62-year-old survived Australian outback by eating ants

A 62-year-old recreational hunter survived in the Australian outback without water for six days by eating ants.

Reg Foggerdy told Australia's 7 News that he ate 12 ants one day and 18 on another to survive.

Mr Foggerdy and his brother Ray went into the Great Victoria Desert in early October in pursuit of a camel.

Wearing only a T-shirt, shorts, a cap and flip flops, Mr Foggerdy went missing for six days before police trackers found him sitting under a tree nine miles from where he was last seen.

He was airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital.

The former miner, from Perth, said: "I didn't think anyone was going to find me and I'd given up."

"I was at peace with myself and just to lay there and pass away."

"Because I'd come close to death that now I think that I've got a new life," he added.

His brother Ray said it was the hardest week of his life when his brother was missing.

Mr Foggerdy, dubbed the 'Ant Man', said he put a stick into an ants nest to bring them out to the surface.

But the experience hasn't put him off returning to the Outback.

"I might go and look for my gun, if it's still in the shrub," he said.