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BOISE, Idaho (KIVI) — By now you have probably seen the viral video of a bison attacking a tourist at the Fishing Bridge Campground in Yellowstone National Park.
We sat down with professional photographer Mike MacLeod who captured the moment, but also helped out and then visited Carl McDonald in the hospital on Tuesday evening, and the two have become friends following this wild incident.
“He had an operation, and it was successful,” said MacLeod. “They patched his femur back together, and the pain immediately subsided tremendously he said.”
MacLeod was also able to add more clarity to the incident after visiting with McDonald. He learned that the grandpa and his grandchild were walking back to their campsite when the bison charged. McDonald told his grandson to run and hide while he ran in the opposite direction. Although this saved his grandchild from harm, he paid for it.
“He said it wasn’t the horn, it was his head. It was actually soft,” said MacLeod. “All the damage came when he hit the ground and broke his femur.”
That’s when army veteran Mike MacLeod put down his camera and ran over to help, and thanks to other people reacting as well, the bison ran off. There was a tense moment while McDonald could feel the hot breath of the bison above him as he lay on the ground.
MacLeod also got a degree in wildlife biology and believes the bison became agitated because of the rut. Yellowstone National Park put out a Facebook post saying the rut season is happening now, rut is when bulls compete with each other in order to mate with the females in the herd. MacLeod says this particular bison had multiple outbursts, and McDonald and his grandson just got unlucky.
“When we got there, the bull charged some teenagers, and they scattered,” said MacLeod. “The bull kept running and ran into another camp and evicted those two people, rolled in the dust, and at that point is when you see Carl and his grandson enter the frame.”
Every summer in Yellowstone tourism put themselves in danger by either getting off the boardwalk around the geothermal features or getting too close to wildlife. However, that wasn’t the case in this instance, as Carl was more than 100 yards away, the park service recommends visitors stay 25 yards away.
“When campers gets too close, which happens all the time a lot of times bison will false charge just to get a little space,” said MacLeod. “People back off and it’s all good again, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a bison contact a human being.”
The silver lining from this entire experience comes with MacLeod and Car becoming friends. MacLeod described him as a fun-loving grandpa who loves to have experiences with his grandchildren. MacLeod also told me Carl joked with the staff in the ambulance on the two and a half hour ride to the hospital in Bozeman.
“He’s a funny guy ,he’s got a great sense of humor, and he thinks all the memes coming out about him are hilarious,” said MacLeod. “Not all of them are nice, but he just laughs it off. It’s just kind of who he is, you can tell he’s just a happy individual and focuses on the positives of life.”
Yellowstone National Park told us bison are responsible for more injuries than any other animal in the park. Officials did not euthanize the bison in this attack.
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