A grandfather hurled eight feet into the air by a charging bison at Yellowstone National Park is now describing the terrifying encounter that left him with severe injuries — saying he was simply in the wrong place when the massive animal chose him as its “target.”
Carl Isom-McDaniel, 65, shared an update from his hospital bed after the July 10 attack, explaining that he and his 13-year-old grandson had stopped to photograph the bison during an evening walk after dinner at Bridge Bay Campground in Wyoming.
“We saw the bison and he was down, he wasn’t showing aggression or anything like that,” Isom-McDaniel said in a video released by Bozeman Health in Montana, where he later underwent surgery for a fractured femur.
“Until it picked a target — that target happened to be me.”
The Kendall, Washington, resident said his first instinct was to make sure his grandson got out of danger. He then tried to evade the animal — which can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds — by moving through nearby trees.
But bison, he warned, are deceptively fast. “They move faster than you could ever imagine,” he said.
“He just kept coming and he was more aggressive and as soon as he got off that tree he launched me in the air,” Isom-McDaniel recalled.
The impact with the animal was not what caused the worst of the damage, he said. “I didn’t get bruises from him launching me in the air — it was the landing that became the problem,” he added, noting that his femur broke in four places.
He was relieved he wasn’t more seriously injured.
“Even though I was on the ground, he could’ve stomped me, he could’ve gored me, he could’ve done anything,” he said.
Professional snapper Mike MacLeod saw the attack unfold – and said McDaniel was in “good spirits” despite the heavy landing.
“He was in a lot of pain, but was conscious and joking the whole time,” the photographer told Cowboy State Daily.
Park officials previously confirmed that no action would be taken against the now-viral bull bison.
Yellowstone National Park guests are urged to keep a distance of 75 feet from animals such as bison.
Bison can run three times faster than humans, the National Park Service warns.
