Bison in rut are extremely unpredictable and can be ridiculously aggressive. Something about the truck going by set him off and he went after the closest thing. Can't blame grandpa but also, you can never underestimate the speed, power, and agility of a bison, They are not cows.
Don't mess wirh the bull, young man, you'll get the horns. Entitled park visitors think that they're at a petting zoo, despite constant reminders from the park rangers that the wild animals are, in fact, wild, and thus dangerous. I totally blame grandpa for walking around with 0 cares within the charging distance of an enraged bison. Its been decades, but when I was at Yellowstone as a child, my grandparents made sure I didn't get anywhere remotely near the bison, even when they seemed calm and peaceful. Especially when it starts rolling around on the ground, that bull is pretty clearly agitated. Old guy maybe sensed a little danger a few seconds too late and started walking for cover just a little too late. But better than his son/grandson who just stands there. Old man decided to f around, and the bull helped him to find out. There is no way I'd get that close to a bull giving off that much "im upset" energy without a car as a barrier. Just googled and BY LAW the closest you can get to a bison under the best of circumstances at Yellowstone is supposed to be 75 feet. If the start the encounter more that 75 feet away, it's not by much.
To be fair it just seemed like he was walking in the park and saw a bison over by a picnic table. Why are there picnic tables if you aren't safe walking to them? It's not like he even walked towards the bison. I wonder where the people went who had that picnic spread on the table. Did they run for their lives? Haha
Hope the man is okay. Read he’s recovering. I won’t lie, I laughed out loud hard when the bison flipped him in the air. Not in a “that’s what you get” way. It just looked like a comedy or cartoon scene. The way he was scampering. The way his legs went straight up when he got flipped. And he was so high in the air.
I heard them talking about him this morning. Said he had broken 4 bones in his leg, had lots of bruises, and would need physical therapy. Man, he's lucky he didn't break his neck or back. A witness said the truck driving by blowing it's horn sat it off. A bunch of campers ran over and eased the bison away. That's pretty damn heroic in itself. I wonder if they were the ones who had been having a picnic on the bench. I hate getting half ass stories on the news. I always want more details. The camper said Grandpa asked how his grandson was. I thought that was a woman with him when I watched the clip. LOL. I guess his grandson found a better escape route than his grandpa when the bison started charging. Or, maybe he lacked the "testosterone" smell the bison preferred to zero in on. Who knows. It's weird how they both ran for the bushes, and only Grandpa seemed to be scrambling for his life afterwards. Yeah, thank God it wasn't worse. I didn't laugh when I saw it. I was like OMG!!! Your vivid and comical description of the whole thing did make me laugh though.
