The Buck stops here !!!

“Don’t mess around on my home turf,” seemed to be the message from this antelope in the savannah of the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.

I am not sure whether to be amused by it all, or feel sorry for the man, the beast, or both.

A 17 year old mountain biker, Evan van der Spuy, was competing in a bike race, and was ambushed by Red Hartebeest buck that charged across the plain right into him. The animal crashed into the unsuspecting biker, knocking him over, and what saved the young man from more serious injuries was his helmet that was badly dented – this will, perhaps, earn the helmet’s manufacturer enormous bragging rights (antelope-proof helmets???)!!!

The Red Hartebeest is a large, reddish-fawn antelope that possesses an excellent sense of smell and hearing, but has very poor eyesight. It can reach speeds of around 50 km miles per hour and males weigh around 150kg. What made this particular animal bring down the hapless biker will never be known.

The incident was captured on video by a fellow cyclist following close behind, who, on spotting the beast, had actually yelled, “”watch the buck”.

The biker escaped with minor concussion and whiplash, while the antelope got up, brushed itself off, and galloped nonchalantly away into the savannah.

I guess this yet another example of the old adage of “The Buck stops here”.

Watch the video of the antelope’s charge here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M

I understand this video has received over two million hits on YouTube.