Elk Charges Woman Taking Photo at Yellowstone

It doesn’t matter how many warnings are posted or how many articles are written about the dangers of getting too close to wildlife. Some people just don’t get it. 

In yet another in the stupid tourist file, an elk charged a woman at Yellowstone who was getting too close with her smartphone camera. The woman decides to approach the elk with a camera in hand to about 15 feet away just off the roadway even as a tour guide is warning her not to.

RELATED: Stupid Tourists Lead to Bison Calf Death

“Ma’am can you please,” Jody Tibbitts, a guide at Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris is heard saying on the video posted to Youtube. But it was too late as the elk digs in his heels and charges the woman, knocking her to her feet. 

“I was just going to tell you, you’re too close to that elk, and that’s why,” said the guide, after she brushed herself off.

“That won’t happen again,” the woman is heard off-camera.

RELATED: Watch this Woman at Yellowstone Pet a Bison

“It won’t happen again, I can guarantee that,” replied the guide. 

The recent incident follows a story a few weeks prior of tourists who put a baby bison in their SUV thinking it was cold. When the bison was not accepted back into its herd, the animal had to be euthanized. Those visitors were cited and fined for their infringement, but the story highlights dangers that interfering with wildlife poses not only to people but the animals as well. 

“People generally are just so excited to be in a park, and the next cool thing is if they can get a picture of wildlife, and then the third thing is ‘Can I get a picture of me and the wildlife?'” Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service, told ABC News.

The park service advises staying at least 100 yards from bears and wolves, and at least 25 yards from other wildlife. 

RELATED: Smartphone Selfies Blamed for Deadly Bison Encounters

X