HERO OF SUVA PLANINA: Forestry engineer finds a freezing foal and carries it for over an hour to his car to save its life!

Forestry engineer Ivan Marić rescued a foal just a few days old after finding it on Suva Planina, above the village of Bežište near Bela Palanka.

Marić told the Beta news agency that he had been working in the field on the mountain yesterday with colleagues from Srbijašume when they spotted a foal lying tangled in branches.

“We were descending a very steep slope when one of the workers said he could see something strange among the branches. I approached and saw that it was a small black foal. I thought it was dead because it wasn’t moving, but just a moment later, when it heard our voices, it moved and lifted its head,” Marić said.

He explained that the foal was weak, so he carried it for more than an hour to reach the car, with help from a colleague.

He said that he and his colleagues were unsure what to do because, as he put it, leaving the helpless animal alone in the forest was out of the question. After consulting colleagues in Niš, staff from the Institute for Nature Conservation and the president of the Zoo Planet association, they agreed to take the foal to the “Zoo Corner” facility in Kamenica.

“They examined the foal immediately and told us it had no injuries and was healthy, but had come very close to freezing and its body temperature was lower than it should have been. They warmed it up and gave it goat’s milk to drink because it is the closest in composition to mare’s milk,” Marić said.

Zoo Planet staff estimated that the foal was only three or four days old, but it remains unclear why its mother abandoned it.

“There are several possibilities. Perhaps the mare died, or perhaps she thought she had given birth to a dead foal and left. It is also possible that she was a young mare giving birth for the first time and became frightened that she would be left alone on the mountain, so she followed the herd,” Marić said.

According to him, the foal will remain at the Zoo Corner facility for the time being, while volunteers try to find the owner of the mare that gave birth to it.

“If they cannot find the owner, I would like to adopt it. I’m from Skorica, near Ražanj, and I have everything needed to care for the animal in my village,” Marić said.

Dušan Stojanović, president of the Zoo Planet association, told Beta that the female foal found on Suva Planina by Srbijašume employees was currently doing well, but remained in a critical condition.

“The foal was on the mountain without its mother for at least two days, and its body temperature is below normal. We are keeping it warm and feeding it every two hours. Special milk for foals arrived today,” Stojanović said.

He appealed to the public to help through donations so the association could ensure an adequate supply of milk for the foal in the coming days, noting that 10 liters of the milk it needs cost around 20,000 dinars.

Donations can be made to account number 105-22423-78. Zoo Planet’s address is Gutenbergova 4a, 18103 Niš.

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