Deadly snake bites Kiwi conservationist in Costa Rica
New Zealand conservationist Pete Bethune has been bitten by a deadly snake while working in a jungle in Costa Rica.
Bethune, who is in the Central American nation with Earthrace, the non-profit organisation he founded, was yesterday bitten on the calf by what was believed to be a fer-delance, a highly-venomous snake.
He was last night in the Golfito Hospital in the port town of the same name near the border with Panama.
Earthrace spokeswoman Larisa
Kellett said doctors identified the snake as a fer-de-lance, which caused extreme swelling and left Bethune in the “worst pain he’s been in”.
Kellett said fer-de-lance snakes are highly dangerous and a single bite has the power to kill 32 people.
The snake bit Bethune while he was doing conservation work in a jungle on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.
Earthrace is working with the Costa Rican Government to support its efforts in protecting marine and terrestrial national parks
After being bitten, Bethune crawled out of the jungle and navigated several waterfalls while his condition worsened, Kellett said.
“He said he was dragging on his bum at one point,” she said. “For the last few hundred metres he was carried as he was in extreme pain.”
The Kiwi conservationist was transferred by zodiac to the Earthrace boat and taken to hospital in Golfito Bay, she said.
“We do not know if he will be okay.
He is in the best care that he could have. I know he is in excruciating pain. When I talked to him, his voice was slurring a lot. He wasn’t speaking as he was normally.”
Bethune was under close supervision of medical staff and might be moved to another hospital to access specialist care, she said.
New Zealand-based Kellett said she wasn’t sure what type of conservation work he was doing yesterday but guessed he could have been patrolling for illegal gold miners, which involves camping out in the jungle following trails to locate the miners. “You get in there. You get your backpack and your gear to last a few days. It’s harsh conditions,” she said last night.
“You look for trails to see where the gold miners have made their little camp. They put chemicals in the waterways to do the actual mining.”
Kellett said she spoke to Bethune on Christmas Day. She then received a WhatsApp message from one of Bethune’s crew members advising that their captain had been bitten by a snake.
“It happened today,” she said. “We’re not out of the woods.”