Idyllic tourist towns are filled with stories of idiotic visitors who treat the wildlife as theme park attractions. We’ve seen what happens when people get too close at Yellowstone National Park every year. One visitor to nearby Jackson, Wyoming got a rude awakening when the elk he was bothering acted like an elk and gored him. Imagine that?
The man, whose name was not released, apparently decided it would be a good idea to interrupt a bull elk as he was enjoying the company of his harem, or group of female elk. In trying to get a close-up video, this guy got between a bull elk and his harem.
So this guy in Estes Park, Colorado wanted a closer look at the elk, but instead of using his camera, he pulled the tourist stunt of going over and acting like the elk weren’t real at all.
“The elk, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. The man was very blatantly in his space,” local resident Marci Bowden told TV news channel ABC 7.
Witnesses described the bull as “very agitated” and said it was making aggressive moves towards the man, including lowering its antlers. We’re not sure about you, but we’re pretty sure lowered antlers is a no-brainer for “get the hell out of there.”
To his credit, the man did begin to back away, but the bull charged, striking the tourist. When he stood up, witnesses noticed he was bleeding. He was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for his injuries. After reviewing the evidence, wildlife officials are considering possible charges.
The moral of the story, perhaps, is “don’t act like a tourist.” Maybe another lesson here would be to charge tourists when they act stupid and get themselves injured or killed. These are wild animals, after all.
