sánchez explained.

At night, the rescuers board the four children on the helicopter hovering at the tree canopy. The children were later taken to the military base of San Jose del Guaviare.