Bison tosses man 8 feet in the air at Yellowstone National Park, video shows
A man was seriously injured after being tossed eight 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, 65, suffered serious injuries in the incident and was taken by the park's emergency responders to a nearby hospital, officials said. Yellowstone has not identified the man publicly. 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. MacLeod told "CBS Mornings" that he eventually helped chase the bison away after it had knocked the grandfather over.
"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."
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 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 as 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.
