The tourist who was attacked by a bull bison this past weekend at Yellowstone National Park had other concerns during the life-threatening encounter, according to the photographer who captured the viral incident.
Carl Isom-McDaniel, 65, was visiting the famous landmark in Wyoming with his 13-year-old grandson when he was charged and thrown eight feet into the air, as seen in the video caught by photographer Mike MacLeod.
After Isom-McDaniel was tossed by the massive animal, MacLeod ran up to the grandfather, who was awake for the entirety of the encounter despite breaking his femur in four different places. The first words spoken to the photographer shocked him, as he expressed in a recent interview with Fox News.
“Once I saw the victim in the air, I stopped filming and ran with some other men to haze the bison away and render aid,” MacLeod said in the interview. “I got to him right away, and the first thing he asked is, ‘How is my grandson?’”
To the photographer, it seemed that the grandfather’s protectiveness was clear even before he was tossed eight feet in the air.
“It really felt to me like the grandfather kind of saved his grandson. [He’d] taken the brunt of the attack,” he told Fox News.
“He is very proud of his grandson and very thankful his grandson was not injured.”
Isom-McDaniel’s “grandfather instincts” worked out. His grandson, whom MacLeod has stayed in contact with, was unharmed in the incident and told MacLeod that his grandfather is currently recovering after surgery on his leg Sunday and is still in high spirits. Isom-McDaniels even told MacLeod in a previous interview with Cowboy State Daily that he hopes no one thinks he agitated the bison.
“He was really worried and wanted to see the video to make sure that it wasn’t his fault,” MacLeod stated. “You can tell in the video it’s not his fault.”
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