A mid-60s grandfather from Washington state is recovering from surgery after a bull bison at Yellowstone's Bridge Bay Campground launched him into the air, and witnesses say he took the hit to protect his grandson.
Carl Isom-McDaniel was camping with his grandson near Yellowstone Lake on the evening of July 10 when a bison bull, initially lying down and showing no signs of aggression, suddenly picked a target. That target was Isom-McDaniel. The animal charged, launched the retiree from Kendall, Washington, into the air, and left him on the ground with a femur shattered in four places.
Isom-McDaniel never lost consciousness. From his hospital bed at Bozeman Health in southwest Montana, he told Fox News Digital exactly what he wanted other park visitors to understand about bison.
"They move faster than you could ever imagine."
He wasn't exaggerating. And his account, along with footage and testimony from an eyewitness photographer, paints a picture of how fast a routine campground evening can turn dangerous, even when visitors do nothing wrong.
The attack unfolded in stages. Photographer Mike MacLeod, a veteran who was filming at Bridge Bay Campground that evening, said the bison first charged a group of teenagers who were standing at what appeared to be a safe distance. The teens scattered, MacLeod described them as "young and nimble", and began shouting warnings to other campers.
Less than a minute after MacLeod started filming, the bison turned its attention to Isom-McDaniel and his grandson.
Isom-McDaniel recalled seeing the animal on the ground near a tree, showing no aggression. Then it locked on.
"We saw the bison and he was down. He wasn't showing aggression or anything like that until it picked a target. That target happened to be me."
With the animal bearing down, Isom-McDaniel made a decision. He told his grandson to get to the campground amphitheater, higher ground, away from the charge, and stayed behind.
"It was like, you need to get up to the amphitheater. I will deal with this down here."
MacLeod, who witnessed the full sequence, said the grandfather absorbed the worst of it deliberately. In an earlier account of the attack, MacLeod described how Isom-McDaniel positioned himself between the animal and the boy.
"It really felt to me like the grandfather kind of saved his grandson. [He'd] taken the brunt of the attack."
The bison got off the tree, charged again, and sent Isom-McDaniel airborne. He said the launch itself wasn't what broke him.
"I didn't get bruises from him launching me in [the] air. It was the landing that [caused] the problem."
Once MacLeod saw Isom-McDaniel in the air, he dropped his camera and ran toward the scene. He and several other men hazed the bison, shouting, waving, moving aggressively toward the animal to drive it off, and then turned to help the injured grandfather.
MacLeod reached Isom-McDaniel first. The grandfather's opening words were not about his own condition.
"I got to him right away, and the first thing he asked is, 'How is my grandson?'"
Neither Isom-McDaniel nor his grandson had provoked the bison. The New York Post reported that both had been keeping a respectful distance and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The animal had already agitated several other visitors before fixing on the pair.
MacLeod offered his own theory about the bull's behavior.
"For some reason [the bison] had it in his head he was going to attack those two [people]."
The attack occurred during bison rut season, when bulls are naturally more aggressive and territorial. Breitbart reported that Isom-McDaniel was thrown approximately eight feet into the air by the bull.
A park ambulance transported Isom-McDaniel to Bozeman Health roughly ten minutes after the attack. Surgeons operated on his femur, which had broken into multiple pieces. His treating physician described the severity plainly in a hospital video.
"It was definitely clear that he had a pretty painful injury. It's actually broken in multiple pieces."
Isom-McDaniel, a community leader from Whatcom County, Washington, stayed conscious and coherent through the entire ordeal. MacLeod, who stayed with him until responders arrived, said the grandfather was in significant pain but kept his composure.
Wild animal encounters that end in serious injury or worse are not limited to national parks. A recent alligator attack near Orlando ended in a woman's death, a reminder that wildlife across the country can turn lethal in seconds.
From his hospital bed, Isom-McDaniel struck a tone that surprised even MacLeod. He said he never panicked.
"I always felt safe and secure. I wasn't ever terrified."
That kind of calm under pressure, a man in his mid-60s, bones shattered, first thought about his grandson, is the sort of thing that used to be called ordinary courage. Emergencies of all kinds, from a boat explosion off Miami to a mass shooting in Brooklyn, test whether bystanders freeze or act. MacLeod and the other men who charged a bison on foot didn't freeze either.
Yellowstone officials have reportedly made a decision regarding the bison involved in the attack, though details of that decision have not been made public in full. The park has dealt with bison-related injuries before, the animals weigh up to 2,000 pounds, can sprint at 35 miles per hour, and are the most dangerous large animal in the park by number of incidents.
Isom-McDaniel did everything right. He kept his distance. He didn't approach or provoke the animal. When the charge came, he put himself between the bison and his grandson. And he still ended up in surgery with a femur in four pieces.
His warning to other visitors is worth repeating: these animals move faster than anyone imagines until they see it happen. The distance that feels safe may not be. The bison that looks calm may not be.
Carl Isom-McDaniel didn't ask to be a cautionary tale. He's a grandfather who went camping and put his body between a charging bull and a child. That's not a cautionary tale. That's the real thing.