This is Abednigo Moyo from Matobo who wrestled with a leopard and fended it off by choking it. Moyo was harvesting mopani worms when t...
This is Abednigo Moyo from Matobo who wrestled with a
leopard and fended it off by choking it.
Moyo was harvesting mopani worms when the
leopard pounced. Moyo grappled with the predator and shoved his hand into its
mouth in an attempt to block its windpipe. His brother who was with him
finished off the vicious predator by axing it
For all his efforts to save his life, he was, however,
later arrested for poaching. He appeared before a Plumtree magistrate on
Thursday last week facing charges of killing an endangered animal. He was
remanded out of custody to 3 February on $300 bail.
“Before I could even see or react, a leopard emerged
charging towards me. I tried to run but it was too late, the predator attacked
me and I don’t know how I gathered the strength and managed to grab it by the
neck before it could savage me.
“I realised that if I don’t do something the animal would
kill me. It was either I die fighting or I get mauled,” he told The Sunday
News.
He said when it opened its mouth ready to sink its teeth on
him, he shoved his hand into its mouth and grabbed its windpipe. “It was
painful because at the same time, the leopard was biting my hand but I was
choking it from inside while the other hand was fending off its claws. I was
also screaming at the same time. The struggle went on for a minute or two and I
could see the animal was also losing power from the choke,” he said. Mr Moyo
said his brother heard him screaming and rushed to investigate. “When Isaac
arrived, the leopard was already losing strength. He then axed it and that is
how I managed to eventually free myself. It died and we left it there,” he
said.
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