An enraged, 2,000lb (900kg) bull bison hooked a tourist and tossed him 8ft into the air at a campsite in Wyoming’s Yellowstone national park on Friday – an encounter captured by a professional photographer who said the animal was “agitated, pissed off and charging anything and everything”.
The tourist was reported to be seriously injured by the male bison while walking with his grandson through the Bridge Bay campground, south of Fishing Bridge.
The National Park Service (NPS), which administers Yellowstone, has not released details about the attack.
But Mike MacLeod, a professional photographer from nearby Bozeman, Montana, gave a vivid account of it to Wyoming’s Cowboy State Daily newspaper. And he provided video of the attack to the outlet, which published it on YouTube.
MacLeod told the outlet that he was camping at a campground with his wife when she spotted the bison approaching the area.
“I was just trying to get some dramatic footage of that bison having a fit,” MacLeod said. “It’s changed my idea of what to expect from these guys at this time of year, because I would not have predicted that happening.”
The bison, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily, “started walking through the campground. He was coming up to this group of kids, who were taking pictures on their cellphones from a good distance away, and then the buffalo charged these kids.”
MacLeod said the bison kept running through the campground while campers yelled and screamed to warn each other. The man who would be tossed into the air then appeared coming down a road while the animal was sitting in dust.
“He was sitting in the dust, like bison do, with his head out towards the road,” MacLeod said.
MacLeod’s video shows the grandfather and grandson each pull cellphone cameras out and point it at the bison – while evidently dozens of yards away – before it started to get up.
At that point, MacLeod reported to Cowboy State Daily: “The grandfather’s like, ‘OK, time to leave,’ and they moved off behind these trees.”
The animal was distracted by a pickup truck and charged it, prompting the vehicle’s driver to speed off.
“The guy in the truck saw that happening, and he just kept going,” said MacLeod, who added that the bison then turned his attention to where the man and his grandson “were hiding in the trees”.
The grandson fled managed to flee while the bison chased his grandfather around some trees and flipped him, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily.
“The bison hooked him with his left horn on his hip and tossed him in the air,” he said to the outlet. “He made a perfect flip and landed on his side.
“The bison was at least 6ft tall, and the victim was several feet above him.”
MacLeod said he tried to distract the bison: “I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible.”
Other bystanders did the same, and the bison fled.
MacLeod said the wounded man’s grandson told him that the grandfather “has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet”.
Yellowstone officials warns on the park’s website that the animals in the park “are wild and dangerous, no matter how docile they may appear to be” – and the best way to view them is from inside a car.
Officials advise visitors to stay at least 100 yards (90 meters) away from bears, wolves and cougars – and a minimum of 25 yards away from all other animals, including bison and elk.
“If an animal moves closer to you, back away to maintain a safe distance,” the park’s website says. “It’s illegal to willfully remain near or approach wildlife, including birds, within any distance that disturbs or displaces the animal.”
MacLeod pointed out that the injured man was following park suggestions when he was attacked. “I didn’t see anybody getting close,” MacLeod said to Cowboy State Daily. “People were yelling, ‘Careful, there’s a bison coming through,’ and they kept their distance. They were very respectful.”
The attack happened during bison rutting – or mating – season, when the males seek to show off their physical prowess and stamina in a contest for mating with a bison cow.
“You can tell he was agitated, pissed off and charging anything and everything,” MacLeod said.
Cowboy State Daily reported this was Yellowstone’s second bison-on-human incident in 2026. The first occurred on 26 June, when a 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano, north of Fishing Bridge.
“The visitor sustained injuries, and emergency medical personnel transported them to a nearby hospital,” the NPS said in a statement. “The incident remains under investigation.”
