Hunter left man caught in boar trap for dead on Chinese mountainside
Victim tells how he survived against the odds by eating insects and drinking spring water while caught in illicit snare
A man who spent two weeks in the wilderness of eastern China caught in a trap for wild boars told police that the hunter had abandoned him to his fate on the mountainside, local media reported.
The 28-year-old, surnamed Gao, survived by drinking spring water and eating insects and had been trying to crawl to safety after the man who set the illicit trap had released him but refused to offer any further help, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Wednesday.
Gao was found on Sunday after a villager from Qingtian in Zhejiang province who had gone fishing at a nearby lake heard him crying for help and called police.
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He was found by a search party and later explained that he did not have a mobile phone to call for help and had been trying to crawl down the mountainside to safety.
“When we found him, he was as thin as a lath, but he was still conscious,” Zhao Yonggui, the villager who heard the cries for help, told the newspaper.
Gao had to be stretchered off the mountain and is now being treated in a hospital in Hangzhou.
The report said he had lost 15kg during his ordeal and his weight had fallen to 50kg by the time he was found.
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He also suffered serious injuries to his left leg and the report said it may need to be amputated.
Gao said he had been caught in the trap while trying to walk to the city of Lishui and had been freed by the hunter a couple of days before he was rescued.
Police are now trying to find the illegal trap as well as its owner and are investigating the claim that Gao had been abandoned on the mountainside.
Zhao said that many villagers had set up similar traps to catch wild boar on the mountain.
