Yellowstone officials said the bison that seriously injured Carl Isom-McDaniel will not be euthanized after the carl isom mcdaniel bison encounter. The bull will remain in Yellowstone National Park, leaving in place the same animal that tossed him 8 feet into the air and stood over him.
McDaniel suffered multiple broken bones that required surgery, and he is recovering. Mike MacLeod, a wildlife photographer who captured the attack on video, said, “Once I saw the victim in the air, I stopped filming and ran with some other men to haze the bison away and to render aid.”
Mike MacLeod Video
MacLeod said he was filming when the bison lifted McDaniel into the air. He said the attack did not end when the bull struck the grandfather, because the animal remained close enough that MacLeod and other men had to run in to drive it away and help.
He also said McDaniel’s first concern after the attack was his grandson. MacLeod recalled that question this way: “How is my grandson?”
Yellowstone Bull Decision
Yellowstone officials said no management action will be taken against the bull. That leaves the animal in the park after a widely seen attack that spread online and drew fresh attention to how the park responds when a visitor is seriously hurt by wildlife.
MacLeod said the bison had already charged a group of teenagers before the grandfather and his grandson encountered it. He also said neither McDaniel nor his grandson appeared to provoke the animal. “For some reason [the bison] had it in his head he was going to attack those two,” MacLeod said.
The immediate consequence for McDaniel is medical, not administrative: surgery, recovery, and the injuries from last week’s encounter. The park’s decision means visitors who enter the area will still be sharing space with the same bull, and Yellowstone has chosen to leave that risk unchanged.
What Yellowstone did not explain was the specific basis for declining to remove the animal. That question now sits at the center of the case.
