A mountain biker riding in the game reserve spotted a wildebeest stuck in a snare next to a jeep track. I was sent a waypoint and a photo. I tried to round up some staff to give me a hand. Unfortunately, all the staff were away or busy. So, I headed into the game reserve to see if there was something I could do.
I knew I had to keep the horns away from me while I worked so I through a loop around her head and held on tight. She was very scared and therefore had a real go at me when I approached her. Thankfully the snare and now jammed tree held fast. One I had the head secured I could get at the leg with the snare safely, cut it off and treat her. Surprisingly there was no broken skin yet.
This however was not the riskiest part. The risky part was always going to be getting the rope of her head. I thought that I was going to have to grab the horn and cut the rope with my knife. As I went in to have a go she was able to throw the rope of as it was now slack. All of a sudden, she was totally free and I was very close. She came at me and I backed of fast. It was very close. I even drew my side arm thinking she was going to come all the way. But she didn’t.
It took her a little while to gather herself as it was unsurprisingly quite traumatic for her. While I waited in the vehicle with the Gopro charging she suddenly grunted and as I looked up I saw that she had moved of a few meters and stopped to let me know she was on her way.