Tinotenda Pudu mistakenly wandered 14 miles from home and found himself in the “perilous” Matusadona Game Park in northern Zimbabwe, where for 120 hours he shared his home with lions and elephants
An eight-year-old boy says he survived five days in a lion-infested game park thanks to his “wild skills”.
Tinotenda Pudu mistakenly wandered 14 miles from home and found himself in the “perilous” Matusadona Game Park in northern Zimbabwe, where for 120 hours he shared his home with vicious predators, including snarling lions and Nile crocodiles.
Politician Mutsa Murombedzi explained how the youngster spent five days “sleeping on a rocky perch amidsy roaring lions, passing elephants, eating wild fruits”.
The park is known to be home to around 40 lions, with it once having the highest population of the big cat in Africa. Murombedzi explained how the eight-year-old utilised his survival skills and knowledge of the wilderness to stay alive.
Murombedzi said the boy used his knowledge of the wild and survival skills to stay alive, which included chomping on wild fruit and digging wells into dry riverbeds to access water safe enough to drink. This skill is taught to children in the area, which is prone to drought.
The Nyaminyami community searched for him and beat on drums every day in the hopes the youngster would hear them and be guided back home. In the end, it was park rangers who found the boy after he overheard one of their cars and ran towards it.
As he ran, he narrowly missed being run over, but thankfully the rangers saw him and returned, spotting “fresh little human footprints” and searched the area until they found him. “This was probably his last chance of being rescued after 5 days in the wilderness,” the MP said. Zebras, elephants, hippos, lions and antelope all call the 570 sq mile park their home.
On social media, people praised the young boy for his resilience in managing to survive in such a dangerous place. One said it was “beyond human comprehension”, while another said: “He’s going to have one hell of a story to tell when he gets back to school.”
