Bull bison sends Yellowstone visitor flipping through the air in campground attack caught on video

There are plenty of videos of tourists doing breathtakingly stupid things around wild animals in Yellowstone National Park.

This is not one of them.

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A man was seriously injured Friday evening when an agitated bull bison chased him through his campsite and threw him several feet into the air in one of the wildest human-animal encounters you’ll ever see.

The attack took place at Bridge Bay Campground south of Fishing Bridge and was captured on video by professional photographer Mike MacLeod.

While the unidentified man was walking with his grandson, the bison targeted them from about 100 meters away; That’s well beyond Yellowstone’s minimum 25-foot distance where visitors must stay away from bison.

The video makes it clear that this animal is already looking for trouble.

Before the man and his grandchild entered the photo, the bull reportedly charged a group of children taking photos from a safe distance. The children dispersed and the bison finally stopped and began to struggle in a patch of ground.

That’s when the man and his grandson turned the corner, unaware of what was happening.

“They were out for an evening walk, they turned the corner and there was a bison,” MacLeod said. Cowboy State Journal.

The couple initially stopped to take photos while the animal was resting. However, when the bison began to stand up, the grandfather realized it was time to go, and the two went behind a group of trees.

Then a white pickup truck passed us. Whatever the reason, this apparently sent the bull back over the edge.

“The bison was attacking the truck,” MacLeod said. “The man in the truck saw this and kept moving forward. The bison (then) went to where these two were hiding in the trees.”

The footage shows the massive animal barrel stretching towards the trees as the man desperately tries to stay on the opposite side of the tree trunks. The bison gets distracted for a moment and takes out his anger on a small sapling.

But then he notices the man again.

The bull chases after her, grabs her with his horn, and throws her into the air before crashing into his side.

“The bison tied him to his hip with his left horn and threw him into the air,” MacLeod said. “He did a perfect somersault and landed on his side. The bison was at least 6 feet tall and (the victim) was several feet above him.”

A bison crossing sign was posted in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., on May 18, 2026. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Even more frightening, the bison doesn’t leave right away. Instead, he stands over the injured man and nods while the man is on the ground.

MacLeod stopped recording and ran towards the animal, yelling and trying to draw its attention away from the victim. Several other witnesses followed his lead and together they managed to scare the bison away.

“I was really scared of the guy falling to the ground, so I stopped taking video and ran at the bison, yelling loudly and trying to be as big and scary as possible,” MacLeod said.

Yellowstone EMS arrived quickly and took over.

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MacLeod said he later spoke to the man’s grandson, who told him his grandfather “had pretty significant injuries and wasn’t out of the woods yet.”

The National Park Service had not released an official statement or update on the man’s condition as of Sunday morning.

Again, this doesn’t sound like someone approaching a bison for a selfie, trying to pet it, or ignoring wildlife warnings posted in Yellowstone.

A view of a bison in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming on October 9, 2024. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

MacLeod said people at the campsite kept their distance and actively warned others as the agitated animal moved through the area.

“I didn’t see anyone approaching,” he said. “People were yelling, ‘Watch out, there’s a bison coming,’ and they kept their distance. They were very respectful.”

MacLeod added: “We could tell he was agitated, angry and blaming everything.”

Bull bison can become particularly aggressive during the annual rut or mating season, which usually begins in late July. Animals may roll, bellow, challenge their opponents, and become much less tolerant of anything they perceive as a threat.

The attack was Yellowstone’s second reported human-bison incident of 2026. On June 26, a 12-year-old visitor was injured near Mud Volcano, north of Fisherman’s Bridge. The National Park Service did not disclose the extent of that child’s injuries.

A North American Bison stands in the wilderness and looks off into the distance. (Creators of Getty Images)

MacLeod has spent a lot of time around bison, but said even he has never seen behavior like this.

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

Sometimes there is a lesson to be learned after these encounters: Respect wild animals, follow the rules, and don’t risk your life for the sake of a photo.

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This time it looks like the man and his grandson have done it all.

They were in the wrong place the moment a 2,000-pound animal decided to go ballistic.

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