Two thoughtless tourists had a close brush with danger when a bison charged at them in Yellowstone National Park, despite numerous warnings to steer clear of the area.
The heart-stopping incident was caught on camera by a wildlife photographer, capturing the duo’s narrow escape in this renowned park, which covers almost 4,000 square miles across Wyoming, Montana, and eastern Idaho.
In late May, the oblivious visitors were observed standing on a grassy patch at Grizzly Hill, mere feet from the massive animal.
As they strolled away, the bison began to follow, while onlookers frantically urged them to hurry.
Pandemonium ensued when the bison suddenly charged.
“Look out!” shouted the photographer, Julie Argyle, as the tourists broke into a run. The man managed to sprint ahead, avoiding the bison’s path, but the woman wasn’t so lucky; her shirt briefly snagged on the bison’s horn.
Luckily for the brazen tourists, the bison ran past them.
‘Slide down the damn hill,’ one baffled woman yelled at the couple who were still lingering in the vicinity in the moments after the terrifying run-in.
‘Ten minutes before this happened, we asked these people not to go up the hill because the bison were roughhousing,’ Argyle wrote when she posted the video on Facebook over the weekend.
Yellowstone National Park tourists are warned to stay out of bison’s way (file photo of a woman at Yellowstone taking a photo of a bison)
‘The man turned and flipped his hand at us, basically brushing us off.’
The photographer elaborated in the video’s caption, urging others to take the incident as a warning.
‘Most of the time when you’re asked not to do something in Yellowstone, it’s for a good reason,’ Argyle wrote.
‘Please be mindful if someone asks you not to do something. It’s usually for your own good.’
There are roughly 5,400 bison across Yellowstone, according to a 2024 estimate from the National Park Service (NPS).
Male bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, while females can weigh up to 1,000 pounds.
The NPS described the animals as ‘aggressive’ and ‘agile,’ noting that they can run at speeds reaching 30mph.
Yellowstone is the only place in the lower 48 states that has had a free-ranging bison population since prehistoric times.
‘There’s an imaginary sense of safety in Yellowstone,’ bison advocate George Wuerthner told the Cowboy State Daily in September. ‘People tend to look at the wildlife in Yellowstone like they would if they were at a zoo.’
There are roughly 5,400 bison at Yellowstone National Park
‘Those animals are accustomed to people, but that doesn’t negate their wild tendencies,’ he continued. ‘In their wild conditions, Yellowstone’s wildlife will react differently than an animal in the zoo.’
Argyle, who frequents the park to watch and photograph its animals, told Cowboy State Daily that she believes visitors are losing respect for Yellowstone’s inhabitants.
‘I tell people not to get too close to animals all the time, and I get yelled at. Foul words are yelled at me all the time,’ she explained.
‘I believe people don’t realize the true consequences of their actions, but I definitely think they’re doing things and not caring about what could happen.’
Argyle’s sentiment appears to be true, with multiple instances of bison goring people at Yellowstone in recent history.
In May, a bison charged into a 47-year-old man from Florida, who came within 10 feet of the animal near Yellowstone Lake and Old Faithful.
He was treated on-site by park emergency personnel and did not require hospitalization, the NPS said.
In 2024, an 83-year-old woman was lifted off the ground by a bison’s horns near the Storm Point Trail.
In May, a a bison charged a 47-year-old man who came within 10 feet of the beat near Yellowstone’s Lake Village
A year earlier, a 47-year-old woman sustained serious chest and abdominal injuries after being gored near Lake Village.
A 25-year-old woman died in 2022 after a bison gored her at the park and threw her 10 feet into the air. Just weeks later, a 1,800-pound bison gored a 34-year-old man who rescued a little boy in the beast’s path.
On average, there are only one to two bison-inflicted injuries reported at Yellowstone each year. Bison are responsible for more injuries at the park than any other animal.
From 2000 to 2015, 25 visitors were harmed in a bison encounter. Only two people have died from run-ins with a bison in Yellowstone since 1972.
Park officials constantly stress the importance of maintaining a safe distance – 25 yards from large animals like bison – to protect visitors.
