I think the headline should read “Bison Defends Itself from California Tourist at Yellowstone National Park” as the tourist approached within 10-feet of the bull. I’m glad the man was not severely injured but every visitor is handed a little flyer with a drawing of a person being thrown through the air by a bison.
Bison Attacks California Tourist at Yellowstone National Park
Local 8 News, Eastern Idaho
Bull bison weigh up to 2000 pounds and they have big pointy things on their head. I’ve seen them walk slowly up to a 5-foot fence and jump over it like a deer.
Don’t walk up to them unless you want a big hole in your leg or groin area which is where most people are gored. Most people injured by bison approach them too closely. I’ve never heard of a bison that went out of its way to attack someone.
As my friend Mike Mease always says, “if a buffalo lifts its tail then it is either going to charge or discharge”.
Here are videos of what can happen very quickly to people who approach bison too closely.
Comments
More videos on the YNP website:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/safetyvideos.htm
Every year, the same nonsense from tourists … Today, I was disgusted to read on a tourist’s blog about bragging about feeding Doritos to squirrels.
I am sick of it; buffalo get tortured and slaughtered every winter and spring, and then they are made into a ridiculous spectacle by the onslaught of tourists in the summer.
If we’d let them roam, then they wouldn’t be made to be circus freaks. We would know what they were and how to give them their due respect. But, since we as a people and a government don’t, why should we expect much better from tourists? It’s inevitable that people won’t be easily educated to what they never are allowed to experience in their regular lives.
Oh, and just a case in point … was updating my “newspaper” and just stumbled on this person who had to be convinced by her friends not to run out and touch a bison calf even after she had seen the literature!
See http://kariandnathan.blogspot.com/2009/07/warning-many-visitors-have-been-gored.html for more of the parade of stupidity; it shows you literature is not enough. People need a connection with their land and wildlife again.
The first video is pretty funny. Reminds me of the time I saw a tourist who ran off when a bear woofed and stomped the ground. He was convinced he outran her and didn’t believe me when I told him she would have caught him about 50 back if she wanted to get him.
they should not warn the tourists and they should not punish the wildlife.
I agree with Brian – if people are that stupid to come so close to a wild animal do they not deserve the consequences? The media needs to knock it off! And, please don’t accuse us of choosing animals over people.
Oh the intelligence of some folks… I could add something awful about one of Charles Darwin’s theories having a hand in this but I’m just not that cruel.
Ditto Brian.
Actually, I do choose animals over people and I think they have a higher level of intellect as well.
And furthermore, people should be told at the gate that they enter at their own risk and any injury they might suffer as a result of interaction with wildlife is their responsibility and that they would be fined ~ heavily ~ if such an event takes place. After the massive accounts of absolute ignorance that I have seen in the park this summer, I would be in favor of punishing the humans that aren’t smart enough to consider their own safety when they do these stupid things and nothing should be done to the animals who defend themselves from these fools.
Most of the gorings in Yellowstone were from bulls saying enough is enough. You see, big bulls need to lay down a lot and tourists don’t want to just take picture after picture of a bull in this position. So they throw rocks at them to get them up. It has a cummulative affect.
I have been personally involved in a number of goring cases as a ranger. I was the bison expert so the Park used me in a number of lawsuits and tort claims involving buffalo. One of these was near the Lake Lodge. While driving to it to play basketball I saw a bull chasing a young man into the woods….tail up, full speed and a run of maybe 30- 50 yds. In otherwords a full out encounter. I immediately pulled over and asked the people gathered on the side walk what was going on. They said this and another guy would come to the edge of the woods, throw rocks till this bull charged ….and the run back into those woods to deflect it withe the closely spaced trees. The bull would then go back to grazing. They had done this 3-4 times.
I yelled “Park Ranger” to the offenders and they ran off up the hill.
I hopped in my car and drove to the Lodge (100 yds away)and ran in to call the ranger station …. to get somebody with a uniform on. It was less then 2 minutes and as I was on the phone a person came in and said a buffalo had a guy down. I ran out and the bull was standing over a guy next to the side walk. Then a vehicle jumped the curb and got the bull to back off a bit. I ran up and the guy (a concessioner walking to the gym with a Youth for Christ t- shirt on) was laying there with a big hole in his buttocks. I identified myself and he replied he thought he just had the wind knocked out of him. He then said all he did was just say to the bull as he walked by, “Hey big buddy and the buffalo got me”.
The bull for some reason had, with directional change, walked and grazed the 50 yards from where he was grazing, to the road. The guy gored, naively thought as long as he was on the side walk, even though the bull was less than 10 feet away, that he was safe. Yes, side walks belong to people and grass belongs to animals.
We got the two drunk concessioner employees, had them kicked out of the Park (no money for restitution) and we had another tourist badly hurt.
I don’t know of any Yellowstone bison having to be put down because of aggressive behavior that wasn’t a product of repeated harassment. Some was intentional like this case but most was by tourists just wanting to get bulls to stand up for pictures.
The sad thing is there are very few rangers or biologists that put these things together. They just think bulls get mean and tourists are stupid and get too close. They do not understand most aggressive behavior by bulls is a delayed effect. Yes, buffalo are wild but the wildness we attribute to them is man caused.
I was in the park yesterday. I was driving past Mud Volcano and saw a big bull standing right off the pavement of the parking lot. There had to be twenty people within twenty feet of him taking pictures. One fool even walked within ten feet and turned his back on the bull and bent over, basically sticking his rear in the bull’s face, while his friend took his picture! I pulled in and parked at a safe distance to watch with my camera and call a ranger, because I just knew someone was going to get gored.
The bull was obviously very aggitated. He was pawing the ground, shaking his head back and forth, bellowing and twitching his tail like crazy; yet all I heard was laughter and no one moved back. In fact, the crowd got larger.
Finally a second bull came in and distracted the big guy, and they wandered off together.
When I got home I told my wife that it was amazing someone didn’t get gored today. Actually, she said, someone did!
I disagree that people should not be warned, because I’m certain that some people do pay attention. I think that videos such as these should be played in a constant loop at every entrance station. Playing them at Visitor Centers don’t work because only a small percentage of people spend much time there.
The bottom line though is what do we expect from a species that gets its kicks out of things like “running with the bulls”?
Alan,
I would get a lot more satisfaction out of participating in the “walking with the bulls” as the Mandans did.
To say people should not even be warned is pretty appalling. That would cause more people to be hurt. To imply someone deserves to be gored because they’re ignorant is pretty heartless. Is anyone’s high horse so high up you think an ignorant person needs to suffer? I approached a black bear when I was 8 and offered it a sandwich (the bear thankfully ignored me), did I deserve to lose my arm or die? Did my parents deserve to lose their son?
Even more education is needed along with increased ranger presence. People should also be charged for any emergency response and fined if their illegal activity can be documented. Common sense among visitors is just as needed as common sense among those wishing to prevent bad incidents.
For years Yellowstone and other national parks have made a good faith effort to keep people a safe distance from buffalo, bears, and other wildlife. I wouldn’t say it’s not working at all, but it’s clear we need to do better. If you ask, “what’s the problem,” the accuracy of the information is not an issue. It’s the way the information is presented. Maybe the NPS needs to hire a marketing agency to do an effective ad campaign. Same basic information presented in a way that gets the message through to people.
A lot of the people that visit Yellowstone in the summer have no experience with wild animals of any kind. Their only experience comes from watching wildlife televison programs where they see biologists featured as they trap and tag some dangerous animal. How many times have you seen some expert handle cobras, crocodiles or great white sharks on a wildlife show? If you go into any visitor center in Yellowstone, you will find books written by park biologists with pictures of themselves holding up wolves, wolverines or some other wild animal they have captured. Monkey see, Monkey do.
The sensationalism of TV and Movies have put the animals in a very bad position….I think we again need to look to the media, of course they won’t stop making shows that sell ad’s, we see it in the news, the TV shows that are on now a days, and especially those channels that cater to the myth, IE:Discovery, Animal Planet, NatGeo, and a host of others…It is unfortunate that current biologists spend so much time worry about image over work….and the ones that do take a position are often times the one you see on TV day in and day out, the rest of them won’t take a stand one way or another and are very evasive when questioned about a position, whats the answer?
Speaking of Yellowstone here is some good news.
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Obama administration is proposing to cut by more than half the number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone National Park, marking yet another policy swing for an issue that’s been unresolved for more than a decade.
Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff says 318 snowmobiles and 78 multi-passenger snowcoaches would be allowed daily for the next two winters under the proposal.
That’s down from 720 snowmobiles allowed last winter – a cap that was never reached.
The question of how many snowmobiles are appropriate for the nation’s first national park has sparked political and legal skirmishing since the Clinton administration, when an outright ban was proposed.
The public will be invited to weight in on the latest proposal during a 45-day comment period.
So, a person who doesn’t understand that a National Park is not a zoo, should not be smart enough not to walk up to or harass a 2,000+ animal with horns, and take the responsibility for whatever happens to them? If you read the book “Death in Yellowstone” you will read about all kinds of stupid, foolish people who died in various ways in the park, because of carelessness and ignorance. Back when feeding the bears was allowed, my mother let me throw my peanut butter sandwich out the window of the car and immediately roll up the window as we drove away. She knew even back then that the animals in the Park are wild and dangerous without even being warned. Great news on the snowmobile decision!
Obama is making a huge mistake by starting from the status quo of 720 bubbleheads a day. He needs to start with a blank slate: no snowmobiles, no snowcoaches, no NPS winter bureaucracy. What can we learn from the past? What do we want for the future?
TV shows, cartoons and movies may hold some of the blame but come on! When I was eight years old watching Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse, I knew the difference between what was real and what wasn’t; and I lived in the city for gosh sake. Also, If people don’t realize that the individuals in the books in the park that are holding a wolf or bear are professionals in controlled situations, they don’t belong out and about by themselves.
One thing that may not be so clear is when they see all of the books, postcards, prints etc. for sale that depict close up, tightly framed, photographs of bears, bison, wolves…you name it. They even sell Jim Cole’s books in the park!! It’s only natural that folks want to go home with the same type of pictures with their point and shoot cameras. It is “obvious” (to them) that the photographers got real close to get those pictures, so it must be safe.
Now I’m not suggesting that they stop selling these items. Most pros use long lenses and maintain proper distances, and a lot of those close ups were shot with a ranger standing right there (road bears) or were cropped and blown up. However, perhaps signs in the book dept. with disclaimers explaining that the pictures of animals depicted in photography books were taken with super telephoto lenses (maybe a picture of what these lenses looks like) and that it is illegal and dangerous to approach wildlife. Maybe even a sticker to that effect on each book.
Another thing, especially with bears is this: How confusing is it for a visitor who reads all about the 25/100 yard thing to drive into a bear jam where people are being allowed to photograph 40 or 50 yards from a bear? Usually this is a case where the ranger is very familiar with a particular bear and has allowed a closer approach. That’s fine. It is how it should be. It is a wonderful opportunity for tourists and even pro photographers who take advantage of the situation. Problem is, on down the road and another bear, folks are going, “Remember the ranger let us get THIS close”.
Everywhere where it is written or mentioned, the 25/100 yard rule should be amended to read, “..All animals 25 yards except bears and wolves 100 yards, EXCEPT when instructed otherwise by an on-sight ranger…” which is what the actural law reads anyway. I think it would avoid confusion.
Too bad about the snowmobile thing. Was kind of hoping the Obama people would get rid of them altogether.
Alan has a good point. An accident waiting to happen is someone who wants a good photo, has seen good photos in the Park, and has a 3x optical zoom.
People should be warned, and be well aware that there may be consequences, such as serious injury, if they break the rules. A wild animal should not be punished for acting instinctually
I think there’s another side to people getting too close to wildlife. Yellowstone certainly inspires wonder in people and it’s exciting to see animals up close. I get the impression that many people know they’re too close to wildlife or that they’re blocking an animal’s path or that their behavior is inappropriate (leaving their vehicle in the middle of the road while they run out for the closeup). But maybe they’ll only visit the park once and their attitude seems to be ‘doing this just once won’t be a big deal’. Hard to feel much sympathy when they get injured.
Of course, people who visit the park often know that ‘just once’ happens every day with a new batch of tourists. How many times have you seen a bear or elk totally surrounded by people who don’t seem to care that it wants to cross the road or walk away? My attitude is that I love Yellowstone, but by the time I leave, I can’t stand the place. The bad tourist behavior can be overwhelming.
During the past several weeks there have been such terrible traffic jams along the 14 mile west entrance road, due to those “just this once” folks looking at an elk or bison with radio collars and the eagles’ nest about five miles in that it took over an hour to get through the 14 mile stretch, in both directions. The park admin is failing its responsibilities in a major way.
When someone dies from a health issue or injury ~ not from getting too close to wildlife ~ can’t get out of the park or anywhere, for that matter, there will be some heads rolling. I sat through four such traffic “cluster f***s” in three days along that stretch. I walked to the Madison Campground and asked for one of the folks to call the west gate and report that there was this issue and they laughed at me and proceeded to lecture me about not moving bison off the road in the park. I had a few choice words as I walked away. The thing that is most discouraging is that two hours prior, when going geyser basin and seeing the seven mile long jam going the other way, a ranger was exiting the campground and acknowledged that he knew about it. After having dinner at Old Faithful, two hours later, the same jam was now backed up to the construction at Gibbon Falls and past Firehole Dr.
Sad. Many folks missed dinner reservations and other stuff they had planned. Bad for everyone…
I guess my perspective differs a bit. Every time I visit YNP I marvel at the tolerance of its animals! I think they have done an amazing job, especially when you consider the problems they had with food conditioned animals in the past. With more than 3,000,000 visits per year, to a park with bears, wolves, bison, moose, elk, etc. that have been habituated to humans, it is simply amazing that more people don’t get attacked.
In fact, wildlife attacks in generaly simply are not a problem in the U.S. The real problem is our society’s collective desire to provide a world with no risk. To raise such a fuss about the few attacks that do occur only feeds into this paranoia. You’re more likely to be struck by lightening while simultaneously sucked up by a tornado, than killed by a bison or a bear! Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. 😉
Jb, I agree that raising a fuss about the attacks is what fuels paranoia. That is part of why I don’t read Outdoor Life anymore. It seems like there are always these sensationalist stories of bear, mountain lion, moose, etc. that are attacking. They don’t mention that you are more likely to be killed on your way to the hunt in your truck or that domestic cattle and domestic dogs kill more people than bears or mountain lions and white-tailed deer cause more deaths than those due to being hit by cars.
I agree that the animals in the park are amazingly tolerant. I have seen people literally pet a moose calf and the mother did not charge and I have seen people get within a few feet of buffalo more times than I can count.
Jbunham, I think that the “just this once” attitude is also a cause for concern as people really don’t consider that “just this once” can cause problems with wildlife both for themselves and the animal.
IIRC, one of the bear fatalities in the 1980’s left behind a camera with a wide-angle lens; he obviously was trying to get very close to the bear.
It’s ridiculous to say “don’t warn the tourists.” Most have absolutely no experience with undomesticated animals, especially those from certain foreign countries which haven’t had large wildlife for a very long time. A friend of mine working at OF Lodge had a man run in one night to report an escaped bison – “No, you don’t understand! He’s loose! He’s on the road!”
Worse are certain tour guides I’ve seen, who have encouraged their riders to get close to the bison for photos, or one who told a small boy, “Yeah, the bison are tame.” It’s inexcusable.
The first visitor to be gored by a bison in the park this year was a woman talking on a payphone on a sidewalk adjacent to a building in Canyon. The park press release stated the woman did not see the bison walk down a nearby road and veer from the road before flipping her into the air. That’s hardly a situation where the person should have expected to be attacked or deserved to be injured.
Those who think less educated people (everyone but them) deserve to be attacked are clearly are not interested in actually solving the problem. The key to improving the safety of both people and wildlife is more education and ranger/law enforcement presence.
Close the East Entrance/Sylvan Pass to snowmobiling, and the NPS has an extra 1$million a year for education/eforcement to protect people from wildlife, and vice versa during the busy summer season when average Americans visit the park in the same cars and minivans they drive to work in every day.
But the NPS caters to a handful of wealthy people who can afford $9000 recreational snowmobile toys.
The NPS has the money to do what’s sensible, it’s all a matter of priorities.
The majority of the “traffic jammers” won’t even get out of their cars, thus they stop in the middle of the road and basically say to the other 3,000,000 visitors, “Screw you, this is MY vacation. If you have to be somewhere, too bad because I’m on vacation and I’ll do as I please, right now that happens to be stopping in the middle of the road, in a no apssing zone, to take a picture of that eagle that isn’t going to come out well.”
People turn into belligerent, self aggrandizing idiots when they pass through the gate, as if the rules just don’t apply when you go on vacation. They don’t obey the traffic laws in the towns outside the park, why should they care if there are rules inside the park? In America the basic concept here would be, “Rules are made to be broken” and why should that be any different in the park?
I agree with the “just this once” comments as well as those of the “monkey see, monkey do” attitude. The park admin is not doing living up to its responsibilities and has little to no concern over the fact that what has been done in the past and hasn’t worked certainly isn’t going to work this year either when you consider that the park’s visitation numbers are up in record amounts with each passing year of the current “ress-pression”. And from the looks of things, it isn’t likely to improve without some serious restructuring of priorities and regime change in the admin offices.
I almost wish I had been suffering from a life-threatening episode so I could sue the park and the concessionaires whose employees decided to lecture me rather than pick up the phone (there’s little to no cellphone service in the West Entrance Road area) to alert the park’s traffic people of such a problem.
With that many people at risk in these traffic situations, you’d think the overly protective visitors would be in an uproar over that as well as the fact that those who do stop in the middle of the road are endangering them and the wildlife.
As far as warning the public about safe distances, how about there be one sign, handed to entrants that reads, enter at your own risk, if you are injured by an animal in the park, you will be held responsible and fined. ( It’s similar to the ICC rules in trucking where there are “runaway” ramps on mountain passes for trucks that are unable to maintain a slow, safe speed down steep grades. Yes, they are there to help you stop in an “out of control” situation but there is also a heavy fine for actually using one because you, as the operator, let your vehicle get out of control in the first place.)
And lastly, use the damned pullouts if you have lots of vehicles behind you or you want to stop and look at something!!! Get out of your car and walk if you have to but keep a saffe distance from the animals and geysers!!! Geeze people, get a clue.
Everyone that enters the park receives a bright yellow warning paper with a drawing of a a tourist getting flipped into the air by a bison…pretty self explanatory! They also receive a park newsletter that clearly states warnings and rules regarding wildlife. Everyday rangers are forced to confront tourists that flagrantly ignore these rules, even after a ranger has told them to move away from the animals. There’s simply no excuse for ignorance.
Seems like most people prefer to learn things the hard way even though they demand to be told all the answers in advance.
Dusty’s right, there’s bunch of people have to learn with their foreheads. So is the person who talked about “just this once.” The problem is that the reactions of any animal to a given situation is built upon that individual’s life experience. An animal that has been bugged too much or fed, or otherwise habituated may have developed response to those situations which it may apply to the next human who wanders past. Thus the guilty may escape their due but some innocent wandering past gets whacked later for behavior they had nothing to do with. I have given up on Yellowstone and most National Parks because of the idiots and the risk they create for me and mine. I don’t camp in public campgrounds for the same reason: I have no idea what problems the last guy created for the next guy (maybe me) with his behavior. Instead I have learned no trace camping and people avoidance.
I have personally warned people about high-risk behavior with wildlife only to have them listen, nod, and go right ahead with what they were doing. If it wasn’t for the risk to the wildlife and for the next guy down the line I’d let the situation develop just to watch an idiot get taken out of the gene pool!
Any way you look at it, wildlife loses.
A few years ago I stopped on the one-way street by the Mammoth visitor center to let a large herd of elk cross. I politely stopped my engine and rolled my window down and rested my chin on my hand as the elk slowly paraded in front of my truck.. When I looked to see the tail end of the herd, I knew I had made a BIG mistake. There was good ol number 6 and he was looking me right in the eye. He stopped in front of my truck and I could just see the hole he was going to gore in my radiator. I glared at him and he glared at me and then he rushed to my open window and stuck his nose in against my face. I leaned away and started my engine which caused him to jump back and I escaped. My camper extends over the cab of my truck and prevented him from getting his horns in or I could have been injured. I was left with a wet spot on my cheek and a big smile as I thought about being kissed by number 6 and living to tell about it.
We all go to Yellowstone for the wild adventure of the place. Some of us come away with a wet cheek and others come away with a hole in their backside where the bison gored them. I wouldn’t miss it for anything! I will miss number 6.
Buffalorunner, the park service could run a loop of wildlife attacks at every entrance and people will still get gored. The only way to effectively deal with the problem is for stiff fines for people getting too close to wildlife.
Larry, was #6 the elk that was also called the King and Charger who was killed by poachers, or was he the one that died just recently?
ProWolf,
#6 just died last winter when he jumped a fence in Gardiner and landed on his back in some rocks and couldn’t get up. He ruled the Mammoth area for years and had his antlers cut off at least once for being too aggressive. Charger was poached many years ago and spent most of his time on elk meadows between Norris and Gibbon Meadows. He got his name because he often charged groups of photographers in the fall.
I think some park animals actually enjoy close contact with crowds of humans. They could easily move a few hundred yards from roads and would never be bothered. I found two large bull moose a mile or more up one of the streams in the Hayden Valley one summer and was taking some photos of them, when they decided to walk down to the road and graze twenty yards from a pullout. They seemed to enjoy the moose jam they caused. I have observed similar behavior with wolves, bears, bighorns and elk.
Larry, I have seen a black bear do the same thing outside of Mammoth and a bull elk do that around Norris. I am convinced they were posing for pictures. Although I think the best example of human tolerance I saw was a coyote near Tower Fall. I pulled off to watch it and it stalked a ground squirrel close to me. It did a somersault trying to catch it.
The fact that the animals can tolerate people is a double edged sword. It is nice to see them up close but then you always have some idiot who pushed his or her luck. I always figure if the animals gets close to me and not the other way around I am probably in good shape. (Provided it’s not something like a sow grizzly with cubs.)
Prowolf I agree with you that there is a huge difference in wildlife approaching you and people approaching wildlife. In their world an approach is aggressive be it coyote or sow grizzly. On the other hand when I am out doing a watercolor somewhere. . sitting quietly and concentrating on my work animals of all sizes come close. If I stand up and stretch or something they all scatter. When I guided people to see Brown bears in Alaska we often used the method of anchoring somewhere quiet and letting the bears approach us. . which made for some of the best photographs. People tend to be impatient, however, wanting to see the animal up close, get a world class photo in ten minutes and then check that animal off their list. As a guide that made my job challenging as people also don’t value what they don’t have to work for.
There is nothing more I like than picking a place in the Lamar, Hayden or along the Madison and just set up and wait, during the rut, I might sit in the same spot with my camera gear set up for a whole day and take pictures of what ever comes around, there has been several days I have set up in the 7 mile bridge area on the west entrance road and photographed elk, moose, bear and swans in the same day and I never moved..I have never quite understood, the “rush” of rushing around the parks…
Save bears, that is why some people don’t enjoy national parks. They expect animals to be everywhere they happen to be. I agree, the way you watch wildlife is the best. Hayden Valley is my personal favorite because it is a window to the past with the buffalo living in a natural setting. It’s like getting a glimpse of the old west.
See? We always knew bison were smarter than cows…~S~
Was up in the Lamar last summer on a wolf watching trip with some DOW folks, and we were lucky enough to have a biologist with a van and who is part of the wolf watching network there. At one point, a herd of bison was crossing the road, and we stopped to let them by. They were not at all put off by the van, and basically flowed around it as they went across with some newborns, whom I didn’t realize were the most beautiful shade of golden tan I have seen. In any case, they were rubbing the van, and I opened one of the windows to look down at the bison, and I have never seen anything as big as that, and that close! So, if some idiot tourist want to touch one, or have a picture taken next to one, and gets hurt…hey, them’s the breaks…and the bison should always be held harmless.
Also saw some wolves feeding on a bison carcass, and at lest two bison came over to check things out. No overt hostility on either species’ part…just an acceptance of what is, or so it seemed.
That first video is from my YouTube page. Happy it’s being used to educate people on wildlife safety (more important for the animal than the human, really!) but would have liked an attempt at a request for the video to be used, or at least a link to my blog.
This morning my husband and I watched a CNN news clip featuring a few more people with less than average sense approach a bison.
Is it our imagination that we think we saw one of the people throw a stick at the bison before it charged?
1. Stupid to approach the animal
2. Stupid to talk on national television about your own darn ignorance
3. And if there was a stick thrown, stupid that it was included in the clip and more stupid that it was thrown at all!!!!
Isn’t this considered a crime???
Go to: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/22/wyoming.bison.attack
They admit to being 30 feet away; way too close … wrong time of year to be that close if you are …
The only saving grace is at the end she says not to do what she did and to be smart … so, at least she’s admitting the blame even if CNN doesn’t do anything but report the sensationalized first hand terror of the incident.