Some people must just not think the rules apply to them.
The TouronsOfYellowstone (@touronsofyellowstone) Instagram account shared the latest example of tourists skirting the rules to pose for close-up photos with a wild bison.
In the footage, captured by photographer Heather Michele Smith (@koolsista on Instagram) at Yellowstone, a few visitors pose for photos or take close-ups a mere 10 feet or so from the animal. A group of a dozen or so nearby take pictures more like 20 feet away — still far closer than the 25 yards of distance prescribed by Yellowstone's park rules.
"These people are way too close … they don't know," a voice in the video comments on the scene.
As the car in the video drives past the bison, a larger group can be seen observing and taking photos of the animal from a safe, proper distance.
The footage is especially frustrating because the offenders clearly should know better, if only from context clues. It's impossible to know why the tourists think they are entitled to go closer than everyone else. Some even find it wise to turn their back to the bison at short range.
Many interactions with bison don't end with the human unscathed. While they might look like gentle giants, Yellowstone visitors commonly underestimate the dangers of encroaching on bison's space.
How else to explain the constant scenes of visitors going incredibly close to capture photos? Many are lucky to get off with just a warning via a feigned charge or a love tap, but the more people ignore the rules, the higher the likelihood that the interactions get worse.
It's not just humans bearing some of that risk. Park rangers and vets may have to euthanize a bison that either gets too chummy with visitors or attacks them.
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Acting within the rules will help tourists vacation responsibly, but 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 wondered.
"They really have no clue of the danger," another noted before saying they "have never once thought of 'let me walk that close to a bison.'"
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