Key takeaways:
- The attack happened Friday evening at Bridge Bay Campground near Lake Yellowstone, and park emergency medical personnel transported the injured man to a nearby hospital.
- The Guardian identified the man as Carl McDaniel, 65, of Kendall, Washington; his grandson was with him and was not injured.
- Yellowstone advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from bison and says more people have been injured by bison in the park than by any other animal.
A 65-year-old Washington state grandfather was seriously injured after a bull bison charged him at Yellowstone National Park, struck him with its horns and tossed him about 8 feet into the air, according to park officials and video of the encounter.
The attack happened Friday evening at Bridge Bay Campground near Lake Yellowstone. The National Park Service said emergency medical personnel responded and took the man to a nearby hospital. The park did not publicly identify him, but The Guardian, citing Washington state’s Cascadia Daily News, identified him as Carl McDaniel of Kendall, Washington.
Video recorded by photographer Mike MacLeod shows the bison, described as agitated, rising from the ground and running toward McDaniel after first appearing to charge at a pickup truck. The animal chased him through a patch of trees before hitting him and flipping him into the air. McDaniel had been seen standing beside his grandson, taking pictures with his phone, about 100 yards from where the bison had been lying down, CBS News reported. His grandson was not injured.
MacLeod, a former combat photographer with a degree in wildlife biology, told CBS that he and others moved in to drive the animal away after it knocked McDaniel down.
“I charged the bison, yelling and screaming and kind of been trying to put my camera up in the air,” MacLeod said. “And a bunch of other men joined me, and we successfully hazed the bison off of the, the victim.”
He told NBC’s Today show that the scene changed quickly.
“It went from a little bit of amusing to watch to critical emergency,” MacLeod said. “I stopped the video because I could see that [the] bison was standing over him and was pumping his head, very aggressive and agitated. And I knew that somebody had to distract that thing.”
The Guardian reported that McDaniel suffered severe injuries, including broken bones. Cascadia Daily News said he was recovering in a hospital Monday, and family members told NBC News he was undergoing surgery. MacLeod told The New York Times that McDaniel remained conscious after the attack and was “in good spirits, joking,” despite being in significant pain.
MacLeod said McDaniel and his grandson were at a “respectful distance” and “did not ask for it.” He added that as he left the park, he saw “half a dozen far more dangerous instances where people were way closer and being aggressive.”
The National Park Service says bison are unpredictable and can become aggressive when protecting their space. Male bison, known as bulls, can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and run at least three times faster than humans. The agency says more people have been injured by bison in Yellowstone than by any other animal.
Yellowstone requires visitors to stay at least 25 yards from bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose and coyotes, and at least 100 yards from bears, wolves and cougars. The park’s website advises: “If an animal moves closer to you, back away to maintain a safe distance.” It also says it is illegal to willfully remain near or approach wildlife at any distance that disturbs or displaces an animal.
Bison rutting season in Yellowstone runs from June until about September, though the National Park Service told The Guardian it could not say whether that contributed to Friday’s attack.
The incident followed another bison injury in Yellowstone in late June, when a 12-year-old was hurt. Several tourists were also injured by bison in the park last year, including a New Jersey man gored near Old Faithful and a Florida man gored in the Lake Village area.
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