Lifezette: A heart-stopping video is going viral this week showing the moment a woman was forced to “play dead” in order to avoid what could have been a deadly bison attack in Yellowstone National Park.
The New York Post reported that the chilling footage was captured at the park by bystanders on Friday. Two people can be seen in a field when some bison suddenly start to run towards them, causing both to attempt to run away. Suddenly, one of them trips and falls, and her fellow tourists quickly tell her to “play dead” as the bison walks up to her.
As the woman complies and lays motionless on the ground, the bison stands over her for a few seconds, seeming to inspect her. Finally, after what must have seemed like an eternity to the woman, the bison loses interest and gallops away.
She really buffaloed that guy…
He could’ve galloped right over her play dead body too. She was lucky!
The brute’s tail was raised and I’m not sure she didn’t get pee’d on. Serves them right, they’re all warned repeatedly to keep a safe distance.
There are warning pamphlets that you get at the gate entrance and there are warning signs everywhere that the single most dangerous animal in the park, ranked by how many people are killed by it, is the buffalo. You have to be a special kind of dumb to allow yourself to be that close to one of those things. I have a special needs daughter with more common sense.
Dumbasses think they are pets.
I don’t get it.
Buffalo (Bison) aren’t predators, so why would they GAF if you played dead?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pretending to understand the workings of the Bison mind – just seems like the “playing dead” thing works for animals that enjoy eating their prey alive.
izlamo delenda est …
I always root for the Buffalo’s. I figure any human that stupids gotta be a libtard.
unfortunately, too many people’s knowledge of wild animals was gleaned from watching Disney cartoons.
Hey lady, don’t mess with my burger meat!
She played stupid to begin with.
20 years ago or so I was driving around the Yellowstone area when I happened upon a you mother alongside the road taking pics. As I approached, I was horrified to see her young daughter standing within 6 feet of a mature moose and her calf, posing for a pic. When I stopped, I made sure the moose looked to me as the little girl ran to her mother. I gave that mother a severe tongue lashing And made her cry. She had no idea what danger she and her child were in. After talking with her a while, I found out she was from NYC and there on vacation for the first time after her husband passed away from cancer at 28yo. I felt like a shit heel for yelling at her after I found that out.
I was recently doing some hiking at Devil’s Postpile near Mammoth Lakes, Ca and when I was driving out of through the park I saw several cars coming from the opposite direction suddenly stop. An older teen hopped out, walked across the road in front of me and started up the hill. I stopped and asked the woman(the kid’s mom?) what was happening. She said they saw a bear and he was trying to get a closer look. I answered, “At least you’ll be able to tell the rangers where to find the body.”. She didn’t seem pleased. 😏 Dumbasses.
@The Claw of Bluegrass, but because of your stern lecture that kid may have lived to maturity; hopefully her mother wised up.
If the buffaloes still had their wings they could fly away instead of charging.
My sister was born in Yellowstone Park. My mom worked at the hospital, my dad owned a service station in Gardiner. My mom said that my favorite pastime was looking over the patients that came in after being mauled. She said that the more gory the better for me.
Maulings were practically a weekly occurrence back then, visitors were encouraged to feed the bears and ungulates. They sold little packets of food right there. I remember idiots teasing bears and then running away with the bears after them and they would throw what food they had left over their shoulder to get the bear to stop. When they didn’t have anything left to throw… you do the math.
City folks.
See? This is why you have to carry a gun!
Some of this stupidity is innate, the rest I blame on Disney. But not mutually exclusive.
Would have been a whole different story if she had been in heat.
That always worked on me when Eleanor played dead.
But what a disappointment when she got up the next day.
First time I went to Yellowstone, 1990, riding a motorcycle, you notice the warning on the entry gate about people killed by buffalo or elk, and you’re given the warnings to stay away from large animals and told not to feed them. At my first stop on the eastern side someone was tempting a coyote to take a piece of jerky from their hand.
[where a bystander commented that some years earlier in the same area a couple had put a dab of honey on their baby’s head to coax a bear closer for a better picture, and were horrified when the bear grabbed the child and took off. I figured it was a BS story, until months later, When I thought it might be true]
I was also told that the day before a buffalo had charged through one of the camp grounds, and had ripped up several tents. But no one was harmed.
Later that day on the western side a guy was chasing an elk through the woods. I wondered what he was going to do if the elk tried of the game, and turned and charged him.
A couple of months later the evening news had a story about events at the Ohio State Fair. An interview with a park ranger from the Everglades that had brought alligators from Fla. to the fair.
He told a story about how one day looking out his Everglades office window he saw a father had climbed over a fence to set his infant child on the back of a sleeping alligator so mom could take a nice picture. My first thought was if that happened in the Fla. Everglades, maybe the story about the baby and the bear in Yellowstone might be true after all.
One marvels at the stupidity of some people around wild animals. They have little to no experience with nature, yet support various environmental laws that sound good to them, about how parks and wildlife should be managed.
Anyway, I still recall my first face to face meeting with a black bear, while on foot hiking. I wasn’t sure what to do, other than not run. Food runs. The bear ran off into the woods when a vehicle approached from behind it.
Later that day I asked a park ranger – what should I have done. He said, “Most of the time they run away as soon as they see you.” And I replied, “Well, you know, don’t you, that ‘most of the time’ doesn’t mean the same thing as ‘always.” Thankfully in the several on foot encounters with black bears since then, they have always ran away, thus far. Recently a black bear with a cub has been seen a couple of times by my neighbors on the mountain behind my house. Probably more important to stay away from than a lone male bear.
Buffalo aren’t predators by any strict definition, nor are moose or elk, but get too close or be nearby when one gets an attitude and they will run you down to hurt or kill you.
The guy who is my outfitter where I bear hunt in Idaho recently had a very close and unexpected encounter with a black bear boar. He barely survived and only did so by shooting the bear from less than ten feet away. Less than two months ago, I had a huge black bear boar walked within seventeen feet of me as it was almost dark. It is a very intense experience being that close to an animal in the wilderness that can rip you to shreds. I ate part of him for dinner less than two hours ago. He is delicious.
Saw a group of people nearly get trampled by an Elk in RMNP last summer.
People gather and crowd those animals like they think it’s Bambi.
The look of fear as they ran for their lives was sweet.