Filming a Buffalo One Minute, Getting Mauled by it Another

“Watch Donald get gored,” Cathy Hayes says playfully as she films her friend jogging closer to a buffalo in Yellowstone National Park. The words come out of her mouth just minutes before the buffalo she’s filming looks straight into her camera, starts bucking and kicking, and runs directly at her. As it turns out, her friend Donald was left unscathed. But Cathy was left with some serious bruises and cuts on her legs–and live footage of the buffalo charging at and attacking her.

This is just one instance of a technology-related accident. But, as reported by The New York Times, incidences such as these are on the rise in National Parks. According to the article, people today often rely too heavily on technology–from cell phones to satellite location devices–or find themselves distracted by cameras, which in both cases can lead to misguided decisions or place people in dangerous situations.

From The New York Times:

People with cellphones call rangers from mountaintops to request refreshments or a guide; in Jackson Hole, Wyo., one lost hiker even asked for hot chocolate.

A French teenager was injured after plunging 75 feet this month from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon when he backed up while taking pictures. And last fall, a group of hikers in the canyon called in rescue helicopters three times by pressing the emergency button on their satellite location device. When rangers arrived the second time, the hikers explained that their water supply “tasted salty.”

“Because of having that electronic device, people have an expectation that they can do something stupid and be rescued,” said Jackie Skaggs, spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

[Via: The New York Times]