They might look fluffy, but bison are most certainly not animals you want to mess around with. One couple in Yellowstone National Park got a little bit too close and personal trying to take photos of a wild bison. The couple allegedly cornered the animal in a parking lot to capture some photos on their phones.
The video was shared on Instagram and shows the couple just a couple of meters away from the huge animal, with cars parked so close that there would be no escape if the animal got frantic. They slowly inch closer and closer, approaching the animal from behind, viewing through their phone screens.
This almost couldn’t be a better example of what not to do when photographing wildlife. Park officials warn visitors to keep a large distance from the animals, particularly bison. They should absolutely not be crept up from behind or be approached in a confined space. These animals can get spooked and can charge. Those horns are also no joke, as several visitors to the park have discovered.
This is happening so often now that people are suffering severe injuries. Bison are responsible for more incidents at Yellowstone than all the other animals combined. Last month, Park officials reported a woman in her 80s getting badly gored by a bison because the animal felt stressed from the too-close encounter and needed to defend itself. The woman was lifted into the air on the animal’s horns.
Visitors to Yellowstone are instructed to stay 25 yards away from bison at all times and 100 yards minimum from predators such as bears and wolves. This photographer got much too close to a bear recently, he was lucky this time that nothing bad happened. However, getting too close to animals for the sake of a photo or video puts stress on the animals, and can increase the likelihood of the animal causing injury.
Photographing animals in the wild is a wonderful thing, but it’s better to leave the phone in your pocket and use a real camera with a long telephoto lens.
