When Carl McDaniel was tossed 8 feet into the air by a bison Friday, the world watched and jumped to conclusions about what could or should have been done differently.
Professional photographer Mike MacLeod jumped to his own conclusion that evening, which he discussed on the Cowboy State Daily Show with Jake Nichols on Tuesday. When he saw how the bison “stood over” McDaniel after his bone-breaking fall, he literally jumped into action.
“I started running at the bison, yelling and jumping in the air, trying to be intimidating,” he said. “I'm 140 pounds in flip-flops and shorts with a camera in my hand. I wasn’t intimidating."
Thankfully, other observers followed MacLeod’s lead, yelling and running toward the bison. That was enough to send it running.
Nobody was more concerned about McDaniel’s actions than McDaniel himself. Even in the moments after he was critically injured by the bull bison, he wanted to know what he’d done, right or wrong.
Even as McDaniel was lying on the ground in agonizing pain, he had only one concern.
“Once we got to him, the first thing (McDaniel) said was ‘Where’s my grandson and is he okay?’” said MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video that’s since been seen around the world.
Meanwhile, MacLeod doesn't see his decision to get the bison away from McDaniel as particularly brave or heroic. A former combat photographer for the U.S. Army, he saw it as doing what needed to be done.
"It wasn't a decision," he said. "It wasn't bravery. It was the imperative. Life throws you a job to do.”
FAFO Without The FA
While thousands of people have sent well-wishes to McDaniel, many others are already capitalizing on his life-threatening bison encounter.
A flood of merchandise is already being advertised and sold using the image of McDaniel being thrown into the air. The image was taken directly from MacLeod’s video of the incident.
“Tourist Tossing Champion” and other shirts making light of bison attacks have always been popular, but they’ve taken on a new life since MacLeod shared his video.
MacLeod, who was going to visit McDaniel in the hospital on Tuesday, told Cowboy State Daily he was aware of the merchandising rush but “hasn’t really thought much about it.” He doesn't mind people indulging their senses of humor, but he had one stipulation that he wished others would heed.
“Some guy in Alabama called yesterday to ask if he could license the image for T-shirts,” he said. “He wanted to put ‘FAFO’ on the pocket, but I pointed out there was no ‘FA’ in this instance.”
Even McDaniel made light of what happened as he lay on the ground in excruciating pain.
While waiting for Yellowstone EMS to arrive at the scene, MacLeod commended McDaniel on his landing.
“Carl’s lying on the ground, his leg broken in four places, and I say, ‘I used to be a paratrooper, (and) that was like a 9.5 out of 10 landing,’” he said. "And Carl says, ‘Well, if you'd caught me a couple of years ago, I would have stuck it.’”
Tough Break
As of Tuesday, McDaniel is still in a hospital in Bozeman, Montana, recovering from the injuries he sustained from being tossed by the bison. His femur was broken in four places, for which he underwent surgery on Sunday, and he has several bruises.
“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get walking, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel told CNN on Monday.
McDaniel’s grandson, 13, was not hurt. That was McDaniel’s primary concern in the moment and after the fact, according to MacLeod.
“I got a text from the grandson on Saturday night while Carl was still in the hospital, all banged up,” he said. “He said, ‘Can you send that video to my grandfather? He’s on drugs now, and he got his head hit, but he's worried he didn't do the right thing.’”
As soon as the danger became evident, McDaniel told his grandson to hide and not move. He deliberately got and kept the bison’s attention, as he felt “completely responsible for his grandson,” according to MacLeod.
MacLeod, who has defended McDaniels from the beginning, sent the video so McDaniel could put his mind at ease.
“He was so relieved to see the reality matched what he was trying to do,” he said. “He wanted to do the right thing, and he led the bison on that wild goose chase to keep him away from his grandson.”
Live And Let Live
Even while McDaniel was still feeling the excoriating pain from the bison-related injuries, he was clear-headed an unambiguous on what he thought should be done about the bison that tossed him.
“He didn’t want the bison killed,” MacLeod said. “Sometimes, they put animals down for these things — for animals being themselves — and Carl didn’t want that.”
McDaniel expressed the same sentiments to CNN after his surgery.
“(The bison) was right on top of me,” he said. “He could have stomped on me. He could have gored me. He could have done almost anything to take my life, but he did not do so.”
Yellowstone officials usually don’t do anything about bison involved in incidents where people are injured.
Identifying the responsible bison after the fact can be extremely difficult, and their actions are usually seen as natural responses rather than deliberate acts of aggression.
When a bull bison attacked and killed a 70-year-old Canadian woman in South Dakota’s Custer State Park in May, there was a public debate about whether it should be euthanized for the protection of other tourists.
Instead, the bison was relocated to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, where it will be able to live the rest of its natural life away from tourists. Both Custer State Park and the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department approved the relocation.
The moral of this story, from MacLeod’s perspective, is neither McDaniel nor the bison should be scrutinized for their actions. The bison was being a bison, and McDaniel did everything he could to keep his grandson safe, even if it meant sacrificing his own safety.
“Carl was the right guy because he did everything right,” he said. "It wasn't his fault."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
