87-year old Tendai Maseka was dragged from his bed by a pack of hyenas while sleeping Monday night and was then mauled to death.
Maseka was sleeping in his wood and mud hut in the region of Chirumanzu, located in central Zimbabwe, according to CNN.
Hyenas dragged the elderly man roughly 1,000 feet, according to a tweet from Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe Parks & Wildlife Management Authority.
An elderly man who was killed by a pack of hyenas in Chirumanzu (87yrs) was staying alone. He was sleeping in a hut when the unfortunate incident happened. He was dragged for about 300m, with lower body missing. Drag marks and hyena tracks were visible.
— Tinashe Farawo (@FarawoTinashe) November 18, 2020
“An elderly man who was killed by a pack of hyenas in Chirumanzu (87yrs) was staying alone. He was sleeping in a hut when the unfortunate incident happened,” the tweet read. “He was dragged for about 300m, with lower body missing. Drag marks and hyena tracks were visible,” Farawo said. (RELATED: REPORT: Elderly Man Mauled To Death By Wild Dogs On The Side Of The Road)
Park rangers are reportedly searching for the pack – which is believed to be responsible for a recent string of attacks on cattle and goat s– to “eliminate” them, Farawo told CNN.
“We are on the ground trying to track down the problem animals with a view to eliminating them,” Farawo said, according to CNN. “If we had enough resources we would have trans-located them from overpopulated areas to where there is less population.”
Farawo told CNN that hyena attacks are not rare during the summer.
“These things normally happen at this time of the year because it’s the drier months where normally food and water is scarce so the animals move long distances – and into communities – in search of food,” he said, CNN reported.
Farawo said climate change and the pandemic has made things worse, noting that an overpopulation of animals is largely to blame, according to CNN.
Wildlife authorities usually rely on tourism for revenue, “but tourism in 2020 is just as good as dead, which has left us without resources to fund our conservation efforts,” he told CNN.