It never hurts to be in good spirits immediately after being attacked by a wild animal. Just ask Carl Isom-McDaniel, who went viral over the weekend for getting tossed high into the sky by an aggressive bison in Yellowstone National Park.
In case you missed the video, which has now racked up over 50 million views, a grandfather and his grandson were in the wrong place at the wrong time last Friday. Isom-McDaniel and his family were visiting the national park from Kendall, Washington, and when the retiree came upon a sizable bison near the Bridge Bay Campground, he decided to get his phone out to take a picture.
We here at Whiskey Riff have covered plenty of “tourist gets too close and pays the price” type of encounters, but this was not that. The mid-60s-year-old man and his grandson were actually following the guidelines set out by the National Park Service, which states that visitors should stay at least 25 yards away from more docile creatures like bison and elk, and 100 yards away from wild animals like bears and wolves.
They were the right amount of distance away, but it appears this rutting bison was going to track them down no matter how far away the grandfather and grandson were standing.
A professional wildlife photographer named Mike MacLeod was there on the scene and captured everything as it unfolded. The photographer was first just videoing the bison, who was very clearly agitated and fired up as it’s in the midst of the annual mating season. Something about the moment got the massive bison revved up and ready to attack, and unfortunately, the grandfather and the grandson were the targets.
It didn’t end well for Carl Isom-McDaniel:
“A tourist was seriously injured Friday evening after being thrown 8 feet into the air by a bull bison in Yellowstone National Park. Professional photographer Mike Macleod filmed the incident and said the bison was ‘angry, agitated and charging anything and everything.'”
Just a terrifying situation right there.
If you noticed that the footage kind of just cuts off after the bison-induced rise and fall of Carl, that’s because the person behind the camera – like many others in the immediate area – rushed to help. MacLeod told the New York Times:
“I put my camera down and I ran at the bison pumping my arms up and down, yelling at the top of my lungs and jumping up trying to look big and distracting.”
The help from good samaritans nearby may have helped save Carl’s life.
The good news amongst the bad news is that Isom-McDaniel ended up being okay after that scary fall. He didn’t get away scot-free… the grandfather ended up having multiple broken bones, with the most severe injury affecting one of his legs. But the photographer said that the older man played things off rather casually, and was even cracking jokes about the bison attack and the severity of his injuries:
“He was in a lot of pain with his leg, and otherwise he was conscious the whole time, in good spirits, joking.”
What a legend.
Obviously there was some adrenaline flowing, so that probably helps to explain why Isom-McDaniel remained in good spirits after the scary encounter. But it’s good to hear that the grandfather wasn’t rattled too bad, and he was taken by ambulance to a local hospital around 10 minutes after he was launched into the air.
Carl has since taken to Facebook to let everyone know that he’s doing okay.
