Bison Attacks, Rips Pants Off Woman Who Sat In Middle Of Herd To Snap Photos
A furious bison violently attacked a woman who got a little too comfortable with its herd Wednesday.
Videos of the incident posted to Facebook on Thursday show a group of motorcyclists whose ride through South Dakota’s Custer State Park was interrupted by a large herd of bison crossing the road. In one video, you can see a female motorcyclist walking over to a patch of grass occupied by several of the massive mammals.
The motorcyclist, who is an unnamed 54-year-old woman from Iowa, then plops down just feet from the bison and begins to snap photos of a cow and her calf.
According to footage, the woman seems confident with her close proximity to the wild animals and continues to take pictures until “a cow bison came from the opposite [side] of the road and charged her,” a representative from Custer State Park told HuffPost in an email.
In the disturbing video, you can see the animal catching her belt by its horn and swinging her around aggressively.
“She was apparently saved when her pants came off and she fell to the ground unconscious,” says a report by the Custer County Chronicle that was shared on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page.
The woman was flown to a hospital on a helicopter and “somehow escaped serious injury,” according to the report.
Park visitor Jo Reed, who filmed the unsettling footage, said in her Facebook post that she shared the videos on social media to highlight how dangerous it is to interact with wild animals.
“Thankfully, the ranger did not need to tranquilize the bison,” she wrote.
Reed also noted that she noticed “herds and herds” of bison while driving through the park Wednesday.
“They were frisky and punchy with each other, some trying to mate,” she wrote.
Reed also described the attack and the events leading up to it as “tense” because she didn’t feel the bikers were respecting the space of “these massive beautiful creatures.”
“This was certainly an unfortunate occurrence,” the park told HuffPost. “We cannot caution visitors enough to respect the space of these animals and all the animals they encounter in the park.”
The park also noted that it does not have an update on the attacked woman’s condition.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
