Some people just shouldn’t think the rules apply to them.
The TouronsOfYellowstone (@touronsofgoldstone) Instagram account shared the latest example of tourists circumventing the rules to take close-up photos with a wild bison.
In the images, captured by photographer Heather Michele Smith (@koolsista on Instagram) in Yellowstone, a few visitors posing for photos or take close-ups just 3 meters away from the animal. A group of about a dozen people nearby take photos more than twenty feet away – still much closer than Yellowstone’s prescribed distance of 80 feet. park rules.
“These people are way too close… they don’t know,” a voice says in the video at the scene.
As the car drives past the bison in the video, a larger group can be seen observing and taking photos of the animal from a safe, appropriate distance.
The images are especially frustrating because the offenders should clearly know better, if only from contextual clues. It is impossible to understand why the tourists think they have the right to get closer than everyone else. Some even consider it wise to turn their backs on the bison at a short distance.
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Many interactions with bison don’t end with the man unharmed. Although they may look like gentle giants, visitors to Yellowstone often underestimate the dangers from invading the space of bison.
How else can you explain the constant scenes of visitors incredibly close take pictures? Many are lucky to get away with it just a warning through a feigned accusation or a love tapbut the more people ignore the rules, the more likely interactions are to occur get worse.
It’s not just people who bear some of that risk. Park rangers and veterinarians may have to do that euthanize a bison that either becomes too intimate with visitors or attacks them.
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By acting within the rules, tourists can go on holiday responsiblebut also avoid dangerous behavior.
Commenters on Instagram were disillusioned by the tourists’ misbehavior.
“I don’t understand why there aren’t huge fines for people who do this,” one person wondered.
“They really have no idea of the danger,” another commented before saying they “never thought of letting me walk so close to a bison.”
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