Yellowstone officials said the bull bison that launched Carl Isom-McDaniel into the air last week will not be euthanized, and no other management action will be taken against it. The animal will remain in Yellowstone National Park.
The decision answers the immediate question raised by the viral attack: whether the park would remove the bison after a visitor was seriously hurt. Isom-McDaniel was charged last week and suffered multiple broken bones, then required surgery and is now recovering from his injuries.
The attack was captured on video by wildlife photographer Mike MacLeod, who said he stopped filming when he saw the victim in the air and ran with other men to haze the bison away and render aid. The footage showed the animal tossing Isom-McDaniel about 8 feet into the air before standing over him, a stark image that helped make the encounter spread quickly online.
MacLeod said neither Isom-McDaniel nor his grandson appeared to provoke the bull, even though the animal had already charged a group of teenagers before the grandfather and grandson encountered it in the campground. That detail leaves the park’s decision less tidy than the final outcome suggests: the bison stays, but Yellowstone has not said it will take any further steps beyond leaving it in place.
Isom-McDaniel’s first concern after the attack was his grandson, asking, “How is my grandson?” That is the part of the story that lingers after the video and the headlines — a severe wildlife encounter that left one man badly injured, his family shaken, and the animal still where it was before anyone started filming.
