Jhonatan Acosta, 30, got lost in a mountainous area, near Baures, in northern Bolivia while out on a hunt with some friends on January 25 and was found a month later by rescue teams.
He says he drank rainwater collected in his shoes and ate worms and insects while hiding from jaguars and peccaries, a type of pig-like mammal.
He said it was skills that he learnt during his national military service and watching survival programmes on television, that helped him keep alive.
The survivor in Amazon jungle also told how he realised he was walking in circles as he tried to reach safety and one night he was attacked by wild boars who stole one of his boots but he fortunately was not injured.
His younger brother says that Jhonattan used his last cartridge to scare off a squadron of peccaries, pig-like herd animals found in the rainforests of South America.
‘You wouldn’t believe how many insects (bit me),’ said Jhonatan, who is a farmer in Baures.
Mr Acosta was finally found by a search party made up of locals and friends a month after he had gone missing.
‘It’s incredible, I can’t believe people kept up the search for so long,’ he said amid tears.
‘I ate worms, I ate insects, you wouldn’t believe all I had to do to survive all this time,’ he told Unitel TV. He also ate wild fruits similar to papayas, known locally as gargateas.
‘I thank God profusely, because he has given me a new life.’
His family said that they would still have to piece together all the details of how Mr Acosta got lost and how he managed to stay alive but that they would ask him gradually as he was still psychologically bruised after the experience.
Mr Acosta lost 17kg (37lb) in weight, had a dislocated ankle and was dehydrated when he was found but according to those who found him, was still able to walk with a limp.
‘My brother told us that when he dislocated his ankle on the fourth day, he started fearing for his life,’ Horacio Acosta told Bolivia’s Página Siete newspaper.
Acosta said ‘My aim was to get to the river because the first 10 days I was drinking my urine and couldn’t find water or fruit … I think I passed out a couple of times,’ he told Radio Panamericana.
Now he says that he is going to give up hunting.
Meanwhile police said they would question the four friends of the survivor to understand how he became separated from them.
