Video captures dangerously close encounter between enraged elk and tourist: 'Never ceases to amaze me'

America's National Park System exists to preserve the country's "most magnificent and meaningful places for the purpose of public appreciation and recreation," but some tourists seemingly haven't gotten the memo. 

The Instagram account Tourons of Yellowstone (@touronsofyellowstone) recently shared a Reel of two tourons (a mix of "tourist" and "moron") who had a too-close encounter with an enraged elk.

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A post shared by TouronsOfYellowstone (@touronsofyellowstone)

The video shows two tourists who were standing in a field before an elk charged at them and tried to ram one of them with its antlers. The tourist was able to get behind a fence, just barely saving themselves from serious injury.  

The National Parks Foundation works to keep animals, plants, and human visitors as happy and safe as possible, but they can only go as far as the respect tourists have for their surroundings. While the national parks are still relatively managed and monitored, wild animals are still wild, and interacting with them should be done sparingly and with extreme caution. To the uneducated tourist, this is often learned the hard way. 

These two were able to make it out relatively unscathed, but other tourons have not been so lucky. Respect for nature is a key tenant of the National Park's mission, yet many fail to understand that.

The national parks were created to preserve the great natural features and creatures that the United States has, protecting the lands from being bulldozed and ruined. The original wave of conservationist-based climate activism is what sparked the creation of the parks and serves as a spiritual model for climate activism today. 

Climate activism inherently believes that other creatures have the right to exist just like humans do. The parks are meant to educate and inspire the public and hopefully spur them into taking a more active role in preserving nature for future generations. Unfortunately, entitled tourons show that some people have not yet learned that lesson. 

The commenters agree with this sentiment, lamenting that "the wild life is just sick of our b*******." Others are just baffled by the tourists saying, "Never ceases to amaze me."

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