A 72-year-old Idaho woman received minor injuries Tuesday after a bison shoved her off a trail in Yellowstone National Park. It’s the first report of a bison injuring a visitor this year, and park officials want to keep it that way.
Yellowstone spokesman Neal Herbert says hiker Virginia Junk of Boise was rounding a bend in the Old Faithful area Tuesday, “And wasn’t aware there was a bison behind some sort of an obstacle, maybe a tree, and wasn’t able to get out of the way before the bison made contact and pushed her off the trail.”
Herbert says Junk was not seriously injured, but was transported to a hospital in Rexburg, Idaho as a precaution.
“I think she was incredibly lucky," he says. "Bison are large powerful animals and they are certainly capable of injuring people.”
Herbert says the encounter was just an accident and not the result of irresponsible behavior on Junk’s behalf. No citations were issued.
A Yellowstone bison injured one visitor last year. Five people were injured by the animals in 2015.