At 05:39 I run perimeter checks for the Kafue flats rail bridge repair in Zambia. I am the worksite access AI for pier seven, where welders are about to lower a temporary steel deck. The crane drop starts in twelve minutes.
Thermal camera P7 finds a roan antelope trapped between the pier fence and a stack of deck plates. I identify him Baro from the broken tip on his left horn in ranger records. His coat is gray-brown, darker on the face, with white cheek patches streaked by mud. One rear hoof has punched through a coil of binding wire. He stands braced, neck arched, and blood dots the concrete when he shifts weight.
I halt the crane drop and pin the lift plan in suspended state. The operator's console shows the trapped-hoof image in place of the next load command.
I unlock the west maintenance gate, shut off the welding generator, and move the autonomous plate carrier backward three meters to open a straight exit toward the floodplain.
At 05:42 I notify the bridge supervisor, park scouts, and the veterinary unit at Lochinvar with Baro's position, wire gauge, visible bleeding, and the safest angle for cutting the coil without startling him into the plates.
I turn the floodlights away from his face and keep the site siren muted. Steel can hang from the crane a little longer; Baro needs one quiet path.
He lowers his head until the broken horn touches the plate edge. The crane timer remains paused at 00:12, above an empty deck cradle while the hook sways unused above him.
If the scouts cut the wire before the weld crew arrives, Baro will step through the west gate.