When children are young and learning how to survive on their own in the world, it is only natural for them to look to their parents for care and protection.
An 8-year-old boy has done something similar, although it happens very infrequently that kids show unexpected strength and bravery. After going missing while camping with his family, he deftly survived two days in the chilly, isolated wilderness of Michigan.
Nante Niemi, according to a BBC report, survived by consuming snow and taking refuge under a log.
The child became lost while gathering firewood close to his family’s campsite in Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, according to a news release from the Michigan State Police.
“He had braved the elements by taking shelter under a log where he was eventually found,” the press announcement stated.
On Monday around 1:30 pm, the youngster was found and brought back to his family. He was discovered two miles from his tent and in good health.
The boy told police he “ate clean snow for hydration.”
“A number of you have asked how Nante survived in the woods. Lieutenant Wickstrom says the boy told them he covered up with branches and leaves for warmth and also blanketed the log he was under. He didn’t have any food but ate clean snow for hydration,” Michigan State Police mentioned in a tweet.
It also revealed, “He walked a trail yesterday (Sunday), and when he ran out of the trail, he figured the best thing to do was to just stop and wait. They offered to carry him out today, but he told the guys who found him that he wanted to walk!”
According to the BBC report, the landscape is “very remote and hilly with a lot of standing water due to the time of the year”.
Several roads were impassable due to the amount of snow. The team concentrated on the park’s roughly 40 sq mile (100 sq km) area, thereby finding the boy.
