SKUKUZA – Regional ranger of the Marula South Region, Mr Don English is lucky to be alive. Moreover, the legend of the Kruger National Park (KNP) has recovered well from the bone-crushing injuries he sustained during an altercation with a buffalo in July.

Lowvelder reported at the time how the routine euthanising of the animal went horribly wrong. English was recently able to share his experience for the first time.

When he went to the Milaleni area, north of the Nhapi Boulders to complete a routine euthanisation of buffalo in the early morning of July 26, it was with 30 years’ experience in handling big game in dangerous situations. More specifically, he had witnessed a number of buffalo attacks on humans in that time, including a number of fatal ones.

Due to the park’s worst drought ever, euthanising a number of buffaloes has become a humane management solution.

There are over 47 000 buffaloes in the park. English, who was leading the operation on the day, had euthanised three buffalo from the helicopter. While he was securing the area so that the ground team could safely move in, he was suddenly charged by one of the buffaloes.

Having previously found himself in numerous similar situations, he realised that over the short distance between himself and the enraged buffalo bull, he would only be able to get one shot off.

Waiting for the enraged buffalo and at a distance of approximately 10 metres, he fired at the charging animal in an attempt to hit the brain.

On the day, English intentionally took some soft-nose expanding rounds of ammunition on the operation.

Yes, English said in hindsight, it could be considered a judgement error but he had not anticipated to be on the ground, facing a charging buffalo.

However, he managed to get a shot in and on target, for what would have been a well-placed brain shot. This was not, as the soft-nose round expanded and deviated down and to the side, severing the jugular vein.

“This obviously did not do the job. In the end it nearly cost me my life. The next thing I knew he was on me. I dived to the right, out of the way, missing the initial impact of his charge. He was now intent on killing me, within the space of a metre.

“He tossed me numerous times into the air, according to the pilot on the day, Mr Charles Thomson and veterinary technician, Mr Schalk van Dyk.

“They immediately rushed in in an attempt to distract the enraged animal. After that, he proceeded to repeatedly crush me down onto the ground,” English explained.Male buffaloes weigh up to 900 kilograms. English was in mortal danger.

“At first my legs were up against my chest. He shifted and put his chest bone on my chest and crushed me properly,” said English. He heard, and felt, his own bones breaking.

“I realised that I needed to get a hold on him or I was going to die.”

“By some miracle he turned me around on the ground so I was looking up at his throat.I reached up on either side of his face and got my arms around the top of his horns. I managed to grab onto the upper side of the curve.”

He managed to hang on for dear life until the enraged buffalo eventually succumbed and collapsed.

“It was a saving grace that only my one leg was pinned under his front leg. I could pull myself out from underneath him and retreated to a safe distance.”

A colleague handed him a R1 rifle retrieved from the helicopter as the bull had collapsed on his rifle. He dispatched the buffalo without further ado.

A medical doctor was summoned to attend to English immediately. After being stabilised in Skukuza by Dr Nardus Visser, he was airlifted to Mediclinic Nelspruit where he was treated for multiple rib, and several other serious injuries like torn nerves in his left leg.

“I am under no illusion of how extremely fortunate I am to have survived this savage attack. It was without a doubt only by the grace of God that I managed to survive and come off so lightly,” he concluded.