▶ Watch Video: Man says he’s OK after bison attack at Yellowstone
A man was seriously injured after being tossed 8 feet into the air by a bull bison in Yellowstone National Park, video shows.
The animal, clearly agitated, appeared to target the man in footage captured Friday at one of the park’s campgrounds. The animal charged toward the visitor, chased him back and forth through a patch of trees, and, ultimately, struck the man with its horns, launching and flipping him over.
The man, who identified himself as 65-year-old Carl Isom-McDaniel, suffered serious injuries in the incident and was taken by the park’s emergency responders to a nearby hospital, officials said. Before the incident, he was seen on video standing beside his grandchild, about 100 yards or so from where the bison was initially lying on the ground, snapping pictures with his phone.
Video of the subsequent encounter, in which the bison stands up and runs over to the man, was filmed by Mike MacLeod, a professional photographer who happened to be at the campground.
“You can see these two people walking along the perimeter road of the campground,” MacLeod told CBS News. “And as soon as the bison stands up, the grandfather, he’s like, ‘we’re out of here, let’s go.'”
As the two ran for cover behind some trees, the animal chased after the grandfather, who looped around in a circle. The bison caught up to him and launched the grandfather, who MacLeod said landed next to the “very, very agitated” bison. At that point, MacLeod said he had to stop filming to help chase the bison away.
“I charged the bison, yelling and screaming and kind of been trying to put my camera up in the air,” said MacLeod. “And a bunch of other men joined me, and we successfully hazed the bison off of the, the victim.”
Isom-McDaniel is on the mend after surgery, saying in a Facebook message: “Thank you everyone I am O K,” along with a thumbs-up emoji.
Male bison, also called bulls, can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and run at least three times faster than humans, according to the National Park Service, which notes on its website that more people have been injured by bison in Yellowstone than by any other animal. Bison “are unpredictable” and may become aggressive when protecting their space, the agency says.
Yellowstone visitors are asked to remain at least 25 yards away from wildlife such as bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and coyotes. They are advised to remain at least 100 yards away from bears, wolves and cougars.
This latest incident involving a Yellowstone bison came just a few weeks after a 12-year-old was hurt by a bison in the park at the end of June. At the time, few details were released about the incident, but officials said an investigation into what happened was underway.
Several bison encounters resulted in injuries to Yellowstone tourists last year. In one of them, a New Jersey man was hurt after being gored by a bison near the park’s famous geyser, Old Faithful. In another, a Florida man was gored and injured by a bison in the Lake Village area, where restaurants and hotels are located.