65-Year-Old Bison Attack Victim Shares the Moment That Shocked Him Most: ‘He Was Right on Top of Me’
Days after surviving a shocking bison attack at Yellowstone National Park on Friday, July 10, 65-year-old grandfather Carl McDaniel has spoken out for the first time.
McDaniel shared his perspective after he was thrown approximately eight feet into the air by an aggressive bison. He is currently in the hospital recovering after the fall caused him to break his femur in four places near his hip.
“We were about a hundred yards away [and the bison] was not aggressive,” McDaniel told CNN in an interview published on Monday, July 13, noting that they took photos of the animal and moved on.
That’s when a truck drove past the wild animal, honking its horn in an apparent attempt to get the bison to move. The exchange seemed to enrage the bison, which began bucking before running at McDaniel and his 13-year-old grandson.
“There was little time to decide what to do,” McDaniel recalled. “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.”
That’s when the animal hit McDaniel with its head, flinging him into the air. McDaniel said he was “immobile” on the ground when something shocking happened.
“He was right on top of me,” McDaniel said of the bison. “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.”
The attack occurred on the evening of July 10, and was captured on film by photographer Mike MacLeod.
MacLeod shared that he stopped filming when the bison was standing over McDaniel in an effort to rush over and help him. “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,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
McDaniel was at the Bridge Bay Campground in the 3,472-square-mile park in Wyoming when the attack occurred, the National Park Service previously confirmed to PEOPLE.
“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the agency said.
The injured grandfather underwent surgery on Sunday and will now start physical therapy to walk and told CNN that he was able to walk by Monday.
“It was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.
Source: People
