Woman gored by bison in Yellowstone
First such incident of the season
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — It took longer than one might expect for the first bison goring of the season to take place in Yellowstone given the intense tourism traffic. But a 30-year-old Michigan woman was seriously injured by a bison on Sunday on Storm Point Trail at the northern end of Yellowstone Lake.
PIO Linda Veress confirmed for Jackson Hole Press that the incident resulted in significant enough injuries that the woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Medical Center in Idaho Falls. There were no other details available. The incident is under investigation.
Several selfies and other photos are sprinkled across social media channels in the past couple of weeks. They show visitors approaching grazing and sleeping bison close enough to touch. Some are seen to actually be petting the animals.
A cultural divide is sometimes to blame for human-wildlife encounters that go wrong. In many other countries, wild animals are not seen, or if they are seen they are in zoos or other animal sanctuaries.
Also, typically in the wild, bison and other animals would not tolerate the close space between themselves and humans. But repeated human presence has desensitized animals like bison to the point where they are not all that stressed. Unless they are. All it takes is one bad hair day, one hangry bull to get gawked for the umpteenth time and…whammo!
Give animals their space, say park reps.
