Brit fighting for his life after being trampled by charging rhino in South Africa – World News

A British student game ranger is fighting for his life after being critically injured when he was charged and tramped by an angry rhino who gored him in South Africa.

The Scottish trainee was believed to be on a 10-week training course and was being taught field craft when he and his tutors surprised a dangerous giant black rhino.

The horned beast – which can run at over 30mph and weigh 1400kg – immediately attacked and the young student ran for his life into the thick bush chased by the rhino.

It trampled and gored him several times before losing interest and trotting off back into the bush at the game reserve in Zululand.

According to IPSS Medical Rescue the student was training on foot at a game reserve they would not name in KwaZulu-Natal learning the behaviour of the Big 5.

The Big 5 are the rhino, elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard and the student was thought to be on a 10-week course with the Field Guide Association of South Africa.

The attack led to a search and rescue operation by IPSS Medical Rescue and an armed anti-poaching team in case the rhino attacked again and he was found critically injured.

A medical source said: “He was covered in blood and at first sight we thought he was dead. But he was still breathing and had a pulse but it was very much touch and go for him”.

The attack happened on Wednesday and the student was transported by ambulance by the KZN Private EMS ambulance to hospital where surgeons are battling to save him.

Paul Herbst of IPSS Medical Rescue said: “The student was stabilised before being transported in a critical condition by road by a KZN Private EMS ambulance for surgery”

The source added “He is in a very bad way and will be lucky to make it but is in good hands.When a rhino takes you on one-on-one it is never going to end well.

“We were told he was on a trainee game ranger course and was out on foot learning the skills he would need to be a ranger when a black rhino appeared and attacked.

“The student ran but was chased but disappeared into the bush.

“The tutors called in an armed anti-poaching team as they knew the rhino was close and after a search they found the young man bloodied and unconscious.

“He was in a very bad way but was stabilised while a medical team of surgeons was put on stand by and were ready for him when he arrived at the hospital”.

Black rhinos unlike white rhinos are solitary and territorial and become incredibly aggressive if approached and have been known to attack trees and termite mounds.

Prince Harry – patron of the Rhino Conservation Trust in Botswana was once dragged 20 feet by a sedated rhino that woke up while hanging onto a securing rope.

He said: “Trying to stop a 3 ton rhino with a rope and a blindfold is not easy”.

In 1988 an enraged rhino protecting its calf killed British student Joanna Copley, 21, while studying the behavioural patterns of baboons in a Zululand game reserve.

The rhino gored the terrified St Andrew’s University student from Birmingham who was studying in Scotland and the impact of the horn broke her back and her neck.

There are believed to be about 20,000 white rhino and 6,000 black rhino left and they are under constant threat night and day by poachers to cut off their horns.

They are sold mainly to Asia for use in traditional medicines or to be used for carvings.

Rhinos are believed to kill some 600 people a year in Africa and are known for their bad tempers and regularly attack cars and safari trucks full of tourists on game drives.