The ignorant tourists of Yellowstone have struck again, this time abandoning the traditional bison selfie, this time opting for straight bison capture.
Karen Richardson was leading a group of fifth-graders on an educational field trip through Yellowstone National Park earlier in the week when she witnessed the puzzling act. As the group of students were taking in an educational lesson at Lamar Buffalo Ranch, a father and son pulled their vehicle into a ranger station, demanding to speak with officials. It was this moment when Richardson and other parents realized they had a bison calf in tow.
“They were demanding to speak with a ranger,” Richardson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “They were seriously worried that the calf was freezing and dying.”
Rob Heusevelt, a father of one of the students couldn’t believe his eyes and urged the two men to remove the bison from their vehicle.
“They didn’t care,” Heusevelet says. “They sincerely thought they were doing a service and helping that calf by trying to save it from the cold.”
The captors turned out to be foreign tourists, were ticketed by law enforcement rangers and we escorted back to the location of the abduction where the animal was released.
Since 1980, there is not one other animal that has inflicted as many injuries to pedestrians as the American Bison in Yellowstone. Given these circumstances, the Park prescribes a 75 foot distance for observing the newly-minted National Mammal, which unfortunately, is often ignored.
H/T: East Idaho News
Image: Karen Richardson | Facebook