Yellowstone Bison Attack Leaves Grandfather With Broken Femur

A 65-year-old grandfather is recovering from a broken femur after a bison charged him at Yellowstone National Park last Friday, sending him flying eight feet into the air in a video that has since gone viral, marking the second bison attack at the park this year.

Carl McDaniel was walking with his 13-year-old grandson near the Bridge Bay Campground after dinner when the two came across a bison rolling in the dirt roughly 100 yards away. The animal didn't initially appear aggressive. "We were about a hundred yards away," McDaniel told CNN. "He was not aggressive; he was not having problems, and we took some pictures and decided to walk on." The bison's demeanor shifted moments later, after a passing truck honked its horn, which appeared to agitate the animal and prompted it to charge toward McDaniel and his grandson.

The Attack

With the bison closing the distance quickly, McDaniel told his grandson to run in one direction while he moved the other way to draw the animal off. "There was little time to decide what to do," McDaniel 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 and draw him away." The bison caught up to McDaniel and struck him with the top of its head, launching him into the air before he hit the ground.

"When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me," McDaniel recalled. "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."

Photographer Mike MacLeod, who was filming the bison beforehand and captured the attack on video, said he and several bystanders rushed toward the animal afterward, yelling and making themselves appear as large and threatening as possible to drive it away from McDaniel. "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," MacLeod said.

Park emergency medical personnel arrived shortly after and transported McDaniel to a hospital in Bozeman, Montana, roughly a two-hour drive, where he was treated for a broken femur. He later underwent surgery and remains in recovery.

Despite the severity of his injuries, McDaniel said he was struck by the response from strangers at the scene. "All the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could," he said, describing a nurse who tended to his leg and another bystander who held his head steady until paramedics arrived.

Not the First Attack This Year

Friday's incident marked the second bison attack at Yellowstone in 2026, following a June 26 attack that injured a 12-year-old visitor near Mud Volcano. Bison injure more visitors at Yellowstone than any other animal in the park; a Washington Post review found 25 reported bison-related injuries between 2000 and 2015. Park officials say most such incidents happen when visitors approach the animals to take photographs, since bison can appear calm while resting or grazing but are capable of charging at speeds up to 35 mph, roughly three times faster than a person can run.

The National Park Service requires visitors to stay at least 25 yards, or 75 feet, from bison, elk and other large wildlife at all times, and at least 100 yards from bears and wolves, regardless of how docile an animal may appear.

What Happens to the Bison

Following the attack, Yellowstone officials determined the bison would not be euthanized, according to TMZ. The decision reflects the park's broader approach to wildlife encounters: officials generally do not put down animals for behavior considered a natural, defensive response to a perceived threat, particularly in cases where investigators find visitors were not clearly at fault. Witnesses and officials noted that McDaniel and his grandson had been at a distance considered reasonable when they initially photographed the animal, before its behavior escalated.

That approach stands in contrast to past instances in which Yellowstone has euthanized bison, which have typically involved animals that had already become habituated to approaching people or vehicles, creating an ongoing and unavoidable hazard, rather than a single defensive reaction like Friday's incident.

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