A photographer, who had been missing for over a week, has been found alive after suffering a snake bite in an Australian national park where she went to document the wild horses living there.
48-year-old photographer Lovisa Sjoberg was located on Sunday after she vanished in the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales (NSW) on October 15.
NSW Police say Lovisa Sjoberg was found suffering from a suspected snake bite, dehydration, and a rolled ankle.
The avid photographer was treated for her injuries at the scene, before being rushed to hospital, where she is in a stable condition, according to the BBC.
Sjoberg is a photographer and activist known for documenting the wild horses or “brumby” that populate the Kosciuszko National Park for the last five years.
She was reportedly known to frequent the national parks around the Snowy Mountains to photograph the free-roaming feral horses for her Instagram page @Brumby_Strong.
‘Fortunate to Be Alive’
NSW police said Sjoberg was found “dazed and injured” by a National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) officer on Sunday. The photographer believes that she had been bitten by a copperhead snake four days ago.
“She advises she was bitten by a copperhead snake four days before being found and also rolled her ankle and she was suffering from dehydration,” Monaro Police District Superintendent Toby Lindsay says in a statement to ABC News.
“She’s in fact very fortunate to be alive and we’re glad that she is — she obviously went through a tough time.”
According to the Australian Museum, a copperhead snake’s “venom is powerfully neurotoxic, haemolytic and cytotoxic, and a bite from an adult of any of the species may be potentially fatal without medical assistance.”
Superintendent Lindsay says that Sjoberg was “quite unwell” and was taken to Cooma Hospital where she continues to recover.
Fears grew for the photographer’s safety when a hire car company reported that the photographer’s missing vehicle had been stationary for six days.
NSW Police launched an appeal on October 21 to the public to help find her and began a widescale search using sniffer dogs, firefighters, park rangers, and a helicopter with infra-red capabilities.
Image credits: Header photo via NSW Police.
