During a visit to Yellowstone National Park, a grandfather was unexpectedly launched eight feet into the air after a disturbed bison charged at him.
The incident occurred while the man, whose name remains undisclosed, was walking with his grandson at Bridge Bay Campground on Friday evening. The duo was abruptly met by the furious beast, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.
Racing through the forest, the bison targeted the grandfather, hurling him skyward before he plummeted back to the earth.
“The bison caught him on the hip with its left horn, sending him airborne,” recounted Mike MacLeod, a Montana photographer who witnessed the event.
He described the man as executing a near-perfect flip and landing on his side, emphasizing that the bison, towering at six feet, tossed the man several feet above its height.
Once the beast was gone, witnesses rushed to the man and found him suffering from intense pain in his hips and the leg he landed on, despite there being no obvious external injuries.
‘One guy held his hand. Another guy pulled security on the outside to make sure that bison didn’t come back,’ MacLeod said. ‘A gal in a car was on the phone with 911, and another gal did a blood sweep, but we couldn’t find any blood.’
The victim’s grandson told MacLeod that his grandfather suffered ‘some pretty significant injuries’ and was still not ‘out of the woods yet.’
A grandfather was sent flying eight feet into the air after an agitated bison charged him during an evening walk through Yellowstone National Park
The bison charged through the trees toward the grandfather, violently tossing him upside down into the air before he crashed to the ground
He also said his grandfather feared the attack may have been caused by something he had done, but MacLeod, who captured the entire ordeal on camera, insisted the bison was the one that started it.
‘They were just out for an evening walk, just happened to turn around the corner, and there’s a bison,’ the professional photographer told the outlet.
‘You can tell he was agitated, pissed off, and charging anything and everything,’ he added.
‘I’ve been around bison for a while, but this was really weird. Why did it pick those two? There were so many people around, and most of them were closer to and behind the bison. It was really weird.’
The attack came shortly after terrified campers at Bridge Bay, south of Fishing Bridge, found themselves in the same horrifying situation when a massive bull bison quietly entered the area.
Among the campers was MacLeod, who rushed to grab his camera after his wife spotted the wild animal slowly wandering through the family-friendly campground. He began filming from a safe distance away.
‘He was coming up to this group of kids, who were taking pictures on their cellphones from a good distance away, and then the buffalo charged these kids,’ he told Cowboy State Daily.
The attack came shortly after terrified campers at Bridge Bay, south of Fishing Bridge, found themselves in the same horrifying situation when a massive bull bison quietly entered the area
‘You can tell he was agitated, pissed off, and charging anything and everything,’ one witness stated
The children managed to escape the bison’s fury, but MacLeod, a former Army combat photographer, feared the animal’s violent rampage was only just beginning.
It wasn’t long before the bison charged through the campground, sending terrified visitors into a panic as they shouted warnings to one another. But after the chaos, the animal calmly settled down in a nearby patch of dirt.
‘He was sitting in the dust, like bison do, with his head out towards the road,’ MacLeod said. Moments later, the elderly man and his grandson unknowingly walked into the scene.
The pair noticed the bison lying down and kept their distance, staying about 100 yards away as deemed safe by the National Park Service (NPS) – the equivalent of a football field from one goal line to the other.
‘I didn’t see anybody getting close,’ MacLeod said. ‘People were yelling, “Careful, there’s a bison coming through,” and they kept their distance. They were very respectful.’
Like other campers, they took a few photos before the bison’s movement prompted the grandfather and his grandson to leave the area and move into the trees.
But moments later, a white pickup truck passing nearby set the bison off again.
‘The bison was charging the truck. The guy in the truck saw that happening, and he just kept going,’ MacLeod told the outlet. ‘The bison then went to where those two were hiding in the trees.’
The grandson managed to get away while the bison pursued his grandfather through the surrounding woods, eventually catching up with him and flipping him into the air.
The terrifying encounter came during the annual bison rut, which runs from June to September, when bulls become fueled by heightened energy and aggression
The grandson managed to get away while the bison pursued his grandfather through the surrounding woods, eventually catching up with him and flipping him into the air
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He crashed to the ground, where MacLeod said the bison stood over the victim and shook its head in agitation. ‘I had to get the bison’s attention,’ he recalled.
‘I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible.’
Several others followed MacLeod’s lead, banding together and charging toward the wild animal until they finally scared it out of the campground.
Campers stayed with the victim until Yellowstone EMS took over. ‘You can tell in the video it’s not his fault. You can tell from the very beginning,’ the photographer added.
The terrifying encounter came during the annual bison rut, which runs from June to September, when bulls become fueled by heightened energy and aggression as they battle for dominance and females.
‘It’s changed my idea of what to expect from these guys at this time of year, because I would not have predicted that happening,’ MacLeod told the outlet.
The National Park Service has not released any information on the incident.