Modern troglodyte Pedro Luca has lived in a cave for 40 years. He has 11 roosters, two goats and few teeth

Pedro Luca has lived in a cave in northern Argentina for 40 years.

The 79-year-old survives without running water or electricity in his cavern high in a mountain in northern Tucuman province. When he gets hungry he picks up his rifle and goes hunting or heads on a three-hour trek down the mountain to the nearest settlement of San Pedro de Colalao. A creek is his main source of water.

“It’s the purest, richest water there is,” he says.

His cave mates? Eleven roosters and two goats that roam the mountainside during the day and return at night looking for shelter from pumas and other predators. The crows of the roosters wake him up at around 3am every morning and he begins the day by starting a fire.

“Fire is magical,” he says, as the smoke fills his cave.

Luca has become a legend in San Pedro de Colalao, and town dwellers often give him food and supplies. He buys candles, yeast and corn with a government old-age pension, worth about US$100-$200, that he collects at the town’s post office. His only technological gadget is a small, battery-powered radio, but he has a hard time tuning into stations because the signal is weak up the mountain.