A woman who claimed she bought a puppy only to find it was a hyena never expected her joke video to go viral, with millions believing she had truly accidentally adopted a wild animal. But the mix-up has led to a huge spotlight on an animal rescue working tirelessly to save injured or abandoned wildlife.
Gabriela spent her summer volunteering at the Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage in Zimbabwe, and tells Newsweek she wanted to "spend my summer in a meaningful way" before starting full-time work in the fall.
While at Chipangali, run by three generations of the Wilson family for 50 years, she got to know tiny hyena cub Atlas.
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Atlas had a difficult start in life as his mother, also a resident at the rescue center, initially neglected him before abandoning him completely, leaving him to be hand-reared by staff members.
Brown hyenas like Atlas are found in areas of Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. They are endangered, with between 5000 and 8000 left in the world, according to the Brown Hyena Research Project.
Gabriela, 27, used TikTok to keep friends and family back home updated on her travels, and decided to share a clip of baby Atlas, along with the joke caption: "POV: You bought a puppy on Craigslist and it turned out to be a baby hyena."
But the video blew up, with millions assuming Gabriela was being serious: less than 24 hours after being shared to her account @user7936031421, it had 2 million likes and 9 million views, with thousands of commenters worried for both her safety and the safety of the baby animal.
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She told Newsweek: "I don't have a big following and my friends just really enjoyed watching my African wildlife adventures, we laughed a bit that the tiny hyena could be mistaken for a puppy to an untrained eye—such as mine."
After posting the video and going to sleep, she then woke up to "6 million views and thousands of hate comments."
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One wrote that Atlas was clearly "scared," with another adding: "He just wants his mama." A third said it was "so sad. They're very social creatures and he's probably absolutely terrified being away from his pack."
Gabriela acted fast, sharing a video update clearing up the confusion and confirming Atlas was being cared for by Chipangali volunteers, directing animal lovers to the rescue's site.
"Now that I look at it, it might be a happy accident and hopefully they get the online recognition they deserve," she told Newsweek.
Newsweek spoke to staff members Kevin and Ryan Wilson, who help run the center set up by Kevin's father decades ago.
Ryan explained they had been through "hell" with Atlas, who was abandoned by his mother and left on the concrete, cold and sick, when he was just weeks old. Staff members intervened, saving him, but he then became dangerously ill with pneumonia. After recovering from that, Atlas caught biliary fever, which can be caused by parasites found in ticks.
Now recovered once again thanks to the diligent work of the Chipangali staff, Atlas is beginning to put on weight, and the shelter is raising him to an adult in the hopes he can one day be released into the wild.
"We have in the past been able to hand-raise brown hyenas, and they have been released successfully," Ryan told Newsweek, adding it "depends, and will tell with time" whether Atlas will be capable of living in the wild.
Gabriela, who recently graduated from her Master's degree and is preparing to enter full-time office work this Fall, used the summer to go 'voluntraveling'—seeing the world while also doing volunteer work.
She found Chipangali after researching "opportunities available to work with animals while also learning about other cultures and countries," and knew immediately it would be perfect for her.
The rescue center is home to abandoned, orphaned and injured animals in the Bulawayo region of Zimbabwe, and is open to volunteers from across the world to help care for their more than 150 animals, who can volunteer anywhere between two weeks to three months of their time.
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