With the increasing usage of social media and mobile phones in today’s digital world, it seems that people have become incapable of differentiating between being curious and being careless. They sometimes risk their lives for being popular on social media. They don’t realise that in a video game, you are allowed to risk your life because if you die, you are given a chance to be alive again, but in real life, that doesn’t happen.
The careless and dangerous actions of a set of visitors at Yellowstone National Park went viral recently. It shows how their irresponsible actions risk not only their lives but also the wildlife in the park. A bison from the park threatened a group of visitors who were getting dangerously close to it.
Bison are strong and powerful animals with some special skills. In Yellowstone National Park, they are usually spotted. Their speed and agility have made them so powerful. Bison have a speed of 40 miles per hour and can jump nearly 6 feet up. This powerful animal can change the moving direction in the blink of an eye. So, with this information, it is up to you to judge the carelessness of a person who tries to get close to a bison.
Credit: Hasan Jasim
This video was posted by an Instagram account called “Tourons of Yellowstone” on September 11th. The word “Touron” is actually a combination of the words “Tourists” and “Morons”. The user had used that word to depict the irresponsibility and foolishness of this group of visitors. They might also regret what they did when the bison made a few steps towards them to threaten them. Maybe it tried to remind the visitors about the distance guidelines they should follow.
The general guideline for visitors to the national park includes the distance visitors must keep with animals. For bison and elk, it is about 25 yards. The visitors are advised to be 100 yards away from bears and wolves.
Hundreds of social media users commented on this video, pointing out the essence of following national park guidelines. Someone commented that it is more important to protect those animals’ freedom than to safeguard selfish and foolish people. Some people predicted the future possibility of the national parks getting closed for visitors if these types of incidents keep happening continuously.
It was a fortune that none of the visitors got injured. But there was a considerable opportunity for visitors to get injured or even die. In fact, a bison attack can be more dangerous than anyone expects. It was miraculous the way the bison stopped itself without doing any harm to the visitors.
According to the National Park Service, it is always a must to let these animals live their lives freely. There should not be human intervention in their lives. Whenever we visit a national park, it is our responsibility to keep away from those animals and let them enjoy their freedom. But if we fail to do that, it is also we who have to face the negative consequences of that as well.
Furthermore, bison usually provide multiple signals before they approach for an attack. They usually bluff charges to threaten. Apart from that, they sometimes bob their heads, snort, paw, and even bellow. If you see a bison doing at least one of these, that means a threat is at hand for you. But the dangerous fact is that sometimes bison don’t do any of them before a charge, just like in our case. It is clearly shown in this video.
Credit: Hasan Jasim
The bison are dangerous if we make them nervous. But if we let them enjoy their freedom, they will not do any harm to humans. In fact, bison are very important to nature because they enrich the biodiversity of plants. It is a fact that is proven by different research and studies as well. It is quite good that people become interested in knowing about the importance of these animals to our ecosystems whenever a video like this goes viral.
People who are conscious of these factors get disappointed to see the damage some foolish people do to nature without considering any of them. One commenter mentioned that these types of irresponsible visitors should be put in jail. Another person suggests fining them.
As a whole, we should understand the importance of harmony between humans and animals. The world’s existence is based on that. So, every one of us is responsible for keeping that harmony and allowing animals to coexist in this world with us. These types of incidents question whether we fulfil our responsibilities correctly or not.
