Yellowstone bison attack leaves tourist with multiple fractures

Carl McDaniel, 65, suffered multiple bone fractures after a Yellowstone bison struck him near Bridge Bay Campground and tossed him into the air, turning a routine walk back to camp into a hospital case. NBC News video later showed McDaniel speaking from a hospital bed at Bozeman Health, underscoring how quickly a wildlife encounter can turn into a severe trauma injury.

The July 10 attack unfolded in a part of Yellowstone National Park where visitors are routinely warned to keep their distance from large animals. McDaniel was walking back to his campsite with his grandson when the bison charged, and one account said he told the boy to run and hide. A video account showed the bull bison running around the campsite before it singled him out. Other coverage said McDaniel was thrown about eight feet into the air, and he later described the impact of hitting the ground as the worst part of the encounter.

That detail matters because Yellowstone’s own safety guidance tells visitors to stay at least 25 yards, or 23 meters, away from bison and other large animals. Park officials say bison are not aggressive by nature, but they will defend their space when threatened. In practice, that warning collides with a steady stream of visitors who stop too close for photos, linger on roadsides, or misread a calm stance as permission to approach.

The scale of the animal adds to the danger. Some coverage described the bull bison involved in the attack as weighing about 2,000 pounds, enough mass to cause broken bones, head trauma and other injuries even when the initial contact does not look especially violent on video. McDaniel’s injuries, and the force of the fall he described, show how fast a close encounter can become a medical emergency.

His case is not isolated. A 12-year-old was hospitalized after a bison attack in Yellowstone in June 2026, and the park also reported a separate bison goring on June 10, 2026. In 2024, an 83-year-old woman was seriously injured by a bison near Yellowstone Lake on June 1. Yellowstone has also reported prior bison injuries in 2023 and 2022, a pattern that has persisted despite repeated warnings from park staff.

For Yellowstone, the problem is not a lack of rules but a lack of compliance. The park draws millions of visitors, many of them first-timers with little experience around large wildlife, and the same safety message keeps meeting the same human behavior. McDaniel’s injuries put a hard number on that gap: one step too close can mean multiple fractures, a hospital bed in Bozeman, and a recovery measured in more than bruises.