Yellowstone tourist tossed 8ft in air by bison says attack could have been worse

A bison crossing sign is posted in Lamar Valley on 18 May 2026 in Yellowstone national park in Wyoming. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A bison crossing sign is posted in Lamar Valley on 18 May 2026 in Yellowstone national park in Wyoming. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images Yellowstone tourist tossed 8ft in air by bison says attack could have been worse Carl McDaniel, 65, says run-in ‘was not as catastrophic as it could’ve been’ in first remarks since attack that injured him A grandfather flipped 8ft in the air by a bull bison at Yellowstone national park recently has spoken out for the first time about the encounter that broke his femur in four places, saying he believes the animal spared his life by choosing not to gore him. The entire incident, he said, “was not as catastrophic as it could have been”. Carl McDaniel, 65, gave an account of his sobering run-in with nature in an interview with CNN on Monday, one day after surgery to reset his broken leg, and amid hospital treatment for other injuries including severe bruising. “We were about 100 yards away,” McDaniel, who lives in Washington state, said of the moment he and his 13-year-old grandson spotted the bison during an after-dinner walk at the Bridge Bay campsite in the Wyoming park on Friday. Bull bison tosses Yellowstone tourist 8ft in air, with run-in caught on video Read more McDaniel said the bison did not appear as if he was aggressive from his vantage point. “He was not having problems, and we took some pictures and decided to walk on,” McDaniel remarked. Then, McDaniel said, the animal charged at them. His grandson was not hurt. But in an episode captured on video by a nearby photographer and viewed on YouTube by more than 1.1 million users, the bison estimated at 2,000lb (900kg) chased down McDaniel and flipped him into the air with its horned head. “There was little time to decide what to do,” he said. “At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try [to] draw him away. “When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me; he could have gored me; he could have done almost anything to take my life – and he did not do so.” A group of campers, including the photographer, Mike MacLeod, quickly descended on the scene, shouting and clapping their hands to scare the animal away and allow McDaniel to receive first aid. “All the people that were there were amazing,” McDaniel told CNN. “They were all positive – they were trying to help as best they could.” Emergency personnel responded quickly, the US National Park Service (NPS) said in a statement, and took him to a local hospital. Medical staff there made the decision to transport him to another facility in Bozeman, Montana, requiring a two-hour ambulance ride during which McDaniel said he was in intense pain. He said he was strong enough to be able to stand on