A 65-year-old man was injured after a bison charged him at Yellowstone National Park on the evening of July 10, tossing him eight feet into the air at Bridge Bay Campground near Lake Yellowstone. Park emergency medical personnel treated him and took him to a nearby hospital.
The man had been walking with his grandson when the animal stood up and came at them, and he tried to run before the bison hit him. Mike MacLeod, who witnessed the attack and recorded it on video, said he could not understand why the bison chose those two people when others were even closer.
MacLeod described the animal as pumping its legs and head and behaving aggressively. He said he shouted and jumped up and down in an attempt to pull the bison away. The grandson was shaken but doing OK, and the grandfather later had successful surgery and is expected to recover, according to MacLeod's contact with the family.
The episode also highlights a hard truth about Yellowstone: bison have injured more people there than any other animal. Park officials say the animals can run three times faster than humans and will defend their space when they feel threatened, which is why visitors are told to stay at least 25 yards away from large animals, including bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and coyotes.
That distance is easy to ignore when a photo is tempting and the animal seems still. But the bison moved first, and the result was a violent reminder that summer around male bison can be especially risky. Ron Magill said the season is the peak of the bison rut, when males are raging in hormones and fighting for territory and females. His advice is simple: move away slowly, do not run and do not make any fast movements.
The man is expected to recover after surgery, but the open question is the one Yellowstone visitors are warned about every day: whether people will keep enough space between themselves and a wild animal before a calm moment turns into an attack.
