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Wilson, the Belgian Shepherd who helped rescue four missing siblings in Amazon, is now lost in the jungle himself.
The six-year-old tracker dog participated in the intense yet successful search operation for four Indigenous children who went missing for 40 days after a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon.
The Colombian Army said that due to “the terrain, humidity and adverse weather conditions, he [Wilson] must have become disoriented, leading to his loss.”
According to The Indepedent’s report, “It was quite strange because Wilson is trained to do what he was ordered. He was supposed to come back to his handler,” Special Forces Commander Gustavo Narváez Orozco told Semana in Spanish.
He continued saying, “On the day he went missing, he was approaching his handler, then he had a weird reaction and ran away.”
Members of the army searching for Wilson said that they saw the dog on June 6 and tried to approach him, but he ran away.
Wilson was a vital part of the search operation as he was the one who found one of the children’s discarded baby bottle about four kilometers away from the wreckage.
In a statement, the Colombian Army said that they found evidence that Wilson has been the first to find the missing children, “On the trails, footprints have been found that would belong to minors and very close to that of the dog’s.”
Mientras nuestro Comandante #GeneralGiraldo, visitaba y recibía reporte del avance de salud de los pequeños que se recuperan en el @HOMILCOL, y les entregaba algunos detalles; Lesly y Soleiny le entregaron unos dibujos hechos por ellas para él amigo de Wilson. (1) pic.twitter.com/fsU0ZBb2os
— Fuerzas Militares de Colombia (@FuerzasMilCol) June 12, 2023
Evidence of Wilson finding the children first was further supported when two of the rescued children, Lesly and Soleiny, made a drawing of a dog in the jungle, next to a river.
According to the Courthouse News Service, Astrid Caceres, director of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute overseeing the children, said they keep talking about a dog.
Caceres recounted, “Lesly told us… of a dog that they had lost, that they didn’t know where it went, that it had accompanied them for a while.”
On Twitter, the Colombian Army said the search for the canine hero continues and have reiterated that they “will not rest until we find him.”
They also said that “Operation Hope” (Operación Esperanza), the name of the search operation for the Indigenous children, will not end until they find Wilson.
“One command doesn’t abandon another command, no one is left behind!” said the Colombian Army on Twitter. “We are working to the best of our abilities to bring Wilson back. We will not lose faith.”
#VamosPorWilson | Las habilidades de nuestros binomios caninos: soldado y canino en las operaciones humanitarias de búsqueda y rescate son decisivas para la victoria. Wilson ha participado en diferentes operaciones.
— Fuerzas Militares de Colombia (@FuerzasMilCol) June 13, 2023
¡No descansaremos hasta encontrarlo! pic.twitter.com/mH0PhwhlCm
Wilson’s handler since he was a puppy in training, Cristian David Lara told El Espectador newspaper, he “does not want to leave until he finds his dog.”
According to the Colombian Army, they have added more than 70 soldiers to join the search operation for the six-year-old Belgian Shepherd.
And the military hopes that Wilson will be able to hunt for himself and survive until they find and rescue him.
