Yellowstone bison tosses man eight feet, breaking femur in four places

Carl Isom-McDaniel was recovering in a Montana hospital after a Yellowstone bison threw him eight feet into the air and broke his femur in four places. The 65-year-old had surgery and was speaking from his hospital bed after the attack earlier this month.

Isom-McDaniel said the animal’s speed was the part he had not expected. “They move faster than you could ever imagine,” he said. Looking back on the attack, he added, “He could have stomped me. He could have gored me.”

The injury fit a pattern Yellowstone officials have spent years warning about. The park tells visitors to stay at least 25 yards, or 23 meters, from bison and other large animals, and at least 100 yards from bears and wolves. That buffer exists because a bison that appears calm from a distance can close the gap quickly enough to turn a photo stop into an emergency.

The incident involving Isom-McDaniel came less than a month after a 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano, just north of Fishing Bridge, in another bison encounter. That earlier case underscored the same gap between park rules and visitor behavior: the warnings are specific, but visitors still move too close to wild animals that weigh well over a thousand pounds and can react without much warning.

For Isom-McDaniel, the result was severe. He suffered a broken femur in four places, needed surgery and remained in recovery at a Montana hospital. For Yellowstone, it was another reminder that the safest distance from a bison is not a suggestion but a hard line, and crossing it can leave a visitor measured in fractures, not footage.