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Yellowstone Tourists Put Bison Calf in Their Trunk Because They Thought It Was Cold

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Any visitor to Yellowstone National Park has seen these signs:

It seems pretty straightforward—don’t mess with the wildlife, because if you do one of two things will probably happen: either you will somehow hurt the animal or that animal will hurt you. This seems especially true of bison, which for some reason are viewed as the docile cow of the West, even though they are really more like giant, bad-tempered, shaggy foreheads driven by a thousand pounds of muscle and with nice little spikes on the side for good measure.

So, it is was definitely a bad idea to do as one father-son tourist pair did last week, when they decided that one bison calf looked cold, so they picked it up, put it in their SUV, and took it to a ranger station.

Bison calf in SUV

The lady who took this picture saw the men bring the calf in to the ranger station
Photo: Karen Richardson via Facebook

Please note that the back end of an SUV is not a normal or a good habitat for a bison calf.

The pair was ticketed for messing with the wildlife, and rangers took the calf back to where it was found to try to reunite it with its herd. However, due to this pair tossing the calf in their car, the herd repeatedly rejected the calf, until it had to be euthanized because, abandoned, it was continually approaching cars and people on the road.

It is hard for the lesson here to be clearer. If you are driving in Yellowstone and see a bison calf (or any animal), don’t try and pick it up or put it in your car, no matter how cold it may look. The life you save could be either yours or the calf’s.

News Source: East Idaho News