A bison gored and seriously wounded an elderly woman at Wyoming’s Yellowstone national park over the weekend, rangers said.
The attack occurred on 1 June near the Storm Point trail at Yellowstone lake, where the animal was “defending its ground”, according to a news release by the US national parks service (NPS).
It said the 83-year-old woman, from Greenville, South Carolina, was lifted about a foot off the ground by the bison’s horns, leaving her badly wounded. She was taken by helicopter to the Eastern Idaho regional medical center, where her condition was unknown on Tuesday.
Park regulations require visitors to keep at least 25 yards’ distance when they encounter bison, the largest land mammal in the US. Most attacks occur, officials say, when the public gets too close – or provokes an animal.
In April, a man was arrested in the town of Yellowstone, Montana, for harassing and kicking a bison in the leg near Seven Mile Bridge, close to the park’s entrance. Clarence Yoder, 40, of Idaho, received minor injuries when the bison turned on him. He was charged with disorderly conduct.
Two women were hurt in separate other recent cases involving bison in Yellowstone. A 47-year-old Arizona woman was gored during bison mating season in July last year. And in May 2022, a 25-year-old woman from Ohio approached a bison near the Old Faithful geyser and was tossed 10ft into the air and gored.
An adult male bison can weigh up to 2,000lb and grow to 6ft. “Bison are not aggressive animals but will defend their space when threatened,” NPS guidance states. The animals are also deceptively fast, reaching up to 30mph at full charge, three times faster than humans.
According to the NPS, Yellowstone is the only place in the US where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times. The park’s population, which fell to about two dozen in 1902 after years of hunting and poaching, now ranges between 3,000 and 6,000 following a highly successful breeding and repopulation program.