Tourist Seriously Injured After Yellowstone Bison Launches Man 8 Feet In The Air

A man was seriously injured Friday evening after being thrown 8 feet into the air by an angry bull bison in Yellowstone National Park.

Mike MacLeod, a professional photographer from Bozeman, Montana, said the incident happened at the Bridge Bay Campground, south of Fishing Bridge.

MacLeod said the man was walking with his grandson when the agitated bison made them the targets of its aggression.

“I was just trying to get some dramatic footage of that bison having a fit,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s changed my idea of what to expect from these guys at this time of year, because I would not have predicted that happening.”

The National Park Service has not released any information on the incident.

Bull In A China Shop

MacLeod was camping in at the Bridge Bay Campground when his wife pointed out the bull bison entering the area. He grabbed his camera and started shooting from a safe distance.

“He started walking through the campground,” MacLeod said. “He was coming up to this group of kids, who were taking pictures on their cellphones from a good distance away, and then the buffalo charged these kids.”

When the bison charged, the kids safely scattered. But the bison wasn’t done yet.

That’s when McLeod started filming.

“I used to be a combat photographer in the Army,” he said. “I could see this thing coming.”

MacLeod said the bison kept running through the campground, while people occupants yelled and screamed at each other to alert one another to the threat. After a while, the bison found a patch of dirt to wallow in.

Then, the victim appeared. He had no idea what was about to happen.

“They weren't even in that camping loop,” McLeod said. “They were walking along the road, quite a ways away from the bison, and it started running at them.”

Closed The Distance, Up And Over

The victim and his grandson were at what even the National Park Service would say was a safe distance, at least 100 yards, from the bison. They stopped for some pictures while the bison lay down and seemed to have calmed down.

“He was sitting in the dust, like bison do, with his head out towards the road,” MacLeod said. “When the bison started to get up, the grandfather's like, ‘OK, time to leave,’ and they moved off behind these trees.”

Then, a white pickup appeared. For whatever reason, that set the bison off again.

“The bison was charging the truck,” MacLeod said. “The guy in the truck saw that happening, and he just kept going. The bison (then went) to where these two were hiding in the trees.”

After expending some of its energy on a sapling, the bison tore into the trees and chased the victim and his grandson.

While the grandson escaped, his grandfather wasn’t so fortunate. The bison chased him around the trees while he tried to escape.

Then, according to MacLeod, the victim got flipped.

“The bison hooked him with his left horn on his hip and tossed him in the air,” he said. “He made a perfect flip and landed on his side. The bison was at least 6 feet tall, and (the victim) was several feet above him.”

Observer To Rescuer

When the older man hit the ground, the bison stopped but didn’t run away. It stood over the man he’d just tossed, shaking his head in an obvious display of agitation.

That’s when MacLeod decided he had to do something.

“I had to get the bison's attention,” he said. “I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible.”

Following MacLeod’s lead, a few other observers did the same and darted toward the bison. That was enough to send it running.

“He really took off when he left,” MacLeod said.

When the bison was gone, everyone rushed toward the victim. He was in a lot of pain, particularly in his hips and the leg he landed on, but MacLeod and others couldn’t see any external injuries.

“One guy held his hand,” MacLeod said. “Another guy pulled security on the outside to make sure that bison didn't come back. A gal in a car was on the phone with 911, and another gal did a blood sweep, but we couldn’t find any blood.”

Yellowstone EMS quickly arrived and took over. MacLeod has been in touch with the victim’s grandson, who told him that his grandfather “has some pretty significant injuries and is not out of the woods yet.”

“He was really worried and wanted to see the video to make sure that it wasn't his fault,” MacLeod said. “You can tell in the video it's not his fault. You can tell from the very beginning.”

No Fault

This is Yellowstone’s second human-bison incident in 2026. The first occurred on June 26, when a 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano, north of Fishing Bridge.

What stuck out to MacLeod in the Friday incident was that nobody was at fault for what happened at Bridge Bay Campground. People do “stupid things” in Yellowstone all the time, but this wasn’t one of those cases.

“I didn't see anybody getting close,” he said. “People were yelling, ‘Careful, there’s a bison coming through,’ and they kept their distance. They were very respectful.”

In this incident, the bull bison was the instigator. MacLeod said it was extremely evident that the bison entered Bridge Bay with a chip on its humped shoulder.

“You can tell he was agitated, pissed off, and charging anything and everything,” he said.

The biological explanation for what happened is the annual bison rut, which runs from June to September. During that time, bull bison surge with energy and aggression as they compete for dominance and females.

MacLeod doesn’t blame anyone, especially not the victim or his grandson, for what happened.

“They were just out for an evening walk, just happened to turn around the corner, and there’s a bison,” he said.

In MacLeod’s opinion, this bull bison was looking for a fight and, for reasons known only to itself, chose those two as the targets of its aggression.

“I’ve been around bison for a while, but this was really weird,” he said. “Why did it pick those two? There were so many people around, and most of them were closer to and behind the bison. It was really weird.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.