---
title: "Hurt hyena bet on the right humans when it collapsed at this Limpopo lodge"
description: "What thoughts passed through the mind of a badly injured hyena that sought refuge in the bedroom of a private game reserve near Kruger National Park? Was it looking for help? Or, simply disorientated and exhausted by the agonising pain of a wire snare slicing through its belly and back?"
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "HOEDSPRUIT EMERGENCY"
author: "Tony Carnie"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/tony-carnie/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-04-hurt-hyena-bet-on-the-right-humans-when-it-collapsed-at-this-limpopo-lodge/"
published: "2026-08-04T20:40:00"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 747
---

# Hurt hyena bet on the right humans when it collapsed at this Limpopo lodge

> What thoughts passed through the mind of a badly injured hyena that sought refuge in the bedroom of a private game reserve near Kruger National Park? Was it looking for help? Or, simply disorientated and exhausted by the agonising pain of a wire snare slicing through its belly and back?

By Tony Carnie · Published 4 August 2026, 22:40 SAST

## Key points
- An injured spotted hyena with a wire snare around its abdomen turned up in the kitchen and then a bedroom at Leopard’s Bend Bush Lodge , sparking screams and alarm.
- After failed trap attempts, a vet team darted and treated the animal, cutting away the circular wire snare from its wounds, that likely would have proved fatal if left untreated.
- Lodge owner Garth Wolff says the hyena travelled about 6km to the lodge and somehow bypassed electrified barriers — with staff pondering whether the animal sought help or simply shelter and food.
- The hyena recovered and has been seen several times since.

## Content

**Trigger warning:***The following story contains graphic visuals*

Screams filled the air at [Leopard’s Bend Bush Lodge](https://leopardsbend.com/leopards-bend-3-3/) in Limpopo province recently when staff discovered a hyena in the kitchen.

Panicked by the chef’s screams, the hyena retreated into a nearby bedroom, where it “lay down quietly, a bit like an Alsatian”, according to lodge owner Garth Wolff.

Wolff said the injured hyena had been sighted a few days earlier by staff in the 10,000-hectare Blue Canyon Private Game Reserve, about 10km south of Hoedspruit.

[YouTube video: "YouTube video"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKL-Q24jcH4)

Anxious to help the wounded animal, rangers tried to capture the hyena by luring it into a baited trap. But several attempts failed.

Unexpectedly, it appeared later at Leopard’s Bend and section ranger Greg Moran called in a team from the Hoedspruit-based [Wildscapes](https://www.wildscapesvet.com/about) veterinary consultancy for help.

![tony hyena](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/Ou_FlLGki3-gFBKwNaqUu0Ax0cU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/tonyhyena7bedroomphotogarthwolff_880604.jpeg)

*Veterinary staff prepare to lift the hyena from the floor of the lodge bedroom onto a stretcher. (Photo: Garth Wolff)*

![tony hyena](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/LiSJm1KNntganGzAl3ndxBxDbv4=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/tonyhyena5photogarthwolff_415446.jpeg)

*Wildlife vet Dr Jacob Dirsuwei (left) and colleagues help to treat and disinfect the wounds. (Photo: Garth Wolff)*

Using a dart gun to tranquillise the animal, still lying calmly in a lodge bedroom, the vets set up a makeshift operating table outside. There, they cut away the cable snare, cleaned the wounds and applied antibiotic gel before reviving the animal.

“He was very lucky, because the cuts had penetrated very deeply into the skin, almost reaching his organs... Another 24 hours or so and he probably would not have made it,” said Wolff.

“After coming around, he lay on the lawn for about 20 minutes as if to say, ‘Okay, that’s a bit better. I’ve been sorted out now’, and then he wandered off back into the bush.”

![tony hyena](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/Lu639v7z2VDZd5-l-D9qjmkSbAc=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/tonyhyena4GarthWolffphotoSupplied_494192.jpeg)

*Lodge owner Garth Wolff. (Photo: Supplied)*

“I know it sounds a bit airy-fairy and you can believe what you want, but we think this animal somehow knew we could sort him out. He had travelled about 6km to the lodge from where he was first seen injured, and then managed to bypass the electrified fencing around the lodge or the electrified cattle-grid barrier (at the road entrance).”

Either he trod very carefully across the grid, or he kept going forward when he got zapped, said Wolff.

The incident, which happened on 27 May, came to light earlier this week after former [Independent Newspapers editorial executive Leon Marshall](https://www.facebook.com/leon.marshall.984/posts/pfbid02VC98mh1ojcYE3crmo7dtSsLYPVaBPgdpCa3er2CXgZTzkpkLWLA6A3NTwf2f7KW1l#?hhb) visited the lodge and wrote about the encounter in a Facebook post.

![tony hyena](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/1LAY7Tr5Sg6cMHXaOJ_yzjy6ZdM=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/tonyhyena2snareringphotoGartnWolff_416727.jpeg)

*A wildlife vet holds up the wire cable that encircled the animal’s midriff. (Photo: Garth Wolff)*

“Garth says it was quite amazing how calm, one can almost say grateful, the little guy looked where it was put on a patch of grass before it, after a while, got up and ambled off.

“It is incidents like these that make you wonder afresh about our attitude to the natural world. We humans can be so brutal in our views and our treatment of so much of it. Snares, for instance, are a particularly cruel manner of killing, yet the use is widespread.

“And then along comes an animal, which some see as evil, in the hope somehow of appealing to our better nature. It’s a strange world,” Marshall mused.

![tony hyena](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/sVXFhAvsK8PSnY-rm1fOWm0VqKg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/tonyhyena6photogarthwolff_381694.jpeg)

*Show us your teeth. The young hyena undergoes a full examination prior to release. (Photo: Garth Wolff)*

![tony hyena](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/W8D8iyGrFNEllvOQxD2NP0DEYBE=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/tonyhyena8woundsphotogarthwolff_327382.jpeg)

*The grisly wounds around the animal’s midriff. (Photo: Garth Wolff)*

Asked for his views on the incident, veteran KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife vet Dr Dave Cooper recalled a case involving an elephant a few years ago where he got a “strange” feeling that the animal was seeking his help by repeatedly raising its leg to indicate that it had a snare wound on its leg.

“It could be that we just imagine these things, or maybe it was simply trying to ease the pain by lifting its leg... but it did seem quite strange to me at the time.”

Another possible explanation for the hyena’s behaviour, Cooper suggested, is that sick or injured animals may deliberately seek out places to find an easy meal, to rest or hide from predators.

“We had a case in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve a few years back where a very sick lion took refuge in the men’s toilet at the visitor reception at Nyalazi entrance gate. Unfortunately, the lion was so sick from tuberculosis that we had to put it down.”

Whatever the case may be, the tale ended happily for the Hoedspruit hyena, with Wolff reporting that it has been sighted several times subsequently, seemingly in rude health. **DM**