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So, this video was a joke. That's the gist of it. The truth, according to Newsweek, is that the woman who is taking care of this baby hyena never thought her video would be seen by millions of people. Gabriela is a volunteer at the Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage in Zimbabwe, which is where she has spent the last summer. There, she got to know Atlas - the tiny hyena cub that you are looking at.
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Atlas had a difficult start in life. His mother, who is also a resident at the rescue center, abandoned him as a baby, leaving him to the caretakers at the center. The 27-year-old Gabriella used TikTok simply to keep her family updated about her travels, and one day, she posted this video, captioned: “POV: you bought a puppy on craigslist and it turned out to be a baby hyena," and the video blew up immediately.
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People were concerned for the poor animal, but Atlas, in reality, was in great hands. Gabriella 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."
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She, of course, cleared up the confusion immediately, and actually saw the whole incident as a good thing, hoping to raise awareness for hyenas like Atlas and other wild animals that need our help. “Now that I look at it, it might be a happy accident and hopefully they get the online recognition they deserve.”
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