South Dakota state park cautions visitors after bison attacks woman

Officials at a state park in South Dakota are cautioning visitors after a bison attacked a woman this week when she attempted to take a photo of a mother bison and her calf.

The incident at Custer State Park on Wednesday was captured on video, with footage showing a group of motorcyclists stopped in the road as a herd of bison passes by, a local NBC affiliate reported.

The woman sat down to take a photo when another bison charged at her, hooked its horns into her jeans and flung her around in the air. The woman was then thrown out of her pants and landed on the ground before observers ran to help her.

The woman is a 54-year-old from Iowa and was flown to a hospital. Her condition is unknown.

Custer State Park officials issued a statement Friday saying the incident serves as a warning for park visitors not to get too close to wildlife.

“This was certainly an unfortunate occurrence. We cannot caution visitors enough to respect the space of these animals and all the animals they encounter in the park,” the statement said.

The park visitor who filmed the bison attack, Jo Reed, posted several videos of the scene on Facebook and encouraged viewers to share to make others aware of the potential dangers when encountering bison in the wild.

The incident involving the bison follows two others reported earlier this year at Yellowstone National Park.

In June, a 72-year-old woman from California was gored while attempting to photograph a bison, NBC reported.

Another woman was knocked down by a bison in May just two days after the national park reopened following COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.