A seven-year-old Japanese boy who went missing
for nearly a week after his parents briefly left him in
remote woods as punishment has been found safe
and well.
How did Yamato Tanooka survive and find shelter,
and how much of a danger were the bears that live
in the region?
How did he come to be on his own?
Yamato's parents had briefly left him by a wooded
road near Nanae in Hokkaido region to punish him
for throwing rocks on a family day out. When they
went back minutes later he had gone.
He was dressed in only a T-shirt and jeans, in an
area where temperatures can dip as low as 9C at
night.
"It's been colder than it usually is at this time of
year," Ross Findlay, founder of the Niseko
Adventure Centre in the region, told the BBC.
"We've had snow on top of the mountain in Niseko,
though that might not have been the case of Nanae,
which is further south. But for a small boy who
doesn't have much body fat, that's a problem."
What is the terrain like in the area?
The remote region is densely forested, with oak and
birch trees and heavy undergrowth.
"The undergrowth in the forest is made up of a thing
called Sasa," said Mr Findlay.
"It's like bamboo but quite thick and very hard to
get through, so it's a lot different to what other
countries might think of forest.
"It's too hard to walk through so not many people
wander into the woods. You really need to be on
some kind of trail otherwise you just can't get
anywhere.
"Especially for a small boy if he's lying on the
ground with dense undergrowth, it can be very hard
to find."
The search was also hampered by heavy rains.
How did he find shelter?
Yamato appears to have been both lucky and
sensible.
He was discovered at a military base on Friday,
about 5.5km (3.4 miles) from where he went
missing last Saturday.
The site had allegedly already been searched on
Monday morning, but the boy was not found, the .
The search team comprised of 180 people and
search dogs.
The soldier who found Tanooka had not been part of
any previous rescue efforts, AP reports.
Yamato told police he had walked to the military
base by himself soon after his parents left him.
"I drank water to get by," he reportedly said. "There
wasn't anything to eat."
He slept on mattresses spread on the hut floor.
Could he have found food in the woods?
It's very unlikely at this time of year, according to
David Niehoff, president of Kanto Adventures.
"Spring is just getting started so things are just
starting to come out of the ground," he said.
"Local knowledge is also necessary to know what
to eat safely because there are poisonous plants
growing too, but in general there's not a lot of wild
food."
The streams around Japan are generally safe to
drink from, but certain streams in the mountains of
Hokkaido carry a parasite that makes it essential to
boil water before drinking, says Mr Niehoff.
However it would have been safe to drink from a
tap like the one the boy found.
How is he doing now?
Doctors at the hospital where he is being treated
say he has only minor injuries, but was suffering
slightly from hypothermia.
Not having food "would have caused him to run
even lower on energy which would have put him in
greater danger", said Mr Findlay.
What about those bears?
Hokkaido is also home to brown bears, which can
be as big as 2m high (6ft 5in), but they weren't
necessarily a threat.
"The bears generally kept to their own, so it's
actually better to make more noise so they are
aware of your presence, which makes them likely to
go the other way," said Mr Findlay.
"They can usually get quite hostile if you surprise
them instead."
What would be the best advice to a child lost in the
forest?
"Stay dry, stay warm and stay put," says Mr
Niehoff. "It's much harder to be found if you're
moving about, people can be more easily found
from their last known location."
However, Mr Findlay added in the boy's
circumstances, he had acted in the best possible
way.
"He found himself shelter, water, and something to
keep himself warm so I don't think you can do too
much from that," he told the BBC. "It's quite a
miracle really after six days."
