A woman approaching a bison in Yellowstone National Park was gored by the animal on Monday, according to park officials.
The woman, who was not named, suffered a stab and other injuries and was taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. His condition was not disclosed and it was unclear if he had survived. Park officials did not immediately respond to requests for more details Wednesday, and a medical center representative said he had no additional information to provide.
Park officials said in a press release on Tuesday that this was the first episode reported in 2022 in which a park visitor “threatened a bison” and that the animal responded by horning the person.
The incident began Monday when a bison was walking near a Black Sand Basin boardwalk about two miles northwest of Old Faithful, and the woman, described as 25 years old and from Ohio, he approached. It reached less than 10 feet from the animal and two more people were within 25 feet of it, park officials said.
The bison horned the woman and threw her 10 feet into the air, officials said, adding that they were still investigating what happened.
Park officials repeated warnings that animals should have a wide place, a warning they often issue about bison, bears and wolves.
“Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park is wild and can be dangerous when approached,” the park said. “When an animal is near a campsite, trail, boardwalk, parking lot or in a developed area, give it space.”
Yellowstone recommends that visitors stay more than 25 meters from large animals such as bison, elk, sheep and deer, and at least 100 meters from bears and wolves.
Bison, which can stand six feet tall, weigh more than 2,000 pounds and run three times as fast as a person, have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal, the park said.
In recent years, a number of people have been seriously injured by bison and other animals in and around Yellowstone.
In a video-captured incident in 2019, a bison charged and hit the head of a 9-year-old girl while trying to escape. The following year, a woman approaching a bison was thrown to the ground and injured by the animal. Last April, a field guide fishing near the park was fatally attacked by a large grizzly bear that officials say may have been protecting a food source.
And a few months later, a woman was sentenced to four days in prison and out of the park for a year for not moving from the path of a grizzly bear and her cubs.
Bison have become the subject of debate around Yellowstone over concerns that they are overgrazing. Last year there were more than 5,000 bison roaming the park, and wildlife officials and tribal organizations agreed in December that up to 900 bison in the park would be slaughtered, shot by hunters or quarantined at the facility. Stephens Creek capture service.