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Man rammed against a fence by a bison


Still Waters

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They are pictures which show exactly why it isn't wise to taunt animals which are much larger and more powerful that you.

When this enormous one-ton bison was going about its daily basis in Antelope Island State Park in Utah, a rather foolish man decided it would be a good idea to provoke it.

However, not exactly known for their friendly nature, the bison decided to teach the man a lesson.

http://www.dailymail...scape-life.html

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Huge and beautiful and ill-tempered.

Wow! He thinks he wasn't injured. Has he died of a punctured lung or internal bleeding since the article was written?

I'm surprised it let him walk away.

"Who's messin' with who, now. Stupid human!"

I value evancj's photos even more now.

Edited by QuiteContrary
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Another BS Daily Mail newspaper article. The guy certainly does not look to be taunting the bison. He looks to be over 30ft away and, to me, appears to be holding a camera, possibly filming the creature. He might have been trying to get it's attention, but how is that a provocation in the context the article describes?

Edited by ExpandMyMind
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"Witnesses say the man, pictured walking away from the incident, went out of his way to provoke the bison"

o_O

Yet not a single witness name has been provided (in any of the four articles that I read), and not even a witness quote either. There was also an extremely shady claim in one of them, along the lines of 'he may also have thrown a rock'.

Like I said, crap journalism.

Edited by ExpandMyMind
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When I was in Yellowstone they had signs up everywhere saying not to get too close to the Bison but yet people did anyway trying to get a picture. I don't think some people realize how fast they can move and every year someone finds out.

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Another BS Daily Mail newspaper article. The guy certainly does not look to be taunting the bison. He looks to be over 30ft away and, to me, appears to be holding a camera, possibly filming the creature. He might have been trying to get it's attention, but how is that a provocation in the context the article describes?

I have been to that place in 2011 and had nearly a close encounter too.

You need to be a fair distance too, also the man was crouching or bending his knees which for the Bison is an aggressive move

Edited by The New Richard Nixon
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Witnesses told rangers the man rattled a fence separating him from the bison, appearing to try to get its attention as he was taking pictures. Some also said he may have chucked a couple of rocks at the beast.

"The [bison] had gone through the gate section that's located real close to where he got hit and looked like he was going to run off the field," Wayne Ebenroth of Boise, Idaho, said during an interview Wednesday on KSL NewsRadio. "He had to have done something to catch the [bison's] attention, because that's when he turned around and decided to pay him a visit."

http://www.ksl.com/?...e&s_cid=queue-1

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Not everybody wants their name in the newspaper and not all journalists even ask for names, they simply ask for eyewitness accounts, especially for such a minor story like this. Just because there's bad journalism, doesn't mean all journalists are bad.

Animals don't attack for no reason, especially wild ones.

There aren't even any quotes, never mind names. And it is horrible journalism to not get names of witnesses, as it leaves an account basically unverifiable, regardless of how 'minor' a story is. And I didn't say anywhere that all journalism was bad.

Also, of course animals can attack for no reason. Granted that there usually is an obvious reason , but not exclusively.

Nix, most animals, I thought, see the opposite of crouching (making yourself larger) as aggressive, do they not? I guess bison may be different though.

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Witnesses told rangers the man rattled a fence separating him from the bison, appearing to try to get its attention as he was taking pictures. Some also said he may have chucked a couple of rocks at the beast.

"The [bison] had gone through the gate section that's located real close to where he got hit and looked like he was going to run off the field," Wayne Ebenroth of Boise, Idaho, said during an interview Wednesday on KSL NewsRadio. "He had to have done something to catch the [bison's] attention, because that's when he turned around and decided to pay him a visit."

http://www.ksl.com/?...e&s_cid=queue-1

Apart from the pure speculation about throwing rocks, none of this would account for provoking the bison to charge at him in the manner that the article describe. I had already read this.

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Nah, the reason the bison didn't kill him is because it caught a wiff of the photographer smoking a joint, and moved in to say "you wanna share?"

Edited by pallidin
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Apart from the pure speculation about throwing rocks, none of this would account for provoking the bison to charge at him in the manner that the article describe. I had already read this.

Did you read this bit?

"While bison are not usually aggressive, they are unpredictable and can become dangerous"

http://www.ksl.com/?...e&s_cid=queue-1

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The best way to provoke a Bison is have a getaway plan :yes: !

220px-Muybridge_Buffalo_galloping.gif220px-Muybridge_race_horse_animated.gif

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Provoked or not, any animal can become aggressive at any given time. Deer near here are almost tame enough to pet, but if one gets startled it can kill you with one swift kick without having any ill intent.

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No, just no. They're not mindless creatures, if you get attacked by an animal and it wasn't biting chunks out of you due to hunger or something, you were probably asking for it.

Still's post answers this for you:

Did you read this bit?

"While bison are not usually aggressive, they are unpredictable and can become dangerous"

http://www.ksl.com/?...e&s_cid=queue-1

Some animals are known to attack without provocation, Skater. This was the point I was making.

And Still, how does what you posted mean that he was provoking it? I can't see how it does. It just means that he was fairly thick to be anywhere near it, which I'm sure we all agree on anyway.

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Well, there is ill intent because the animal is startled and its immediate instinct is to defend itself. That's not the animals fault.

Michelle's point still remains valid though: animals can turn. Think of dogs that turn for no reason. And they are trained, not wild.

Edited by ExpandMyMind
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Well, there is ill intent because the animal is startled and its immediate instinct is to defend itself. That's not the animals fault.

No, not really. Sometimes when startled they will jump straight up in the air, flip and try to start running before they hit the ground. If you happen to be close enough they can accidentally hit you with their hooves. If it wasn't you that startled them they will come right back to who was feeding them.

Edited by Michelle
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Actually, animals don't 'turn' for no reason. Animals attack for reasons that make sense for animals, but not necessarily to us humans. Territorial infringement, rutting season, strange smells/noises can all set off an animal, leaving humans to say, "It attacked for no good reason".

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And Still, how does what you posted mean that he was provoking it?

It doesn't.

But in another article is says this -

"He was trying to direct a buffalo that had wandered off onto the race path back to its enclosure when the animal charged him."

http://news.softpedi...rk-341387.shtml

I think it's safe to say the bison was unpredictable and could have mistaken the guy's intentions as a threat. That said we don't really know for sure if that were the case, but at the end of the day it doesn't alter the fact that the bison pinned the guy against a fence (for whatever reason) and the guy is very lucky to still be alive.

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Actually, animals don't 'turn' for no reason. Animals attack for reasons that make sense for animals, but not necessarily to us humans. Territorial infringement, rutting season, strange smells/noises can all set off an animal, leaving humans to say, "It attacked for no good reason".

Actually, Lilly, while you are correct in saying that often they turn for reasons unknown to us, it is impossible for you to definitively state that they always turn for a reason. Primal instinct to kill could kick in, yet this is not a 'reason' for the animal to turn, it is merely an explanation of what has happened.

And, for others, the fact still remains that animals can turn without being provoked which, when all is said and done, is what is meant by 'no reason'.

Edited by ExpandMyMind
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Which claim?

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"animals can turn without being provoked"

I was a veterinary nurse for some time and I can't say I could agree with what you say.

You are honestly trying to claim that you do not believe that animals attack without being provoked?

Review article: Animal bites: An update for management with a focus on infections

Sixty-six per cent are bitten by their own dog or an animal that is known to them and about half

are unprovoked

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1742-6723.2008.01130.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Other reading for you:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.20784/abstract;jsessionid=E9BA9C40618D08C6ED987F0CDFE97559.d04t04?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Characterization and prevention of attacks on humans

Disease can also be a factor in unprovoked attacks and render an animal aggressive much

like a wound can

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6vNzRzcjntAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA27&dq=unprovoked+animal+attacks&ots=j3dQDPOt4a&sig=DepW8G0wSJZn43jwsZrJ6C506EU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=unprovoked%20animal%20attacks&f=false

Attacks on local persons by chimpanzees in Bossou, Republic of Guinea: long-term perspectives

... two broad categories of “provoked” and “unprovoked

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.20784/abstract;jsessionid=E9BA9C40618D08C6ED987F0CDFE97559.d04t04?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Dog bites in urban children

... prevention of unprovoked attacks through imple- mentation of severe restrictions on ownership

of ...

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/88/1/55.short

Fatal brown bear (Ursus arctos) attack: case report and literature review

The bear, apparently unprovoked, stopped

the attack and left the area spontaneously

http://journals.lww.com/amjforensicmedicine/Abstract/2006/09000/Fatal_Brown_Bear__Ursus_arctos__Attack__Case.7.aspx

Human fatalities from wild elephant attacks-a study of fourteen cases

... Attacks were

sudden and unprovoked. Killer elephants were wild tuskers in all the cases. ...

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1752928X11000394

Animal bites

from January

1986 through June 1998, 37 of 67 (55%) were characterized as unprovoked

http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.234.3.336?journalCode=javma

WILD ANIMAL ATTACKS

brown,

grizzly and polar bears have all been implicated in provoked and unprovoked attacks. ...

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA300465#page=52

If you want me to I can keep quoting studies, journals, papers, reviews and the like (my search brought up 7500 results), but I'm sure my point has been made. I don't need to be an expert to be able to read, understand and reiterate what actual experts say about a subject such as this.

And I'm sure many of the animals in your veterinary clinic were 'provoked', in the often-used general sense of the term (i.e. they felt threatened).

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30 ft of any Bison is enough to provoke it , no taunting nessisary.

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30 ft of any Bison is enough to provoke it , no taunting nessisary.

I would tend to agree with that.

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