Two women are lucky to still be alive and have all their innards intact after they narrowly escaped being gored by bison at Yellowstone National Park. While it feels like common sense to say that you should always respect nature and keep your distance from wild animals, there are some tourists who either didn’t get the memo or clearly don’t care. What is wrong with people?!
In two separate incidents, female tourists decided to get up close and personal with the bison at the park, and the animals didn’t take too kindly to the invasion. On one occasion, a woman decided to reach her head out and try to pet one of them, and it nearly gored her with its horn. In another incident, which was caught on video and posted on Instagram, a woman walks right over to one of the bison and snaps a selfie.
Per the National Park Service, being around bison isn’t dangerous so long as you stay away from them and do your own thing. The pros say 25 yards away will do just fine. It’s also important to point out that “willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards” at Yellowstone is against the law.
While the two women in the above incidents were lucky to escape without injury, that hasn’t always been the case. A woman was gored by a bison last year at Yellowstone when she failed to keep her distance. In fact, “bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal. They are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans,” the park said in a statement.
Please dedicate your life to not becoming like these people. When you go to Yellowstone or any national park or public place where there might be wild animals, respect it. Admire them from afar but keep your distance and don’t act like an absolute idiot.