Time and time again, the National Park Service tells park visitors to give the year-round furred and feathered residents some space. However, there seem to be more occurrences of park visitors invading wildlife's personal space these days, usually in an attempt to snap a photo. Pics or it didn't happen, right? Whether they exit their car to greet them or try to take clever selfies, tourists are getting well within the 25-yard range. Tourons of Yellowstone curates a massive number of videos showing people behaving badly around animals and shares them with their nearly 150,000 national park-loving Instagram followers. The latest example is a recent video clip that depicts a tourist less than 10 feet away from a bull elk attempting to snap a photo. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how NOT to go about your day in elk country.
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You can clearly see the woman standing behind the elk while he grazes on the side of the road. She takes her time snapping a few photos, and the bull keeps ignoring her. Then, in the audio, you hear the woman taking the video say, "This poor animal is just trying to eat, and this crazy psychopath..." Then, she trails off as the circumstances begin to change.
The woman standing near the elk starts to turn around, presumably to snap a selfie of herself and the elk. The big bull decides he doesn't want to be in the spotlight any longer. He turns tail and starts heading in her direction, prompting her to run away as fast as possible. She crosses the street to get into the car waiting for her, and viewers realize the two women are actually together. The driver of the vehicle laughs hysterically at the whole incident and asks, "So did you get a picture?"
Viewers were definitely not as amused as the women in the car. Many pointed out how close she came to getting injured. Aggravating an elk is one of the fastest ways to get gored or trampled. Others focused on the lack of respect for nature, including one who wrote, "If you don't respect nature, you deserve what nature throws at you! Animals have boundaries too!" Remember, those boundaries start at least 25 yards away.
READ MORE: Bull Elk Jumps Fence to Show Tourists What Happens When You Get Too Close
