Attacked by a lion in his sleep, a wildlife researcher got into a tussle with it while his friends throw elephant feces. In order to save his life, a wildlife researcher who was attacked by a hungry lion in Africa punched the animal in the face while his friends hurled elephant dung at it and beat it with a tank.
On December 7, Gotz Neef, 32, was sleeping in his tent in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, when an emaciated predator pounced and attempted to kill him.
In a desperate effort to save his friend’s life, Dr Rainer Von Brandis, a fellow researcher sleeping nearby, hurled elephant dung and branches at the lion before hitting it with a piece of tree.
Then head ranger Tomalets Setlabosha threw a flash-bang on the big cat, intended to scare away elephants, before driving over it with his jeep, which eventually frightened the animal back into the forest.
Neef was rushed to the hospital with 16 puncture wounds from the fangs of the lion, fractured bones in his arm and elbow, and deep bites from his paws, but now he’s healing from his wounds.
In the meantime, animal workers agreed to put down the elderly lion, who had been kicked by younger rivals out of his pride and left to starve, causing him to launch the assault on Neef in a desperate final survival attempt.
On December 7, Gotz Neef, 32, suffered 16 puncture wounds, broken bones in his arm and elbow, and deep bruises on his back and head when a lion attacked him in Botswana.
When the predator struck, Neef was sleeping in his bed. He struck it on the nose to try to get it out of the way until it hit his elbow.
Recalling the frightening five-minute assault, 46-year-old Dr. Von Brandis said, “I guess I wasn’t a beautiful sight in just a t-shirt naked from the waist down and wearing a head torch screaming at the lion attacking my friend!”
The Research Director of the Wild Bird Trust was a married father-of-two from Cape Town on an expedition with his pal Neef and six other researchers in the wilds of Botswana.
He said: “I heard Gotz screaming there was something big outside his tent and I ran out in the pitch black with my head torch on and saw this big male lion had collapsed his tent.
“It had one paw on Gotz and fortunately was chewing on the tent poles rather than him and I just saw some big piles of dried elephant dung and pelted the lion with it really hard.
“That didn’t work so I threw thorn branches at it but that didn’t work either and by now the lion had Gotz by the elbow and was seriously chewing him and my friend was screaming.
“I was nearly naked and was screaming as well and ran up to the lion and beat it with a big piece of a tree but it did nothing and then our head ranger Tomalets Setlabosha came out.
“I was smashing the lion with the branch but it would not stop chewing on Gotz and hardly even blinked when Tomalets threw a thunder flash banger used to scare hippos close to it.
“The lion jumped a bit but it was so hungry and so desperate and this was its last chance at a kill to feed or it would die so it restarted its attack and began trying to eat Gotz again.
“Then Tomalets jumped into the Land Cruiser and ran the lion over but it would not leave Gotz alone and he had to run it over three times before it let go and ran off into the bush.
“The lion was euthanised which was the kindest thing to do for it as it was skin and bone and would have died an agonising death at the jaws of other lions or starving to death if left alone,” he continued.
“We patched Gotz up and drove him to a hospital in Maun, which was a very bumpy 50 mile trip which took three hours which was very painful for him, where a doctor sorted him out.
“He was then airlifted back to Windhoek in Namibia where he lives and taken to the hospital there and is recovering from so many bites – I cannot even guess how many fang holes he has.
“It is important to say that there is nothing reckless in camping in tents out in the wild as that is the only way you can do your research in the wild as there is no other way of doing this.
“What happened was extremely rare where an old lion is driven out of its pride and was starving to death and to get a meal this was its last roll of the dice and he was so desperate.
“Gotz will heal in time and will be back on the team soon and the lion was put out of its misery. This was not normal lion behaviour but it had no other option to try and stay alive” he said.
The pair were part of the Wild Bird Trust’s eight-strong team operating in Southern Africa and were on an expedition sponsored by the US National Geographic Society in Botswana.
Sixteen deep and incredibly painful fang bites were stitched up in Neef’s ribs, shoulders and head, which left him soaked in blood and the lion clawed him too.
“I heard something moving around my tent and looked at the time and saw a head pressed against my tent and nose at 1:26am,” said Neef.
“I did not know what was outside my tent and started calling for help and hit the nose with my fist as hard as possible and then it attacked me and began trying to bite and maul me.
“I heard Rainer shouting ‘it’s a lion’ and I tried to back into a corner of my tent and tried to push the lion away with my sleeping bag but it was determined to attack me.
“The lion started to bite me and got my head but I managed to pull it out and pushed my left elbow in his face and he started biting my arm and I screamed in pain’ said the Wild Bird Trust’s Research Manager.
Tomalets, the senior guide of the Wild Bird Trust, came to the rescue of the pair of conservationists when Dr. Von Brandis was battering the lion and then helped pull Neef from his blood-soaked tent after driving the lion off.
Dr. Von Brandis said: “Gotz was bleeding heavily when we got to him and we put him on the back seat of the Land Cruiser and drove him to a nearby tourist camp to assess his injuries.
“We patched him up the best we could and it was only then when one of our group politely mentioned I had no shorts or underpants on and that I was still naked from the waist down!
“I obviously rectified that situation and we carried on treating Gotz!
“We contacted the Okavango Air Rescue in Maun but were told they were not allowed to fly at night so we decided to drive Gotz to Maun by car as he was bleeding so much and we couldn’t wait,” added Dr. Von Brandis.
“The roads were so bad it took us three hours to cover about 50 miles on a very bumpy and slippery track and finally we got him to a private clinic at 5am where doctors were waiting.
“He was stabilised and his wounds cleaned and then he was airlifted to a private hospital in Windhoek where he is being treated and monitored to ensure there is no infection.
“Gotz is in a stable condition and his parents Georg and Martina are with him and the initial assessments are very encouraging and we hope he will be back to work in the New Year.
“It is not many people that survive a lion attack and he will have quite a few scars to show his children and grand-children one day when he tells them of the night he fought a lion.
“Tragically the poor lion was very old and near the end of its life having been driven out by younger more powerful males and no longer had the ability to take down game itself.
‘Unfortunately for Gotz he was on the menu that night as the old male could no longer hunt and it was just nature and he was starving and desperate and came into the camp for a meal.
“The expedition will go on and Gotz will rejoin us when he is fit again in a month or two” he said.
Source: Daily Mail UK
