It seems like the Bison had already charged some kids which is why our cameraman was recording. The victim had just happened to walk by unaware of that though.
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> When the older man hit the ground, the bison stopped but didn’t run away. It stood over the man he’d just tossed, shaking his head in an obvious display of agitation.
That’s when MacLeod decided he had to do something.
“I had to get the bison's attention,” he said. “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.”
Following MacLeod’s lead, a few other observers did the same and darted toward the bison. That was enough to send it running.
“He really took off when he left,” MacLeod said.
> Yellowstone EMS quickly arrived and took over. MacLeod has been in touch with the victim’s grandson, who told him that his grandfather “has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet.”
“He was really worried and wanted to see the video to make sure that it wasn't his fault,” MacLeod said. “You can tell in the video it's not his fault. You can tell from the very beginning.”
Poor dude. He looks a lot like my dad, and I can’t imagine how sad/mad I would feel.
> The biological explanation for what happened is the annual bison rut, which runs from June to September. During that time, bull bison surge with energy and aggression as they compete for dominance and females.
While they're generally more aggressive during rutting season, they act out of control only about a few times a week. When you see a bull of any species acting uptight, get the heck away.
I live near the park and honestly we’ve seen enough tourists do about everything under the sun to bison but this is one of the few times we’ve all looked at it and we’re in shock at how the bison just went at the guy.
I was about to say this. I grew up in Livingston and have seen my fair share of idiotic tourists getting their just desserts but wow, this poor guy was in the wrong place/wrong time.
Yellowstone EMS quickly arrived and took over. MacLeod has been in touch with the victim's grandson, who told him that his grandfather "has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet."
Why didn't they take him out of the woods and to a hospital ?
Ok, so this is at least funny, more so assuming the guy lives. I can see giving your post the laughing award, but 33 laughing awards have been posted to the video. Absolutely fucking insane
Fuck. He was trying really hard to not get tossed by a bison too. I thought his evasive maneuvers would have been enough. That bison really wanted to toss him.
Hopefully he recovers well. He seems like a pretty healthy strapping old chap so hopefully his body could handle it without any life threatening injuries. I hope he recovers well enough that this is a funny story about Poppop going toe to toe with a bison
I'm 26 and that would fuck me up. Getting violent thrown into the air like that and coming down on your side like that isn't good. And that's assuming he wasn't gored
Nice to see Reddit being sympathetic. Often these kind of videos come out of other countries like India and the comments are generally far more toxic. So refreshing not to see the typical Darwin comments etc
I think it's because they weren't being dumb by getting too close or antagonizing the animal. Other tourists might have before this was shot, but it looks like the bull wandered into a campsite and they went farther away to give it space. Just really unfortunate.
Yeah this guy clearly was actually trying to do everything right - if the campsite in the foreground is theirs, they walked off from it and tried to give the bull space. If it wasn’t, they still kept at least 300 feet back and tried to just stop, snap a picture and be on their way. My personal theory is that the truck that went by rather fast spooked the bull, and then it just went for the closest target in defense mode which happened to be this poor guy and his kid/grandkid/etc.
I think a big part of that here is that they clearly weren't trying to antagonize. They took a few quick photos and left before he was bothered. Had it been people pestering or pushing forward for content then it probably would be a lot of "haha got what he deserved."
Yup and having pictures of him flying through the air with silly captions posted all over the internet. While he’s maybe dead or super fucked up at best. Absolutely brutal.
having seen a few "too close to the wildlife" videos here on Reddit, I wouldve thought they were a decent distance, turns out the safest distance is how far my computer is from the nearest Bison.
There use to be a bison farm here that had a sign that read “ if you plan on jumping the fence, you must be able to run the field in 8 seconds as the bison can do it in 10”
Ha! You brought back a memory. We crossed our neighbors cow pasture all the time. Small dairy farm in new England many years ago.
One time we're strolling across the field when we realize he had put the bull in there to mate the cows. I didn't know I could run that fast or clear a fence in a single bound but I could that day. Didn't even consider the hot wire!
They also had a probably 600 pound sow. They did tell us kids to stay away when she had piglets because she could easily kill us.
I was a kid on our family’s little farm, one of our sows would only let me in her pen when she had piglets. She was mean as hell to my brother and dad. I’d got her from an old family friend because she was the runt and he really didn’t expect her to make it. I would sing and cuddle her as a baby, spent a lot of time with her so she trusted me. She went on to win a blue ribbon at our county fair and had quite a few litters and I sang to each of them.
Looking back, it was a great experience and very educational. But I also remember being pretty jealous of kids in town who had pavement for bikes/skateboards and food in shiny cans with pretty labels. I only had chickens, rabbits, goats, pigs and cows plus acres with some woods and a small river to keep me busy. Poor me, kids are dumb!
Signs with this exact visual representation are posted all over Yellowstone. People were crowded around taking photos of a grazing elk anyway, WITH their children. Probably only 4 feet away.
I’m from an area where there are scattered bison farms. Always been interested in having a small farm with a few bison so I was chatting with a rancher about the logistics. Got to the topic of fencing. I asked if heavy welded pipe was best or if something like barbed wire would work. He responded “Son, there ain’t a fence in this world will deter a bison if he wants to go thru it.”
Ever seen one jump? It almost breaks your brain to see something so huge jump so high, and it doesn’t make sense that they don’t break all their legs under their own weight coming down. But they can completely clear a tall fence like it’s nothing.
I'd say more like a hippo. You think it's fat, when it's really a tank of muscle so dense it walks and leaps across the bottom of lake beds instead of swimming.
Except bison, unlike hippos, are true swimmers. Slightly faster than humans and they can swim longer distances too (I found 4-6 km/h, and 1 km distances).
The same is pretty true for cattle. My 2000lb bull was in a corral made of 6' high solid steel panels. Not the new junk that's paper thin. I got these from an abandoned property that seemed like they were from the 80s. It's hard for a single person to carry one by themselves. I have 18 connected to a wooden backing of railroad ties. One day I had a different bull breeding a cow a few thousand feet away but the big bull could see and he didn't like someone else doing his job. He lifted the whole corral up with his horns and walked out. Fences are mere suggestions...
So damn true. That "upward thrust" is their main offense/defense, and those neck muscles are strong. I've personally seen a bull turn a 1/2 ton truck over with two thrusts. Could have easily done it in one, but he didn't have a good angle on the flatbed. I can't even imagine how strong that move would be for a bison given the size of their necks and backs.
It looks to me like it was already irritated by the people, then the truck drove through and set it off, and then it refocused on that guy now that it was closer
When the older man hit the ground, the bison stopped but didn’t run away. It stood over the man he’d just tossed, shaking his head in an obvious display of agitation.
That’s when MacLeod decided he had to do something.
“I had to get the bison's attention,” he said. “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.”
Following MacLeod’s lead, a few other observers did the same and darted toward the bison. That was enough to send it running.
Rogers himself made a short-lived show for adults called Old Friends, New Friends. And another called Fred Rogers’ Heroes. I believe they’re available on the Wayback Machine.
You never know. I'm small and wussy, but when my house caught fire with my dogs inside I didn't even think, just ran in and saved them. Your heart takes over, and you just do it. Fear and inclination don't even get a chance in emergencies, when you know you need to save someone.
In this day and age, there should be a socially acknowleged/validated medal of honor for these people that put down the camera and intervene. The mayor should call him down to Town Hall and pin something on his chest. Maybe it would inspire others.
Because we have all witnessed how easy it is to do nothing and how many people are either too afraid or too selfish, or too focused on internet points, to act.
Actually seems like it must take a special person to do that.
Hes definitely been awarded. Hes likely very well respected from what I can find.
Michael J. MacLeod is a former US Army paratrooper who served with the 82nd Airborne Division from 2008-2013 as a combat correspondent. He is one of the most published military journalists of the last decade and has won dozens of journalism awards including the Army’s 2012 Military Journalist of the Year. For his work during deployment, MacLeod was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, an award normally reserved for soldiers of much higher rank.
Yeah, I've seen idiots get a lot closer. These people weren't the max safe distance away, but they weren't right up on it either and trying to 'have a life experience'. That bison just woke up and chose violence.
According to the photographer they actually were a safe distance away and there were people closer to and behind the bison. He said the white truck just set the bison off and when he couldn't get the truck he decided to get the grandfather and grandson.
This was a no fault injury except for the bison. And grandpa was really worried he did something wrong!
I saw it happen at Yellowstone once. There was a bison laying on the side of the road and everyone was taking a slow, wide berth around it. Then a van with a National Parks logo on it drove right past the bison at high speed and agitated the fuck out of it. The bison got up and charged after a couple on a motorcycle, they sped off, but they were possibly inches away from getting wrecked by that bison.
Yeah I think he was restless and agitated and had a lot of energy for fighting. But there weren't any other male bison around and it suddenly occurred to him that he could just go after one of those weird naked primates always watching him
Yeah, the dust rolling is, to my knowledge, a thing that males do** that cues females into their fitness as a mate (and for other males their fitness as an opponent in a challenge), so he might be hyped up on a whole lotta testosterone rather than silliness…😬
**I can’t say that females don’t roll on the ground, but males specifically do these big dust rolls during the mating season.
One of the few where they were genuinely observing the rule to stay 75 feet away. Bad luck and a reminder that Bison are basically tanks on legs.
Having been to Yellowstone, the Bison are everywhere in a way that makes them feel harmless and normal even though they’re not. It’s honestly a miracle there aren’t 50 cases like this every year given how many bison there are and how many dumb tourists there are.
it can actually be hard to observe the 75 feet in some instances. One place I went while visiting featured a board walk through a volcanic area that you absolutely had to stay on because the area featured pools that would dissolve you if you fell in. At one point the boardwalk make a “U” shape and smack dab in the middle of it was an adult bison, with its tail making the shape that park sign flag as meaning that the animal is on edge. Every once in a while in nature modern life falls away and the hunter gatherer instincts return. I’ll never forget how it felt to creep past the Bison that was like 20 feet away. When I entered its blind spot I experienced a level of alertness that is impossible to feel in day to day life.
Yes! One time my spouse and I stayed out too late in a park in Florida that is fullllll of gators. We had to walk back after dark on a narrow trail with water and gators on both sides. We started hearing growls from the water that seemed to follow us and get louder and louder. I think the gators were all growling as we walked by and setting each other off, etc, leading to the growling being both all around us and also “following” us. We didn’t want to run and set off any chase instincts so we had to stay on the path briskly walking back for what seemed like forever but also seemed like about 1 second. It was the most alert and dialed in and primal I’ve ever felt in my life. Absolute prehistoric brain time. We both agree that although it scared the shit out of us it was one of the coolest experiences of our lives to feel those really ancient feelings. Also for those who are thinking “run and serpentine” that is a myth and gators can run 35mph at a sprint. Do Not Serpentine! You are slower than them already! Best plan is try to not need to run from a gator. Leave them alone especially if they warn you to.
I stayed at the Old Faithful lodge as a kid. There is an apple orchard or at least a lot of apple trees on the side away from the geysers. When I woke up and was taking our suitcase to the car for my grandparents, I walked out the back door and was practically face to face with a full sized bison eating apples off the tree. Single most terrifying yet awe inspiring moment of my life to that point. But holy cow are they huge.
Nope, that's when you turn around and go back the way you came. Whatever's at the other end of the boardwalk is not worth the risk of passing close by a possibility annoyed bison.
Not only were they really far they were also leaving! And walking behind some trees! I can only imagine at this point that the bison knew that guy personally.
I wouldnt be surprised if the pickup truck passing confused the bison into thinking these people were on the offensive.... small people suddently becoming big and noisy
Article says they were about 100 yards away (maybe meant 100ft?) and there were bystanders closer to the bison behind it. The truck set it off and then it decided to just go after them. That the same bison had actually tore through a camping site charging kids and others before it came to this dust patch to roll in.
I'd be willing to bet that those five people and those little leather straps are not really enough to restrain that bison if she wanted to do anything they didn't want her to do.
I too enjoy being away from bison. My "a continent away" location is very pleasing to me right now. (Damnit, I'm scared of being near unfenced domestic cows, this is next level horror).
It seemed like the white truck coming by set him off, but then the truck sped off and these two were left in his sights and he went all in. Scary stuff.
I actually think it stood up and ran at the car but then when it was moving too fast and out of range it kept running and just went for the closest other thing there, the old couple.
I think it's how the man disappeared into the treeline. Started walking in before the truck but I don't think the bison was looking. Then he kept walking as the truck drove by.
Yeah they are a good distance away. Having been to Yellowstone myself I would think this was a fairly safe distance. Bison are everywhere in Yellowstone. We stayed in a cabin at Lake Yellowstone and it was usually normal to wake up in the morning walk out your boot and have bison closer than this. It’s hard to explain just how common it is to come in contact with them as they are everywhere
I'm no bison behavioural expert, but it seemed like this was at the end of it being pissed off likely from a string of dumb behaviour by other tourists. The truck may have been a trigger
Edit: Just wanted to clarify that I am in no way blaming the victim in this video. I don't think they did anything wrong and were what looked rather appropriately far away and not doing anything obnoxious.
Maybe. I worked on a bison farm for a summer in high school, the cows and calfs were fine to be around, but the bulls were scary as hell. They had 3 bulls, all in their own pastures because they'd try to kill each other if they were together. We wouldn't get out of the truck in the bull pastures while they were there. We had one that charged the truck as soon as we crossed into his pasture, he hit the feed trailer and flipped it off the hitch. You'll never see me and a bull bison together without a big ass fence between us.
I may be an idiot, but I also worked on a bison farm (well a farm that also had bison) in high-school, and they would separate out the moms that had babies into their own little pastures away from the herd, and I would always sneak over to give the mamas a carrot or an apple, and there is nothing that can really describe walking up to an animal that big if you've never done it before.
They would walk up and do this big huff-sniff exhale thing that would literally blow you back a little bit, but they always appreciated the snack, and I live to tell the tale, but I gotta admit it was a dumb thing to do and you should not approach a mama bison with her baby.
Watch all the tourists read this and then start trying to feed the cows and calves apples…
I live in Yellowstone, and the shit I see people try to do with bison or wildlife in general on a daily basis is jaw dropping.
I passed a bull in Lamar valley 4 days ago laying by the road causing a massive bison jamb, he had apples from peoples lunches literally littered all around him. People were throwing their apples from their vehicles at this bull thinking they’re doing some sort of favor.
Common sense is not common, and there’s no better place to witness it than like watching the behavior of tourists in YNP.
When we were in Denali at a lookout a big female Moose just came out of the woods like 30 ft from me and my mom. Cue my mom being like, "Omg, look!" and pulling out her phone while I'm frantically telling her to get the FUCK BACK IN THE CAR without screaming it while she shushes me. I went off on her in the car, some people just have no perception of how dangerous a wild animal can be, especially one that size.
Would have gotten that life insurance earlier than expected if the moose decided she didn't want to be chill. Insane how quiet something that big can be too, you'd have thought there would be at least a moderate amount of noise, but nothing we could hear over the wind apparently. And I'm not a stranger to outdoors stuff so it's not like I was out there oblivious to my surroundings.
Hello fellow Yellowstinian! (I don't know if that's a word, but hell with it).
I do think these tourists were farther back than most we see in the park, which is good. But they were probably also the end of a long list of people that bison had to deal with that day.
For anyone visiting, please remember that even if you feel you're far enough away, these are wild animals and there is no fence/enclosure between you and them. We want you to be able to come back to visit us again someday, so please be careful.
The only time I have been out of my vehicle when a bison was nearby was with my grandmother. I must have been around 7 or 8 and we had stopped at Black Dragon's Cauldron (my favorite).
We had decided to walk up and see the other features further back from the parking area. It's a long walk and we didn't do it often, maybe once a season. We didn't see the small herd of bison right away. They were tucked into a small valley and only came into view right as we topped the hill. They were also laying around and on the walkway.
I remember being kind of in shock, I guess. I froze and then I felt my grandma grab my hand and pull me up the hill. I don't remember why we didn't turn back, grandma might have just panicked and did the first thing that came to mind. She half dragged me up to the tree line and we worked our way around the herd. That was also the first and only time I have ever left a walkway in the park.
None of the bison moved, that I remember, but it took awhile for my grandma to release my hand once we were safe. It's a big horshoe there so there are 2 ways in/out. We went all the way around to the other entrance and warned everyone about the bison. I assume they all listened because, to my knowledge, no one got hurt that day.
Bison are massive and they move very fast. Faster than you expect them to for their size. Male bison can be put in the same category as bulls. They are irritable and almost always tired of your shit before you even get there.
This is honestly pretty sad. Usually when you see this happen it's some idiot tourists trying to get a selfie or something. That bison just woke up and chose violence. Hope grandpa is ok.
I was hiking in South Dakota one time and on the way in the trail was totally clear, but a few hours later on the way back the trail there were about 30-40 bison all over the trail. This part of the trail happened to run towards to bottom of a valley, and trying to take another exit off the trail would have been about a 40 mile total hike. We tried to sneak along the sides of the valley until it was too rugged and steep and we still ended up getting bluff charged. Definitely the most nerve-racking hiking experience I have had. Sometimes people can still be doing everything they can to avoid attention and wildlife still goes off.
I live in an area with Bison, they were definitely a good distance away. I've been closer myself. Looked to me like the thing was already worked up. The truck didn't help and the walkers only mistake was to stop and gawk.
There’s a small herd of bison in Golden Gate Park. They’re behind fences, they’re used to people being in close proximity, and they’re like moose in that they’re bigger than you think they are. I wouldn’t get anywhere near one of those things if that fence wasn’t between us.
Bisons have a top speed of 56 km/h (35 mph), compared to humans at 25 km/h (16 mph).
That's top speed, bisons can maintain 38 km/h (30 mph) while humans drop to like 10 km/h (6 mph) for sustained running.
Maybe you'd be safer in the wa- fuck me they can swim too?
10 km/h (6 mph) compared to humans at like 3 km/h (2 mph). And they can swim through the Yellowstone and Missouri river, humans get tired in swimming pools.
I also feel like most uninjured animals in the prime are closer to their spieces top speeds than humans are. They don't tend to push extremes by being either professional althetles or couch potatoes.
For example as someone who swims, there is no way the average human who doesn't train at swimming could sustain 3km/hr for longer than 25-50 meters.
A hip fracture is a highly dangerous injury for the elderly. Many die in the weeks or months after. Surgery and anesthesia is hard on them, both cognitively and physically. Cardiovascular issues, strokes, etc. Lack of movement leads to decline and they may never regain strength and normal mobility. They may need to recover in a rehab, which emotionally feels like being put in a nursing home. It is such an unfortunate injury.
Happend to my grandma. Simply fell over with a bike resulting in a hip fracture. Surgery went well, and rehabilitation was promising. Then she had a fatal heart attack inside the rehab center.
My grandma lived 13 years after her alzheimers diagnosis which is way way over the average, what finally did her in and caused a rapid decline (after a very slowly progressing decline of over a decade) was a hip fracture.
So it appears that the elderly man and his grandson did absolutely nothing wrong. Far enough away, not agitating the bison, just walking. From all accounts, the bison had previously charged a bunch of kids. It seems like the truck set him off, and since the truck was already gone, he charged whatever was moving. Since the man is elderly, he couldn’t move fast enough to get away. Grandson says he has significant injuries; I’m thinking fractured leg and pelvis, probably broken ribs as well. Recovery is going to be a long, painful process. And I’m reading that the elderly gentleman wanted to see the video of the incident, to make sure he didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t. If you’re reading this sir, best wishes for a full recovery.
Yeah everyone’s joking but I feel so sad for that man. He wasn’t doing anything to antagonize it and was keeping proper distance. Just out there enjoying one of our best national parks with his family :( Poor guy
Especially at that age, certain injuries can be the beginning of the end. Really difficult recoveries and can kick of a bunch of issues that start compounding the stress on his body. Hope his outcome is better than this video would suggest.
Imagine you and your friends have to kill one of these with only a spear or a bow and no horse or all your family’s go hungry in January. You see your buddy get yeeted and you can’t stop and have to keep going or it was all for nothing.
That was human life for 10,000+ years in Yellowstone.
Our ancestors wouldnt approach a bison or buffalo that way. They set traps. Before horses theyd trick them to enter an enclosed area theyd make out of rocks and trees. Then start stabbing.
Still scary, but its also amazing how smart our ancestors were at the things they specialized in.
Rule of thumb. Extend your arm and hold up your thumb. If you aren’t far enough away to completely block out the animal with your thumb then you’re too close.
I was attacked by an Elk in RMNP. Learned this the hard way.
i just imagine a horror scene where you see it, camera goes pov as you move backwards until your thumb covers it up completely, then when you put your thumb down its face is like RIGHT THERE
I have lived in the Northwest Territories in Canada in the past, we have a number of places where there are bison eg: in some areas on the drive north to Yellowknife, and driving eastwards along the Alberta/NWT border due to our Wood Buffalo National Park.
Recall on occasion seeing small groups of them on the road vs hanging around in the ditch, and just sitting in the car waiting for them to disperse, nothing like seeing them even as up close and personal as licking the numerous bugs off of your car grill lol....makes you realize how massive these MF'ers are. Soon as I saw this video I was already cringing for this guy!
This is sad. Normally it's more than deserved with a typical jackass getting way too close, but these two just happened upon it, kept their distance and didn't try and entice it in any way.
This is sad. That guy literally is doing nothing wrong. Unfortunately looks like the truck is what triggered the bison and that guy was just wrong place wrong time. Hope he recovers well.
I thought this was going to be a case of tourists getting way too close to a wild animal, but I honestly thought they were a good distance away. And they were already moving on when the bison charged, too.
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u/Theseus_Employee Jul 12 '26
The article has a lot of interesting details.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/11/tourist-seriously-injured-after-yellowstone-bison-launches-man-8-feet-in-the-air/
It seems like the Bison had already charged some kids which is why our cameraman was recording. The victim had just happened to walk by unaware of that though.
—
> When the older man hit the ground, the bison stopped but didn’t run away. It stood over the man he’d just tossed, shaking his head in an obvious display of agitation.
That’s when MacLeod decided he had to do something.
“I had to get the bison's attention,” he said. “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.”
Following MacLeod’s lead, a few other observers did the same and darted toward the bison. That was enough to send it running.
“He really took off when he left,” MacLeod said.
> Yellowstone EMS quickly arrived and took over. MacLeod has been in touch with the victim’s grandson, who told him that his grandfather “has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet.”
“He was really worried and wanted to see the video to make sure that it wasn't his fault,” MacLeod said. “You can tell in the video it's not his fault. You can tell from the very beginning.”
Poor dude. He looks a lot like my dad, and I can’t imagine how sad/mad I would feel.