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Namibian researcher stable after getting bitten by lion in Botswana
Dirk Heinrich
“I heard something move around my tent, looked at the time, it was 01.26, then saw a head pressing against my tent and recognized a nose. I did not know what was outside my tent. I started calling for help and then hit the nose with my fist as hard as possible”, Götz Neef said on Wednesday morning from his hospital bed in Windhoek.
Götz Neef, the Research Manager of the Botswana Wild Bird Trust, who also did a lot of research on the Kavango in Namibia and Angola, and who is part of the biodiversity research and monitoring programme in the Okavango Delta, had left Windhoek last Saturday (5 December 2020) for Maun in Botswana. He left with a research team on Sunday (6 December 2020) to camp in the Okavango Delta to start on a pilot research project. Neef’s tent was about 20 m from Dr Rainer von Brandis’ (Research Director of the Botswana Wild Bird Trust) tent who heard Götz calling for help. “I heard Götz calling for help at about 01.30 early on Monday morning and got out of my tent with my head lamp. I walked around a bush and saw a male lion at Götz´s tent, biting the tent poles”, Rainer recalled in a telephonic interview.
“I heard Rainer shouting that it’s a lion at my tent and I moved into a corner of my tent and tried to push the lion away with my sleeping back. The lion started to bite me and got me on my head but I managed to pull my head away and pushed my left elbow in his face. The lion started biting my arm and I screamed”, Neef recalled a short while before being taken to the operating theatre again.
Meanwhile Von Brandis shouted at the lion, bombarded him with elephant dung and sticks, but the lion did not let go. Von Brandis grabbed a long stick and hit the lion in the face, but the predator did not let go. Water Setlabosha, the Head Guide of the Botswana Wild Bird Trust, fired a bear banger, but the bang and flare did not scare the lion off. He did let go of Götz but grabbed him again immediately. By now everybody in the camp tried to chase the lion off. Setlabosha ran to one of the cars about 60 m away, started the car and drove towards the lion who still did not move away. He drove over the lion several times before the big cat let go and moved away slowly.
Götz Neef came out of his tent and went to the fire. Rainer immediately took Neef to the car, placed him on the backseat and drove with all the others to a nearby tourist camp as it was the closest safe place at which they could further assess his injuries. “I do not know how long the ordeal took but it felt like an hour. I had no pain when they started to stop the bleeding on my arm”, Götz Neef said. The rest of the team contacted Okavango Air Rescue (OAR) in Maun but were told that they would not fly at night and decided to take Götz to Maun by car. It took them “only” three hours to cover the 78 km on a bumpy and slippery track. They reached Maun at 05.00 o´clock and took the injured team mate to a private clinic where he was stabilised, the wounds cleaned and everything put in place to transfer Neef to Windhoek.
Götz Neef arrived at 20.00 o´clock at a Windhoek private hospital where he is being treated at the moment. He is in a stable condition, his parents are with him and initial assessments of his injuries are very encouraging.
According to information from the Botswana Wild Bird Trust, the lion has been put down after the relevant authorities assessed the situation and provided necessary permissions. The unusual behaviour of the male lion is thought to be due to the lion being old and emaciated. The rest of the team has returned safely back to Maun.
Quelle: fb Dirk Heinrich
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