Much is made about what to do if you encounter a bear in the wild: “If it’s brown lay down, if it’s black fight back, and if it’s white goodnight.” (Per the National Park Service, this advice is largely correct BTW.) But have you ever thought about what you would do if you found yourself being chased by a bison? My advice? Don’t fall over.
Unfortunately, one unlucky visitor to Yellowstone National Park did not heed this incredibly important advice, and as she tried to run away from a charging bison, she fell flat on her face. The bison then stopped and began sniffing her as she continued to play dead, successfully doing so for long enough that the bison eventually lost interest and galloped away.
The incident took place at Nez Perce Creek in the Wyoming part of Yellowstone, and according to the woman who recorded the incident, the woman who fell was a local and thus knew to play dead when being chased by a bison.
Commenters over on TikTok were pretty unsympathetic to the woman’s plight, with many arguing that she was incredibly lucky considering how stupid she was to put herself in that situation in the first place. Many complained about people treating Yellowstone like a petting zoo, although based on the video, it’s not clear if the two who were chased were trying to pet the bison or how close they were to them before the bison started charging.
The official Yellowstone rules dictate that visitors are to never feed wildlife and never approach wildlife at all; it’s advised that the best view of wildlife is from inside a car, but if not, visitors should stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards away from other animals, which would include bison.
According to the National Park Service, bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal, so the woman emerging unscathed is particularly impressive, perhaps even miraculous. Maybe next time she’ll simply observe the animals from her car just to be safe, though.
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