Florida man gored by bison at Yellowstone National Park – National
A Florida man was injured after he was charged and gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park on Sunday.
Park officials repeated their frequent warning not to get too close to wildlife while visiting the national park ahead of the busy summer season.
The 47-year-old, who had approached the bison, escaped with only minor injuries and was treated by emergency medical personnel, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
Park officials declined to say more about the visitor from Cape Coral, Fla., or give further details about Sunday’s attack, but they did say it took place at Lake Village, an area of cabins, a lodge and campsites on the shore of Yellowstone Lake.
The NPS said the incident is currently under investigation and that it was the first reported incident of a person injured by a bison in 2025.
Bison can be aggressive when people don’t give them enough space, park officials said in their statement, and have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other wild animal.
At least two people were gored by bison last year, including an 83-year-old South Carolina woman who was seriously injured.
The woman was near the Storm Point Trail at Yellowstone Lake in June 2024 when the bison lifted her about a foot off the ground with its horns, park officials said, adding that the bison was defending its space.
In April 2024, an Idaho man was arrested on alcohol and wildlife-related charges after he was accused of kicking a bison at Yellowstone National Park, sustaining minor injuries.
Clarence Yoder of Idaho Falls was arrested by park rangers, who transported him to a nearby medical facility before dropping him at a county detention centre.
Authorities were notified of the bison brouhaha after a parkgoer reported seeing an individual “who harassed a herd of bison and kicked a bison in the leg” near Yellowstone’s west entrance, park officials wrote in a press release.
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Authorities said Yoder’s injuries weren’t serious.
Park rangers eventually located Yoder’s vehicle in the town of West Yellowstone and took him and the driver of the car into custody. The vehicle was driven by McKenna Bass, also of Idaho Falls. She, too, was arrested on alcohol and wildlife charges.
Both appeared in court on April 22, 2024 and pleaded not guilty to the charges. Each charge comes with a maximum fine of US$5,000 and six months in jail.
In July 2023, a Phoenix woman was gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park, according to the National Park Service, leaving her with “significant injuries to her chest and abdomen.”
Amber Harris was visiting Yellowstone and was walking with another person in a field near the Lake Lodge Cabins on the north shore of Lake Yellowstone when they came across two bison.
“Upon seeing them, the visitors turned to walk away from the bison,” the National Park Service stated, but one of the bison charged at them and gored the woman.
The woman was seriously injured and had to be transported by helicopter to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
Chris Whitehill, the woman’s fiancé who was with her at the time, told Phoenix television station KPNX that the bison struck her “head-on and she was airborne.”
“I think she did one or two backflips in the air, and I was screaming and yelling trying to distract him. She landed pretty hard on her back.”
Harris was stretchered out of the field and transferred to a helicopter and taken to hospital.
“I sustained 7 spine fractures, bilateral collapsed lungs and bruising all over. Glory to God all my vital organs look good,” Harris added.
The National Park Service mandates that visitors stay at least 23 metres away from large animals like bison.
Bison are the largest mammals in North America, can reach speeds of up to 55 kilometres per hour when charging and are able to jump several feet. About 2,300 to 5,500 bison live in the park.
— With files from Global News and The Associated Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
