As we head into the end of May, that means things are starting to really warm up and summer vacations are kicking off.
A popular spot for tourists to go to this time of the year is Yellowstone National Park, which often times mean dumb, unnecessary run ins with wild animals.
This Instagram account officially introduced me to the term “touron,” which can be loosely defined as “a tourist who acts or resembles that of a moron.” I had never heard the term used until today, and now I’ll never go another day in my life without thinking about it.
In the clip, a older gentlemen appears to have walked up dangerously close to a resting herd of bison. The man holds a camera in hopes of getting an up close snapshot of the beautiful creature.
He’s lucky he didn’t get a picture of his teeth being knocked in.
One of the bison breaks away from the group and walks straight up to the “touron,” who stays crouched with his camera. The massive animal gets within inches of the camera lens, undoubtedly giving the old man a great vantage point of the bison’s nostrils (which might as well have been blowing out angry steam like in the cartoons).
After a brief stare down, the man gets up from his bent over position and calmly walks in the opposite direction, sort of like it was no big deal that he briefly came face to face with a potential “death by goring.”
The caption of the post absolutely eviscerates the old man:
“This ‘touron’ got lucky. This bison is still pretty young, If that was an older bull he would have most likely been knocked into Timbuktu‼️ Even a female bison could kick his arse.
Please keep at least 25 yards from these bison, there is absolutely no reason to be this close, do you really need a pic up into bison nostrils? The ‘tourons’ license plate was sent over to the park along with this video.
Tail up means 1) the bison is going to use the restroom OR 2) the bison is about to kick your ass! Or BOTH!”
He lives to be a touron another day.
Not only did I learn about the term “touron” today, I also learned the two reasons why a bison would have its tail up.
If you pay close attention, you’ll see in the video that the bison checks number one (which ironically is a number two) off the list on its way over to the older man.
I’d say the bison was keeping it up for the number two reason as well, but just felt so sorry for the dumb old man that it decided to show him mercy.
If the caption holds true and their license plate number was sent to the park, the man avoided physical harm, but could get hit with a fine or a ban from the park for his actions.
