Carl McDaniel, 65, was taking an after-dinner walk with his grandson at Bridge Bay Campground in Yellowstone National Park on the evening of July 10 when a bull bison that had been running through the campsite picked him as its target.
"He wasn't showing aggression or anything like that until it picked a target," McDaniel said from his hospital bed at Bozeman Health Deaconess Medical Center days later. "That target happened to be me."
The bison hooked him with its left horn on his hip, launched him 8 feet into the air — several feet above the animal's 6-foot frame, and the grandfather made a complete flip before landing on his side.
Video captured by professional photographer Mike MacLeod, who was at the campground, showed the bison then standing over the downed man shaking its head. MacLeod ran at the animal, yelling and waving his arms, to drive it away.
McDaniel suffered multiple bone fractures. Asked about the worst part, his answer was characteristically direct. "I didn't get bruises from him launching me in the air," he said. The landing was where the damage happened.
He is recovering. Yellowstone records an average of a couple of bison attacks per year. A bison can run up to 35 miles per hour and weighs up to 2,000 pounds.
The park recommends staying at least 25 yards from bison at all times.