{"id":179387,"date":"2025-12-11T09:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/179387\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T09:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:56:10","slug":"rescuers-rush-to-revive-comatose-wild-animal-lying-in-a-landfill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/179387\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescuers Rush To Revive Comatose Wild Animal Lying In A Landfill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, employees at a South African landfill came upon a grim scene when they arrived at work one morning. Sprawled in the dirt, unmoving, was a spotted hyena.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

The workers called Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET)<\/a> for assistance. A LEDET conservation official notified the Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation (PNHF)<\/a>, which sent volunteers and a veterinarian to the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hyena was lying in the open, in full sun and breathing rapidly,\u201d Eugene Troskie, managing director at PNHF, told The Dodo. \u201c[He] was already in a comatose state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The animal had a snare around his neck and wasn\u2019t conscious, but he was alive, which meant he had a chance.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

The vet sedated him for everyone\u2019s safety, then the team moved the hyena out of the sun and into the back of a truck.<\/p>\n

The hyena\u2019s dangerously high body temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit meant they had to act quickly. They placed ice packs on his legs and feet, and every 15 minutes they doused him in cold water.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all doubtful about the animal\u2019s recovery,\u201d Troskie said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t even show signs of having a blinking reflex when touching his eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vet believed the animal had ingested poison of some kind.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

Over the course of a day, the vet administered several medications, and volunteers poured more than 15 gallons of water onto the hyena\u2019s body, hoping to cool him down and pull him out of his coma.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

Miraculously, around 6 p.m., the hyena opened his eyes.<\/p>\n

To everyone\u2019s disbelief, several hours later, the hyena stood up. He looked a little uncertain about his surroundings.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

Around 1 a.m., after nearly 20 hours of care, the PNHF team opened the cage door.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to keep him in the cage any longer than necessary,\u201d Troskie said, \u201cdue to hyenas often breaking their teeth on cages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

The hyena slowly poked his head out, sniffed the ground, then trotted off into the trees.<\/p>\n

Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation<\/p>\n

Since that night, the team hasn\u2019t seen the hyena again \u2014 which is great news. They\u2019re confident he found his clan and will make a full recovery.<\/p>\n

The Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization. Its anti-poaching, research and snare removal work is crucial to conservation efforts in South Africa. To support this work, you can donate\u00a0here<\/a>.\"Couple<\/a>Couple Can’t Figure Out Why Wild Donkey Is So Still \u2014 Then They Move CloserHe was stuck out in the heat \ud83e\udd75<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, employees at a South African landfill came upon a grim scene when they arrived at work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[104851,9544,104850,104852,85,46,9893,141,2865,9542,38051,104853,386,58457],"class_list":{"0":"post-179387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-in-coma","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-hyena","11":"tag-hyena-in-a-coma","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-sarah-ashley","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-standard","17":"tag-the-dodo","18":"tag-wild-animal","19":"tag-wild-animal-rescue","20":"tag-wildlife","21":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}