Another day, another tourist in Yellowstone Park doing the WRONG thing and now a bison calf is dead.

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It's calving season in the park.  We've spoken of this before.

Here's the story from NPRABC News and Cowboy State Daily:

When And Where Did The Incident Occur?

Saturday, May 20, 2023, a tourist rushed to help a baby bison that he thought was struggling in the Lamar River in Yellowstone National Park.

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What Happened?

Tourists to the park watched as a baby bison was getting out of the river and trying to reconnect with its mother and the herd.  The calf appeared to struggle and the calf and its mother could be seen calling to each other.  (Left to nature, most of the time, the calves make their way out of the current and back to the herd.)

The unknown tourist ran to the river bed, dragged out the calf, then he and a group of tourists proceeded to pet the baby bison.

The tourist then pushed the calf to the roadway.  The calf continued to approach cars and people.

When the calf finally caught up to the herd it was rejected.

Due to the calf being too comfortable with people and the herd rejecting it, the calf was euthanized by the National Park Service.

The Nature Of Wildlife

For those who have never been around wildlife, the tourists are responsible for the death of this calf.

They should have let nature take it's course in the river.  As hard as you think it is to watch, no matter if that bison lives or dies in the river, it's nature.  Natural selection.  It's the way of things in the wild.  Also, petting that calf?  What the hell were you all thinking?

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Again, Montana And Wyoming Urge You To Grow Up

When planning a trip to a National Park, keep in mind this isn't like a zoo.  There are no caretakers who feed and nurture these animals.  Things are left to nature.  As sad as it is, it's survival of the fittest.

Do not pet or approach the WILD animals you may encounter.  You could end up getting injured or killed yourself or worse, cause the untimely death of a wild animal.

Can You Help Find This Tourist?

From the National Park Service:

An unidentified white male in his 40-50's, wearing a blue shirt and black pants, approached a newborn bison calf in Lamar Valley near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek. The calf had been separated from its mother when the herd crossed the Lamar River. As the calf struggled, the man pushed the calf up from the river and onto the roadway. Visitors later observed the calf walk up to and follow cars and people.

If you were in Lamar Valley on the evening of May 20, 2023, and have information that could help this investigation, please contact the Yellowstone National Park Tip Line at 307-344-2132 or YELL_Tip@nps.gov.

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