A 62-year-old Australian man who survived for almost a week without water in the outback by eating black ants has revealed that he learned the tip after watching celebrity survivalist Bear Grylls on TV.
Reg Foggerdy, a diabetic who had suffered a heart attack earlier this year, wandered 30km into the unforgiving Western Australian desert wearing only a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops while on a camel hunt. After the alarm was raised when he didn’t reappear, he was founds suffering exteme dehydration under a bush after six days.
British TV presenter and survival expert Bear Grylls
In his first interview since the ordeal, Foggerdy told Australian broadcaster 7News that he gleaned the advice that kept him alive after remembering watching the former SAS soldier harvesting ants on TV by poking a nest with a stick.
Foggerdy, a retired miner, has since been dubbed ‘Antman’ by the Australian media.
“They tasted quite good,” he said of the ants. “On the first day I had about 12 and on the second day about 18. If they want to call me ant man I don’t care,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m tough … just lucky ... I’ve heard of people dying after three days with no water; I don’t know why I survived six days.”
The Antman has gone hunting with his brother Ray, but lost his way while following a camel that he had shot. Although he did finally find the dead camel, he had no knife nor matches, and therefore had no means of eating it.
As the effects of dehydration took hold of his body, police helicopters searching for him were flying overhead, but Foggerdy says he was so weak that he hadn’t enough energy to even wave to them. He was eventually recovered by an Aboriginal tracker, who spotted his footprints and traced them to the spot where he lay.
Although his organs had started to shut down, he has since made a remarkable recovery, telling Australian media, “Because I’d come closer to death, now I think I’ve got a new life.”
