A Bison which killed a 70-year-old Canadian woman in Custer State Park, South Dakota, is to be relocated to another area. The incident happened on 18 May, when the woman and her husband encountered a group of five Bison bulls on the Grace Coolidge Trail, which runs through the park. At this time the bulls were about 500 m ahead of the couple, who allowed them to move off before following. A little while later the couple encountered the Bison again, though this time they were only about 15 m away. The couple waited for them to move before starting to follow, but this time moved while the Animals were still in site, causing one of the bulls to turn and charge.
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The initial charge resulted in the woman being thrown about two metres in the air, sustaining serious injuries to the leg and abdomen. The Bison then stood over the injured woman for about 15 minutes while her husband hid behind a tree and called the local sheriff's office. During this time the woman remained conscious, and was able to talk to her husband. The bull eventually wandered off, after which the husband approached the woman, but this caused the Animal to turn and charge again, this time throwing her about three meters into the air and causing fatal injuries. After this the Bison walked off, and the husband attempted to perform CPR, being joined shortly after by first aid-trained park staff, but it was impossible to save her. The death was the first Bison-related fatality in the park for 21 years.
Following the incident, rumours began to circulate that the park authorities planned to euthanize the Bison, leading to a public outcry, and many people contacting the South Dakota Governor’s Office, the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks and Custer State Park, asking for the Animal to be spared. On Wednesday 10 June the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish and Parks announced that they were willing to rehome the bull and take care of its welfare.
Bison are large animals, the American Bison can reach 1.8 m in length and weigh around 900 kg, and have notoriously unpredictable tempers, often appearing placid and indifferent to their surroundings, and then charging without warning. They can reach speeds of 35 km per hour, and both sexes have horns, which can make unexpected charging highly dangerous.
North America is thought to have been home to about 50 million Bison at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a number that fell to less than a thousand individuals by the middle of the twentieth century due to over-hunting, not just for the purpose of food, but as part of a conscious effort to change the landscape from one amenable to traditional, Native American, lifestyles to a landscape suitable to European-style farming. However since the mid-twentieth century conservation efforts and breeding programs have reversed this decline, with the population now about 530 000 across the continent, including around 40 000 in South Dakota.
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