“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

There are certain matters of etiquette one must observe when visiting State and National Parks. There is camping etiquette and fishing etiquette. There are matters of law. Then there’s just plain common sense.

A video was posted this week to Facebook.

http://www.ktvq.com/story/38792071/video-extra-man-taunts-buffalo-in-yellowstone-park

It was taken by a Yellowstone National Park visitor and it clearly shows a man taunting a buffalo by yelling at it and waving his arms. I am not sure if he was trying to shoo the behemoth out of the way because he was in a hurry, or if he was just curious what the beast would do. Either way, he got much more than the sought after 15 minutes of fame.

Turns out, this guy has a string of offenses over the course of his “vacation” and he ended up getting his just desserts.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/18034.htm

Surely, one would think it only common sense not to go up to a wild animal the size of a semi and taunt it. But, alas…this kind of behavior is not all that uncommon. People have been gored, mauled, trampled, seriously injured and even killed by wildlife who were not respected. These are not Disney animatronics here. These are highly unpredictable wild animals who could easily put you down…permanently.

Mr. Virgo once saw an elk chasing a woman down a street in Estes Park trying to get her subway sandwich. He also saw many bears in Aspen with people getting entirely too close to pictures. There was an elderly woman mauled in Glenwood Springs, CO by a bull elk right on her front porch. She was feeding him apples. Mr. Virgo and I were in Yellowstone once and saw some grizzlies at what I thought was a fairly safe distance. I stood up on the seat of the SUV and stuck my head out the sunroof to capture a great photo. Al of a sudden there was this loud pounding behind me on the roof of the car. I screamed and turned around in time to see a red-faced, angry Park Ranger yelling at me to get back down in the car. I honestly thought I was safe, so sometimes these things are perpetrated by well-meaning tourists who probably SHOULD know better, but don’t.

So, the moral of the story is this…use common sense when visiting parks and forests where there is the likelihood of coming into contact with wildlife. Read the rules and follow them…to the T. Ask a ranger if you have questions. If you have internet, Google what you should do. And…like the woman who posted the video said… #DontDrinkAndBuffalo. You might not get a second chance. ❤️