You mess with the bison, you get the horns.
It’s pretty simple math really. The National Park Service strongly advises tourists to stay at least 25 yards away from wildlife, and when they don’t? Bad things happen, like this family witnessed when they visited Yellowstone National Park.
The Larsen family had packed the RV and traveled to the beautiful and historic park for some good, old-fashioned family fun. They had that while they were there, but also witnessed someone else that was visiting not have such a great time.
A woman nearby their RV might have been having fun at first as she provoked a bison near a campsite. However, things quickly took a turn for the worse when she took things a step too far (all while her husband stood mere feet away and filmed it).
The Larsen’s were filming it all as well, from a safe distance, and the youngest of the family had this to say about how things were going shortly before the attack:
“The lady got way too close. She just kept provoking the bison. She was trying to reach her hand out and pet the thing.”
I don’t need to repeat the first line of this story, do I? The lady, which was later identified as a 72-year-old woman from California, was really getting the bison riled up, and was definitely defying the 25-yard buffer zone.
Jenna Larsen told the news station covering the attack:
“I could hear the bison making noises and blowing steam out. It was just an accident waiting to happen at that point.”
That’s the perfect description, and may I clarify that bison themselves are not accidents waiting to happen. Only when are they provoked and jabbed at do they become causes of accidents waiting to happen.
When the bison finally charged, the goring was about as bad as it gets, according to the Larsen’s. Jodi, the matriarch of the family, described the gnarly scene, and how far the woman was thrown when the bison started unleashing its fury:
“She got thrown initially 10 or 15 feet in the air across, and then she was unconscious. She got up and it hit her again.”
And Jodi was just trying to enjoy the trip with her family, but the off-duty nurse was forced into action by the bison-provoking-woman’s actions. She helped as a “first responder” before the woman was eventually airlifted to a nearby Idaho hospital, where she made a full recovery and was released.
Though she ended up being okay, that woman could have really used the wise words that Jenna Larsen shared later in the news interview
“If you don’t bug them, they’re not going to bug you. Especially when you go camping, that’s their home and we’re kind of the invaders. That’s where they live and people need to be respectful of that.”
Well put. You can either learn that by heeding the warnings of the signs, or as your are flying 15 feet in the air after getting gored by a bison you approached. Seems like an easy choice, right?
You can view the news story about the scary incident below:
