Man-Animal Interaction: Conflict & Coexistance

[Spalea]

Daniel Rosengren: " This impala was one of two impalas that had gotten stuck in the mud. I could tell that they had not been stuck for long as they still had a lot of energy. I had a short thought about letting nature have its way and I probably shouldn't have interfered. But I couldn't help myself. I grabbed this one by the horns and pulled it out. But once out it panicked and ran straight into the muddy river again, ten meters downstream and got itself into the mud even further out than it was before. The other impala was an adult male. It was heavier to pull out and once out, I must confess I was a bit reluctant to let go of the long pointy horns not to get injured myself. He was very strong and fighting. I managed to, in one motion, push him away from me and at the same time letting go. Luckily he ran away.

Now back to the first one, by now it was too far out for me to reach it from solid ground. Luckily a couple of friends arrived and they took out a tow rope from their car and we started lassoing with it. We were really bad at lassoing. But, after many tries, we finally got the loop around the horns and could pull it to safety on land. By this time it was too exhausted to run away so we put it in the shade of a bush to rest. I came by later and it pleased me that it had left. Happy ending for the impalas.
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. "

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