An 83-year-old woman was seriously injured when she was gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park over the weekend, the park said Monday.
The park said the bison was “defending its space” when it gored the South Carolina woman near the Storm Point Trail, located at the north end of Yellowstone Lake. The bison “came within a few feet of the woman and lifted her approximately three feet off the ground with its horns,” the park said.
Emergency personnel first took the woman to nearby Lake Medical Clinic for treatment before she was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Yellowstone said. The park had no specific information Monday evening about her injuries or her condition.
The woman was not immediately identified.
The park noted that more people have been injured by bison in Yellowstone than by any other animal. The park also said it is visitors’ responsibility to keep their distance from wildlife, including keeping a distance of at least 25 meters from large animals such as bison and 100 meters from bears and wolves.
“Bison are not aggressive animals, but will defend their space if threatened. They are unpredictable and can run three times faster than humans,” the park warned.
In April, an Idaho man suffered minor injuries when he was attacked by a bison in Yellowstone after allegedly kicking it. He was later charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, disorderly conduct, approaching wildlife and disturbing wildlife, the park said.
Last year one A 47-year-old woman was gored by a bison not far from where this most recent incident occurred. In 2022, a 25 year old woman and a 34 year old man were gored by bison near Old Faithful within weeks of each other. So was a 71-year-old tourist from Pennsylvania attacked by a bison in June 2022.
Bison are the largest mammals in North America, according to the Department of the Interior, and males can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Their mating season is from mid-July to mid-August, when they can become agitated more quickly than at other times of the year, according to park officials.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tens of millions of bison once roamed North America, but they were nearly driven to extinction during the United States’ westward expansion in the 19th century. Their numbers at one point dropped to just a few hundred.
There were about 420,000 bison in commercial herds, and another 20,500 in protected herds in the US as of last August, according to USFWS.
— Aliza Chasan and Adam Yamaguchi contributed reporting.
