Bison are even more menacing when they growl!
Everyone knows Yellowstone's bison are not to be trifled with. They are big, they are mean, and they hate their personal space being invaded. The danger factor around these animals goes up during the rut when they are hyped up on testosterone and ready to fight.
When the bison are rutting, it is best to give them an extremely wide berth. As this tense footage from the park illustrates. This large bull walks in fast, too fast for a biker to get out of the way. She has no choice but to remain still and hope the large animal moves away.
It makes for several very tense moments as she waits for the bull to move on.
I don't think anyone in that car breathed during that stand down. Talk about a pants-soiling type of moment! Kind of reminds me of that scene in Jurassic Park where the guy has to hold stone still to keep the T-Rex from eating him. The woman in the video is Kelli McDaniel according to the video's description.
She didn't add much in the way of comments to the description, but I'm betting she went out of her way to give all other bison a much wider berth in the park after this encounter.
She did do the right thing here. Any sudden movements would have likely set this big guy off and her odds against getting away unscathed wouldn't have been good against thousands of pounds of muscle! If you find yourself visiting Yellowstone this summer, the National Park Service recommends staying at least 25 yards away from all bison for safety purposes.
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For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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