A visitor injured in a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park is now describing the frightening encounter that sent him flying roughly 8 feet into the air earlier this month.
“Even though I was on the ground, he could have stomped me. He could have gored me. He could have done anything,” Carl Isom-McDaniel said as he spoke publicly about the Yellowstone bison incident for the first time from his hospital bed.
Isom-McDaniel, 65, said he had been taking an after-dinner walk with his grandson when the bison unexpectedly rushed toward them.
“We saw the bison and he was down. He wasn’t showing aggression or anything like that until it picked a target. That target happened to be me,” Isom-McDaniel recalled. “He just kept coming and he was more aggressive and as soon as he got off that tree, he launched me in the air.”
Bozeman Health
Mike MacLeod, who recorded the attack, said he and several bystanders quickly stepped in to drive the animal away from the injured man.
“I charged the bison, yelling and screaming and kind of been trying to put my camera up in the air,” MacLeod said. “And a bunch of other men joined me, and we successfully hazed the bison off of the victim.”
Isom-McDaniel sustained a severe femur fracture, which his doctor described as being “broken in multiple pieces.” He is now recovering after surgery at Bozeman Health in Montana.
The Yellowstone National Park bison attack marks the second documented incident of its kind in the park this year. In June, a 12-year-old visitor was also injured by a bison while visiting the park.
Park officials say bison will defend their space when threatened, but MacLeod said that wasn’t the case in this situation.
“They did everything right,” he said.
In the video of the attack, Isom-McDaniel is seen standing with his grandson about 100 yards away from the bison before it charged. The National Park Service on its website warns that bison are “wild animals and are unpredictable.” It suggests maintaining a distance of 100 feet from bison, or around 33 yards, and if you’re within 100 feet, it’s recommended to view them from your vehicle.
“The bottom line is people come to the national park because it’s wild and risky and that’s part of the downside is that there’s a risk,” MacLeod said.
Emily Mae Czachor,
Tom Hanson and
contributed to this report.
