WHAT’S UP TODAY – A 25-year-old woman was gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park on Monday morning, officials said.
A bison was walking near a boardwalk at Black Sand Basin, just north of the Old Faithful geyser, when a tourist approached it, coming within 10 feet. [Park visitors agree to maintain a distance of at least 75 feet from bison.]
The wild animal then gored the woman and tossed her 10 feet into the air, according to a press release from the National Park Service.
The unnamed woman, who was visiting from Grove City, Ohio, sustained a puncture wound among other injuries, the agency said.
She was transported via ambulance to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
“Yellowstone is not Disneyland. You can get hurt or killed here.” | Park historian Lee Whittlesey
Two other individuals were also within 25 yards of the same bison at the time of the incident.
Park regulations require visitors to stay more than 25 yards away from bison, which have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal, according to the National Park Service.
When a large animal such as a bison is near a campsite, trail, boardwalk, parking lot or in a developed area, the National Park Service advises people to “give it space.”
“Bison are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans.” – National Parks Service
Yellowstone facts
“We have big animals that can kill and literally eat you. [Yet] people insist on walking up to pet a bison or feed a grizzly bear… | Park historian Lee Whittlesey
- Since 1979, more than 118 million people visited Yellowstone National Park. During this period, 44 people were injured by bears in the park, according to park numbers.
- On April 15, 2021, backcountry guide Charles “Carl” Mock was fishing alone several miles west of the park near West Yellowstone, Mont., when he was attacked by a grizzly and seriously injured. He died a day later after he suffered a stroke following surgery. While
- Separate incidents in July and August of 2011 reported two day hikers mauled to death by grizzlies near Hayden Valley.
- Following his parents along a boardwalk in the Old Faithful area in 1970, nine-year-old Andy Hecht from Williamsville, New York, tripped or slipped into the scalding waters of Crested Pool. He swam a couple of strokes, then sank in front of his horrified family.
- In 1981, David Allen Kirwin, a 24-year-old Californian, died from third-degree burns over his entire body. He dove head-first into Celestine Pool’s 202-degree water, attempting to rescue a friend’s dog.
- On June 7, 2016, Colin Nathaniel Scott, 23, of Portland, Ore., slipped and fell to his death in a hot spring near Porkchop Geyser. He and his sister illegally left the boardwalk and walked more than 200 yards in the Norris Geyser Basin when the incident happened.
- More than 20 people have been killed in the past by some of Yellowstone’s 10,000 geothermal pools, geysers, mudpots, steam vents and hot springs
