Neilson Oliveira Lima disappeared from his home in the rural community Pupuai on Sept 16, said Amazonas state police officer Ailson Carvalho.

"He went in the forest following his father and he got lost. He was found by his cousin, who was out hunting," Carvalho said in a telephone interview from Caraurai, the nearest town. "Nobody knows what he ate or how he survived."

Carvalho said the boy was found on Sept. 27 about 2 miles from his home with thorns covering his feet and legs. He said nothing about his ordeal except to ask for water.

The boy was taken to the hospital in Caraurai some days later, the long distance preventing faster transport, Carvalho said. A hospital receptionist who declined to give her name said the boy remained there under observation.

Evanise de Oliveira Lima, the boy's mother, told CBN Radio that Neilson was very thin and scratched but that she expected he would leave the hospital shortly.

"In the jungle near the house, there are jaguars, hawks, snakes," Lima told the radio station. "But his guardian angel and God protected my son."