Rampaging bison flips camper more than two metres in the air

New York: A rampaging bison in Yellowstone National Park hooked a man who was trying to run away from it, and then tossed him about 2.4 metres into the air at a campground.

The man, Carl Isom-McDaniel, who serves on several local community boards in Washington state, suffered multiple broken bones.

The attack occurred at about 8.30pm on Friday at Bridge Bay Campground near Yellowstone Lake, in the south-eastern quadrant of the park, in Wyoming.

The visibly agitated bull bison was roaming the campground and charging at other groups of campers, as seen in a video taken by Mike MacLeod, a professional photographer based in Bozeman, Montana, about 210km away.

Everyone was standing a distance away from the bison, which was most likely experiencing a surge of testosterone, as mating season is just beginning, MacLeod said in an interview.

First, the bison charged at a small group of teenage boys, who scattered, he said, before continuing to run around.

Then, the bull bison stopped, wallowing in dirt next to a campground road near a picnic table that still held dinner leftovers.

“When he got up, it was kicking like a rodeo horse who’s clearly very agitated,” MacLeod said.

At that moment, a pick-up truck drove by, and a man with a long white beard and his grandson stopped to take photos of the bison, MacLeod said. (Bison can weigh 907 kilograms and sprint 48km/h.)

“The bison stopped rolling in the dust and kind of sat up. He’s looking in the direction of those two,” MacLeod said.

The grandson was able to dart away, MacLeod said, but the bison caught up to the grandfather, hooking him near the hip with its left horn before flipping him.

“I knew he was in danger because the bison didn’t leave,” MacLeod said. “He stood right over Carl, and he was really, really angry.”

MacLeod said the rushing crowd most likely caused the bison to turn and run away.

“He was in a lot of pain with his leg, and otherwise he was conscious the whole time, in good spirits, joking,” MacLeod said.

Neither the National Park Service nor Yellowstone officials have released any information about the attack. A hospital did not immediately respond to a request for an update on McDaniel’s condition.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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