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Fauna Jackson, 16, excused herself to use the toilet while volunteering in America's Grand Teton National Park.

But she never returned, sparking an enormous manhunt of more than 100 searchers, including aerial patrols, dog teams and paramedics.

The FBI even got involved, using infra-red imaging to search for heat sources on the ground, while the area was plastered with missing posters.

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She was outdoors and alone for 48 hours in a part of the woods branded "bear country", stranded in sub-zero temperatures.

Thankfully she was later found alive and well, yet the girl they were looking for was completely different to the one they saw.

In a statement, the National Park Service said: "Jackson changed her appearance by cutting and dying her hair.

"[She] was wearing different clothes than when last seen, and when approached by law enforcement officials she fled."

The teen, from the US city of Cincinnati, Ohio, had to be chased and restrained by rangers and sheriffs from the search party.

She was found uninjured in an area of open sagebrush called Snake River Outlook, some four miles away from where she was last seen.

Police have now taken her into protective custody while her parents make the journey from their home state to the Wyoming park.

It's unclear how the girl survived two nights in the woods alone, but park authorities have launched an investigation.

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Social media posts from the teenager provide few clues, with posts ceasing on the day of her disappearance, August 4.

However she did share an Instagram photo a week before showing a skull atop a book titled A Lesson Before Dying.

Denise Germann of the National Park Service told the Guardian: “When we approached her, she fled.

"Three rangers and a sheriff’s deputy followed her and continued to talk to her and they had to restrain her at that point."