Researcher Narrates How He Escaped Jaws Of A Hungry Lion

Neef, who is a Namibian and experienced biodiversity researcher, was on a research field trip to monitor the spread of the highly invasive aquatic plant Salvinia molesta (originally from South America), which is spreading across parts of the Okavango Delta. He was with seven other BWBT team members when the lion tried to pull him out of his two-man ripstop nylon tent in the middle of the night.

“I heard something move around my tent, looked at the time, it was 1.26am, then saw a head pressing against my tent and recognised a nose. I did not know what was outside my tent.  I started calling for help and then hit the nose with my fist as hard as possible as a last resort as the tent started to collapse,” Neef narrated the incident while recuperating from a Windhoek hospital.