Yellowstone National Park asks tourists to maintain a safe distance from other tourists and – as always – potentially dangerous animals.
On Friday the park unveiled a clever graphic intended to drive home its message. The chart shows a tourist standing and waving next to other tourists in a “wrong” manner, and six feet away in a “right” manner. It then shows the same figure standing next to a bear (wrong) and 100 yards from a bear (right), and next to a moose (wrong) and 25 yards from a moose (right).
The final portion of the graphic, however, is the punch line. It shows the waving figure standing next to a bison in one frame (wrong) and running from three charging bison in the next frame, beneath the heading,“Good luck,” and above the sub-heading: “Shouldn’t have been waving….”
This comes in the aftermath of a late-June incident involving a 72-year-old woman who was gored after violating park guidelines and repeatedly approaching within 10 feet of a bison. In May a woman was rammed by a bison after she violated the park’s 25-yard distance regulation.
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A video on Yellowstone’s website shows a tourist being flung into tree branches by a bison that felt threatened. Last July, a bison charged a 9-year-old girl who was among several tourists who were too close, and flung her into the air.
Because of incidents such as these, almost always the result of tourists violating the park’s 25-yard distance guideline, bison are Yellowstone’s most dangerous animal. The iconic beasts, which can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, are especially dangerous during their seasonal rut in July and August.
Tourists should not approach them, should not wave their hands at them, and could not in their wildest dreams outrun them. Despite being the largest land-dwelling mammal in North America, bison are surprisingly agile and can run in bursts of more than 30 mph.
So good luck, indeed, to visitors who fail to give them space.
–Graphic courtesy of Yellowstone National Park/National Park Service. Yellowstone bison images by ©Pete Thomas