This article takes a look at how one badly injured man survived a day and night in a wild life park where he was surrounded by lions, elephants and hyenas. I, for one,learned a lot from his experience. I hope you will too. In 2004, Greg Rasmussen, a British born pilot, was tracking a rhino in a Zimbabwe national park. He was using a light plane which went into a wind spin and hit the ground. He could not shelter in the plane because petrol fuel was leaking and there was risk of explosive fire. His goal was to survive until help could reach him. Greg told the story of how he achieved that goal to Richard and Judy of ITV Channel 4. Greg was severely injured but not dead. He was also dehydrated; he had not been able to get a drink at his last petrol stop because the pumps were not working properly. He was like a thirsty man alone in an ocean of salt water and sharks. But his 'ocean' was a wild life park full of wild animals including lions, hyenas and elephants. The sun set at about 6 p.m. Greg faced a long night. No rescue attempt would happen until daylight. Fortunately, he had some experience of wild animal behaviour and knew that animals in the wild have a special form of self-defence. They wait until the attacker gets close and then make a sharp, sudden noise. This can, if they are lucky, frighten the predator away. The timing must be correct. If the noise is made too early it will not frighten the attacker. If it is made too late, you will probably be already half-dead. As Greg lay in great pain on the ground near his plane, he heard the sound of the footfall of a lioness moving towards him with her cubs through the brush. A lioness who has her cubs with her is far more dangerous than a lioness on her own. The soft coughing sound of the lioness came closer - ooogh! ooogh! ooogh!. The lioness moved to within about a metre and a half of the terrified Greg - the length of a sofa away. He could see her silhouette. At this point, he hammered on part of the broken wind screen of the crashed plane with other parts of the plane that he had been collecting for this purpose. The lioness was startled and took off. Greg's knowledge of animal behaviour had probably saved his life and the fact that he was thinking all the time: "What can I do to deal with the problems I face?" He later used the same strategy to frighten off some elephants who could have trampled him to death. There were also hyenas about! Greg needed belief and a passion for life to keep him from giving up: "Mentally, to stay alive, I had to tell myself all sorts of lies that they are going to find me. You've got to be so positive in this situation. However hopeless the situation seems, you've really got to say 'They are going to find me' because otherwise I'll give up." Greg had to make a decision early in the incident whether he wanted to live or die. He thought about his passion for preserving the African painted dog and his program to educate children about conservation which was just about due to start. This passion helped him achieve his survival goal by giving him a powerful reason to live. An exciting goal in life can help the old and injured to stay alive. Two hours after sunrise, the next day, his luck changed and he heard the sound of airplanes and then of human voices. He had survived. Knowledge, positive thinking, belief (even if it was based on 'lies') and his passion for the survival of the painted dogs had helped him achieve his own survival. The same qualities can help any of us achieve our own most prized goals. |
