More than 350 elephants that died in mysterious circumstances probably drank toxic water, according to a new paper that warns of an “alarming trend” in climate-induced poisoning.

The deaths in Botswana’s Okavango delta were described by scientists as a “conservation disaster”. Elephants of all ages were seen walking in circles before collapsing and dying. Carcasses were first spotted in north-eastern Botswana in May and June 2020, with many theories circulating about the cause of death, including cyanide poisoning or an unknown disease.

The incident was the largest documented elephant die-off where the cause was unknown, according to the lead researcher Davide Lomeo, a geography PhD student at King’s College London. “This is why it sparked so much concern,” he said.

Now, a new paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment suggests the elephants were poisoned by water that contained toxic blooms of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria. The climate crisis is increasing the intensity and severity of harmful algal blooms.

Researchers used satellite data to analyse the distribution of the carcasses relative to watering holes (there was no direct testing of samples because none were available). The team believes that the elephants generally walked just over 100km (62 miles) from the waterholes and died within 88 hours of drinking. In total they examined 3,000 waterholes, and found those that experienced increased cyanobacteria blooms in 2020 had high concentrations of carcasses. “They have no choice but to drink from them,” said Lomeo. It is possible other animals died from drinking from the waterholes, but bodies may not have been spotted from aerial surveys, and smaller carcasses could have already been taken by predators.

Researchers stated: “Globally, this event underscores the alarming trend of sudden, climate-induced diseases.” In the same year 35 elephants died in neighbouring Zimbabwe from an obscure bacteria getting into the blood, which was linked to prolonged drought conditions. In 2015, 200,000 saiga antelope died from a climate-linked outbreak of blood poisoning called haemorrhagic septicaemia in Kazakhstan. Mass-mortality events are becoming more common as the world heats up, and can push species toward extinction, experts warn.

In southern Africa, 2019 was the driest year in decades, followed by an extremely wet year in 2020. These conditions led to more sediment and nutrients being suspended in the water, which led to unprecedented algal growth. As the climate changes, much of the world is projected to become drier and hotter, with intermittent heavy rain. “It is very sad that so many elephants died but also this hints at this global trend of sudden, climate-induced disease … there is compelling evidence that this could happen again to any animal,” said Lomeo.

Dr Niall McCann, who was not involved in the research, and is the director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue, said: “This study provides a compelling explanation for the mass die-off of elephants that shocked the world in 2020.” The research “adds to the growing body of evidence that climate change can have a range of lethal effects on wildlife (as well as livestock and people), from radically changing water availability, to providing the conditions for harmful bacteria and algae to proliferate and overwhelm animal populations”.

Dr Arnoud van Vliet from the University of Surrey, who was also not involved in the paper, said it gave “support to the previously established view that cyanotoxins in drinking water may have caused the mass deaths”.

Researchers said the study underscored the need for water quality surveillance. Van Vliet agreed. “With the predictions that the southern African region will become drier and hotter, this may again create the conditions described … it is important to take preventive action where possible,” he said.

The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of Botswana, the Natural History Museum, London, Queen’s University Belfast, and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage

Ruben Amorim received a rapturous welcome from the Old Trafford faithful, then oversaw a helter-skelter victory in his first home game as Manchester United’s sixth No 1 of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era.

Like his five predecessors across 11 years, Amorim suffered. Under Europa League lights that shone down on the 6,714 partying Bodø/Glimt supporters, this was a standard welcome to the Theatre of Thrills and Spills as his new team just about made it through to the win.

As the contest closed André Onana rushed out of his area, slipped, passed the ball to the foe and United were lucky to escape. Seconds after, Alejandro Garnacho spurned a gilded chance to make it 4-2.

The passage neatly sums United up: both this evening and regarding Amorim’s challenge. Three points was a pleasing start before his own crowd but his tenure is sure to have copious bumps and bruises and who knows what else.

What the 39-year-old seems, in these very early days, is a composed operator with a sparkle in the eye and an honesty his players will warm to. This all shone through when he spoke about his players.

“I don’t know the players and we have not worked a lot together,” said Amorim. “We go to the game excited, but at the same time you are nervous because you don’t know how it will go. It was [a] special [reception] because half of the stadium doesn’t know me and I have done nothing for this club yet but the way they support me for the beginning, I felt I am not alone now, I am one of them. I hope not to disappoint them.”

In the feverish United soap opera how the new man’s 3-4-3 might fare is the latest hot subplot. At half-time the jury remained out, as Amorim’s side took the lead, conceded twice, then scored a fine Rasmus Højlund equaliser that had the No 9 juggling Noussair Mazraoui’s dink from right foot to the left, from which he dispatched a cool-eyed volley.

However, what preceded this was the same United tale of being unable to hold an advantage and being too easy to knife through.

Bodø/Glimt arrived as Norway’s champions, held a players-coaching staff huddle by their bench, then conceded 46 seconds in. Antony’s opening contribution was to flop over on the right touchline yet while hapless the throw-in he conceded led to Garnacho’s opener.

Jostein Gundersen stroked possession to Nikita Haikin, the goalkeeper dawdled fatally, Højlund harried, fell over, headed the ball forward and the left wingman tapped into the empty goal.

Quicker than Marcus Rashford’s finish at Ipswich (that took two minutes), could United assert control as they failed to on Sunday? No, was the answer.

When Hakon Evjen and Philip Zinckernagel each scored they needed roughly half the time Omari Hutchinson took to register Ipswich’s leveller: by this metric Amorim’s United were going backwards – fast.

Evjen’s bullet into the top-left corner derived from a hole through United’s middle. In came a pass, Sondre Brunstad Fet collected and teed up the No 26, who finished. Next Tyrell Malacia, in a first United appearance since May 2023, was left puffing as Zinckernagel chased a long ball and beat Onana.

At this juncture, United were as chaotic as throughout Erik ten Hag’s reign. So, when Højlund struck as the interval approached this was welcome.

Diogo Dalot for Malacia was Amorim’s change for a second period featuring, first, Mason Mount crashing the ball off Bodø/Glimt’s frame. Better followed: slick one-touch football propelled Manuel Ugarte in on the right and his cross was finished by Højlund, in classic predator fashion.

The Dane appeared offside but United did not care. Amorim’s poker-face remained, as did a penchant for a technical area pace. United, who often defended in a four, should have pulled clear via Garnacho but he waited an age to pull the trigger.

Now, a triple change from Amorim: Luke Shaw, Amad Diallo and Rashford entered for Lisandro Martínez, Antony and Mount. Then, a little later substitute number five was Casemiro for De Ligt.

The Brazilian took the Dutchman’s middle centre-back berth. The visitors were turned when Shaw found Højlund and the ball was sprayed right in a move that culminated in Diallo (twice) and Bruno Fernandes seeing efforts repelled.

Rashford, marauding, missed from an angle on the right. Amorim would be relieved at the final whistle if the lead remained. It did – barely – after Onana beat away a late Patrick Berg free-kick. United are up to 12th with nine points after five games.

If seeing a lone, desolate banana on a supermarket shelf leaves you feeling a little blue, you are not alone.

Researchers have found that labelling unsold loose fruits as “sad singles” tugs on shoppers’ heartstrings and increases the likelihood that they’ll be sold.

Their study showed that customers are more likely to pick up an individual banana, often left as a result of people tearing others from the bunch, if there is an appeal to empathy.

Academics from the University of Bath placed a sign in front of the orphans in the fruit aisle. It showed a banana bearing a frown and the message “we are sad singles and want to be bought as well”.

This moved shoppers. On average, sales in single bananas went from 2.02 next to an emotionless sign to 3.19 with the sad sign – an increase of 58%. The non-empathetic sign simply labelled them as singles wanting to be bought.

Alongside the sad and neutral signage, the academics also placed a “happy single” notice. But while the more cheerful version was more effective than no emotion at all, it seems customers prefer their fruit more maudlin.

The happy banana signage increased hourly sales of single bananas from 2.02 to 2.13 (5.4%), making the sad banana signage almost 50% more effective than the happy banana. A later online study also showed promising results with tomatoes.

The researchers carried out the experiment in a major German supermarket chain, observing the purchasing behaviour of 3,810 customers over the course of 192 hours. The study, “Anthropomorphic sad expressions reduce waste of ‘single’ imperfect food”, is published in the journal Psychology & Marketing.

Dr Lisa Eckmann, a researcher from the Bath Retail Lab, said that appealing to people’s emotions to sell bananas was an “easy, low cost, effective” way to cut food waste and promote sustainability.

She added: “The plight of the single bananas is really relatable, and the findings have very practical applications for boosting sales and reducing food waste from our supermarkets.

“We don’t know whether consumers might get emotionally numb to sad bananas in the long term, but it’s an idea that certainly draws people in, and is easy to act on. I wasn’t aware of how single bananas accumulate to such a big food-waste problem, and now I always look out for loose, single bananas when I’m shopping.”

Previous research has shown that single bananas account for the single highest climate impact and food waste at supermarkets.

Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford whose work has included looking at the link between human senses and design and marketing, says that people can feel emotions towards the food they buy.

“A growing number of the population are living alone, eating alone. If they see a single banana and are told it’s lonely too, it creates empathy, and that makes people want to buy it.”

Claudia Sheinbaum has said her “very kind” phone conversation with Donald Trump, in which they discussed immigration and fentanyl, means “there will not be a potential tariff war” between the US and Mexico.

The president of Mexico spoke to reporters on Thursday following Trump’s threat earlier in the week to apply a 25% tariff against Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff against China, when he takes office in January if the countries did not stop all illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the US.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, claimed that during the phone call with Sheinbaum she had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border”.

During her Thursday address Sheinbaum clarified she did not agree to shut down the border.

“Each person has their own way of communicating,” Sheinbaum said. “But I can assure you, I guarantee you, that we never – additionally, we would be incapable of doing so – proposed that we would close the border in the north [of Mexico], or in the south of the United States. It has never been our idea and, of course, we are not in agreement with that.”

She added that the two did not discuss tariffs, but that the conversation with Trump had reassured her that no tit-for-tat tariff battle would be needed in future.

On Monday this week, Trump threatened to impose a 25% percent tariff on Mexico until drugs, including fentanyl, and undocumented immigrants “stop this Invasion of our Country”. He declared that Mexico and Canada should use their power to address drug trafficking and migration and, until they do, “it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

The following day, Sheinbaum suggested Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own.

On Wednesday, however, the conversation between Sheinbaum and Trump was “very kind”, the Mexican president said. She said she told Trump of the various migration initiatives her government has undertaken, including providing resources and support to central American countries and to migrants arriving in Mexico. Potential immigrants “will not reach the northern border, because Mexico has a strategy”, Sheinbaum said.

Trump “recognized this effort” by the Mexican government, Sheinbaum added.

She also said Trump expressed interest in the government-driven programs to address fentanyl addiction and overdoses in Mexico. And she raised the problem of American-made weapons entering Mexico from the US to be used by drug cartels.

Sheinbaum further added that she encouraged Trump to stop the blockades against Cuba and Venezuela, since “people suffer and it leads to the phenomenon of migration”.

Asked by a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine that quoted anonymous Trump-aligned sources discussing a “soft invasion” of Mexico by deploying the US military inside the country against drug trafficking groups, Sheinbaum dismissed the idea, calling it “entirely a movie”.

“What I base myself on is the conversation – the two conversations – that I had with President Trump, and then, at the moment, the communication we will have with his work team and when he takes office,” Sheinbaum said. “We will always defend our sovereignty. Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country – and that is above everything else.”

Towns in south-west France roasted in “completely extreme” heat in the early hours of Tuesday, with overnight temperatures hitting 26.9C (80.42F).

“It’s very exceptional temperatures – even for the summer, let alone late November,” said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Météo France.

Climate scientists across the country described the night-time heat as “staggering” and “phenomenal” for reaching such highs so late in the year. Météo France could not confirm if it was the highest temperature recorded on a November night because its hourly data only stretched back to about 1990, said Sorel. “But still, it’s huge,” he added.

“From what we can remember, [we have] never seen such temperatures during the night for this time of year.”

Violently hot nights are felt on the French side of the Pyrenees when warm air from north Africa and the Mediterranean comes down the mountains and compresses, heating up even more. The natural phenomenon, known as the Föhn effect, adds to the impact of fossil fuel pollution, which has trapped sunlight and heated the planet 1.3C since preindustrial times.

In Europe, which has warmed about twice as fast as the global average, the shift has melted glaciers and dried out reservoirs. It has forced people to suffer through deadly heatwaves that reach catastrophic highs in the day and provide little respite at night.

Temperatures near Pau reached 26.9C at 4am on Tuesday, according to Météo France, and in Biarritz and Tarbes it hit 24C.

The weather agency said it was an exceptional temperature for the end of November, and was higher than the 26.2C recorded on 27 November 1970. It did not break records for the highest minimum temperature, which is measured over a 24-hour period, because a later shift in winds brought cold air from the oceans that pulled temperatures back down.

“What we can see is [that] with climate change, we have way higher temperatures than before for the same meteorological events,” said Sorel.

Media reports suggested that Denmark had experienced its warmest November night on Monday but the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) said no records had been broken.

“However, it was a very warm night,” said Herdis Preil Damberg from the DMI. “As a meteorologist, I would explain it by the deep storm low called Bert, located near the UK, which has been generating a strong wind.”

The North Atlantic was also warmer than normal, he added.

Hot nights stress the body and stop people from sleeping. The number of tropical nights with temperatures above 20C – which can prove deadly for older people and those fighting off illness – has doubled or even tripled in most parts of southern Europe.

The European Environment Agency estimates the region may experience up to 100 tropical nights a year by the end of the century under the most extreme global heating scenarios.

Footballers face a “very high risk of experiencing extreme heat stress” at 10 of the 16 stadiums that will host the next World Cup, researchers have warned, as they urge sports authorities to rethink the timing of sports events.

Hot weather and heavy exercise could force footballers to endure scorching temperatures that feel higher than 49.5C (121.1F) when they play in three North American countries in summer 2026, according to the study. It found they are most at risk of “unacceptable thermal stress” in the stadiums in Arlington and Houston, in the US, and in Monterrey, in Mexico.

The co-author Marek Konefał, from Wrocław University of Health and Sport Sciences in Poland, said World Cups would increasingly be played in conditions of strong heat stress as the climate got hotter. “It is worth rethinking the calendar of sporting events now.”

Football’s governing body, Fifa, recommends matches include cooling breaks if the “wet bulb” temperature exceeds 32C. But scientists are concerned that the metric underestimates the stress athletes experience on the pitch because it considers only external heat and humidity.

“During intense physical activity, huge amounts of heat is produced by the work of the player’s muscles,” said Katarzyna Lindner-Cendrowska, a climate scientist at the Polish Academy of Sciences and lead author of the study. “[This] will increase the overall heat load on the athlete’s body.”

To overcome this, the researchers simulated temperatures that account for the players’ speed and activity levels, as well as their clothing. They were only partly able to include the effects of exercise in the heat index.

The highest “work rate” that can be integrated into the heat index is roughly half that sustained by professional players during a competitive football match, said Julien Périard, the deputy director of the University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise, who was not involved in the study. “Although the approach used in the study is a step forward, the results likely underestimate the risk of experiencing extreme heat stress conditions.”

The scientists found the greatest stress would strike between 2pm and 5pm at all but one of the stadiums. In Arlington and Houston, temperatures would rise above 50C during the mid to late afternoon and place a “heavy burden on the body” that could lead to heat exhaustion and even heatstroke, they found.

Heatwaves have grown hotter, longer and more common as fossil fuel pollution has warmed the Earth’s climate. The 2026 Fifa Men’s World Cup is sponsored by Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, and the 2034 World Cup may even be hosted by its owner, Saudi Arabia.

Last year, a report by the Climate Social Science Network found Saudi Arabia had played an outsized role in undermining progress at climate negotiations. “The fossil fuel giant has a 30-year record of obstruction and delay, protecting its national oil and gas sector and seeking to ensure UN climate talks achieve as little as possible, as slowly as possible,” the authors wrote.

Saudi Aramco and Fifa did not respond to requests for comment. In April, the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, said he was “delighted” to welcome Aramco to Fifa’s family of global partners.

To keep people safe from heat scientists recommend cutting fossil fuel pollution and adapting to a hotter planet. The research did not model the effects of air-conditioning, which was used outdoors in the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar to keep players cool.

Périard, who has published research funded by Fifa on preventing heat stress, said the new study could help tournament organisers optimise the scheduling of matches but added that Fifa needed to “take action” on their current policy of using the wet bulb index to decide on cooling and hydration breaks.

He called for a football-specific heat stress policy that accounted for factors such as sweat and included actions such as extending half-time breaks and postponing matches.

Thessa Beck, a climate and health researcher at ISGlobal, who was not involved in the study, said it was also “essential” to keep fans safe. “Even though fans may not be as physically active as players, many are older adults, young children or individuals with pre-existing conditions.”

Australia’s parliament has passed a law that will aim to do what no other government has, and many parents have tried to: stop children from using social media. The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”

On Thursday, parliament’s upper house, the Senate, passed a bill by 34 votes to 19 banning children under 16 from social media platforms.

But academics, politicians and advocacy groups have warned that the ban – as envisioned by the government – could backfire, driving teenagers to the dark web, or making them feel more isolated. There are questions about how it will work in practice. Many worry that the process has been too rushed, and that, if users are asked to prove their age, it could lead to social media companies being handed valuable personal data. Even Elon Musk has weighed in.

The online safety amendment (social media minimum age) bill bans social media platforms from allowing users under 16 to access their services, threatening companies with fines of up to AU$50m (US$32m) if they fail to comply. However, it contains no details about how it will work, only that the companies will be expected to take reasonable steps to ensure users are aged 16 or over. The detail will come later, through the completion of a trial of age-assurance technology in mid-2025. The bill won’t come into force for another 12 months.

The bill also does not specify to which companies the legislation would apply, though communications minister Michelle Rowland has said that Snapchat, TikTok, X, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook are likely to be part of the ban. YouTube will not be included because of its “significant” educational purpose, she said.

The bill was introduced to parliament last week, with just three sitting days left on the parliamentary calendar. It received 15,000 submissions in a day. Among these was one from Amnesty International recommending that the bill not be passed because a “ban that isolates young people will not meet the government’s objective of improving young people’s lives”.

The number of responses increased dramatically, the Australian broadcaster ABC reported, after X owner Musk reposted a tweet by Albanese announcing that the bill would be introduced that day, writing, “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians.” Most of the submissions were a form response, the ABC reported, with fewer than 100 submissions made by interest groups.

Musk has clashed repeatedly with the Australian government this year over requests to remove graphic content and separate legislation aimed at tackling deliberate lies spread on social media platforms.

On Tuesday this week, the Senate’s environment and communications legislation Committee supported the bill but added the condition that social media platforms not force users to submit personal data, including passport information. It is unclear what methods social media companies would use to enforce age restrictions,

A YouGov survey released on Tuesday this week showed 77% of Australians backed the ban, up from 61% in an August survey. Each of Australia’s eight state and territory leaders supports the ban, though Tasmania’s leader suggested it end at 14. The federal opposition supports the bill, claiming it would have done it sooner – it has promised to have a ban in place within 100 days if it wins next year’s election.

But 140 experts have signed an open letter expressing their concern that the bill is “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively”. Among their concerns are that it “creates even more risks for children who may still use platforms” and that bans “affect rights to access and participation”. Australia’s human rights commission has “serious reservations” about the ban, “given the potential for these laws to significantly interfere with the rights of children and young people”.

One of the authors of a UK study of 17,400 young people cited by the government in support of the ban said that the Australian government had “misunderstood the purpose and findings” of the research, Crikey reported.

“The voices of children and young people have been conspicuously missing from most of the debate and commentary,” Independent MP Andrew Wilkie wrote, in a piece for Guardian Australia explaining why he changed his mind, from supporting the ban to disagreeing with it.

Christopher Stone, the executive director of Suicide Prevention Australia, said in a statement: “The government is running blindfolded into a brick wall.

“Complex issues like this require careful consultation and consideration, not shortcuts. We urge the government to slow down and engage with stakeholders to ensure we get this right for young people.”

He returned as a ghostly apparition on a forestry road in western Canada, moving slowly and unsteadily with the help of a walking stick in each frostbitten hand. A cut-up sleeping bag was wrapped around his legs, shielding them from the bitter cold.

The two oil and gas workers, who had spent the previous week surveying the trail, stared dumbfounded. When they took the sticks from his hands to help him into their truck, he nearly collapsed.

The harrowing details are a coda to the “unbelievable miracle” of a hiker who survived 50 days lost in the Canadian wilderness – and to the sustained and desperate search by his family and friends.

On Wednesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed that Sam Benastick, 20, was being treated at the hospital in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, more than seven weeks after he was last seen heading into the wild. He was suffering from frostbite and smoke inhalation caused when his makeshift shelter burned down.

Benastick set out on 7 October, on what was supposed to be a 10-day camping trip; he was reported missing by his family after he failed to return home on 17 October.

An avid outdoorsman, Benastick was destined for Redfern-Keily provincial park – 80,000 hectare swathe of “lush alpine meadows, forested valley bottoms, serrated peaks, glaciers, waterfalls and large valley lakes” in the northern reaches of the Rocky mountains.

Access is challenging: the park is 50 miles (80km) from the closest road. And its website warns the remote backcountry landscape can be unforgiving. “Be prepared for any weather conditions while visiting the park: you are in an isolated area and weather can change rapidly,” it says.

In recent days, temperatures have dipped to below -20C and snow has blanketed the ground.

For Benatstick’s family, news he had survived against the odds was vindication for the the sliver of hope they had long clung to.

On 23 October – more than a month before Benastick was eventually found – his aunt Karen Crocker Essex posted on Facebook that “tomorrow is a big day for our family with helicopters and a larger crew” to support this search. “Winter is setting in and we need to bring Sam home!”

More than 50 people, and search dogs, scoured the region for any hint that Benastick had avoided.

But a week later, his mother, Sandra Crocker, thanked the “endless volunteers” who had been unable to find a trace of her son. The official search had ended, but family refused to accept that Benastick had succumbed to the worsening conditions.

Family and friends speculated he might have run into trouble 19 miles into the hike, turning around to sleep in his car, possibly to a different location. They also scoured his online searches of hiking locations, and scouted the nearby Sikanni Chief River with no luck.

In the end, Benastick was found close to where the initial search had begun.

The oil rig workers piled a cold, fatigued and dehydrated Benastick into their truck and fed him their sandwiches. When they got him back into the range of mobile phone service, he called his father. His voice was weak.

Later that day fatigued Benastick told police he had stayed in his car and then walked to a creek, where he camped for nearly 15 days. He later built camp in a dried-out creek bed, before finding the road and flagging down the two oil workers.

The Central Okanagan Search and Rescue, which was involved in the search along crews from four other regions, called the discovery an “unbelievable miracle”.

Mike Reid, the general manager of the Buffalo Inn in Pink Mountain, BC, said he first received a message from the hotel owner that “Rob” had been found alive. For 24 days, Sam’s parents had stayed at the Buffalo Inn while formal search efforts intensified, ebbed and were eventually called off.

“I didn’t know who Rob was, but I had a flash of hope. So I texted Sam’s dad to check in on how they were doing. I didn’t want to get their hopes up. Within a minute, he called me back and said ‘they found him,’” said Reid.

After seeing the family through a string of low points, Reid said the news is “unbelievably good”.

During the search, Reid forwarded a newspaper clipping from 1969 to Benastick’s mother: it told the story of two survivors of a plane crash in the area, who lasted 49 days in the bitter cold before they were eventually found alive.

“I sent it to Sam’s mom and told her this could happen to your son,” he said. “And when I spoke with her yesterday, I said, ‘Hey, remember that clipping about the plane crash? And she said, ‘I’ve been thinking about it all day.’ Sam loves the outdoors. That’s why he was out here. And that’s how he survived.”

News of Benastick’s survival was bittersweet for the region, after hunter Jim Barnes and his dog Murphy were reported missing 18 October after leaving for a grouse hunting trip, less than 140 miles from where Benastick was last spotted.

Search teams found his truck as well as his keys, wallet, backpack and rifle. Neither Barnes and Murphy were found near the vehicle. The search was suspended on 25 October, but a day later a frozen boot print and dog print were spotted along a river bank.