Unnerving footage out of Yellowstone National Park this week shows a man being gored by a bison after he stepped in to help others being attacked by the provoked animal.
The 34-year-old man, from Colorado Springs, Colo., was taken to hospital for injuries after the bison gored his arm.
According to a news release Tuesday from Yellowstone National Park, the bison charged the man and his family Monday while they were walking on a boardwalk near Giant Geyser at Old Faithful.
In the video, the bison can be seen approaching two adults and a child. The man steps in between, and the two adults manage to scurry away. The bull lunges and the man takes the brunt of the attack as he swings the child out of harm’s way.
“This is the second reported incident in 2022 of a visitor getting too close to the animal and the bison responding to the perceived threat by goring the individual,” Yellowstone National Park wrote in its news release.
Yellowstone Park advises that visitors never approach wildlife and stay 20 metres away from large animals like bison and elk, and close to 100 metres from bears and wolves.
It’s not the first time this year that a person has been gored by a bison at Yellowstone. Last month a 25-year-old woman from Ohio was tossed in the air and suffered a puncture wound and other injuries after she got too close.
Yellowstone also wrote Tuesday that “bison are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans.”