ViralHogIn the battle of man versus beast, man rarely wins, especially when the beast is a 6 foot tall, 1,500 pound, prehistoric looking and pissed off bison.
One brave soul, however, thought he’d take on such a beast.
Why? Delusions of grandeur, maybe. Perhaps his partner had criticised his DIY skills and he wanted to prove how much of a man he was. Or, and my favourite theory, perhaps the bison had stolen his shoes.
By the way, it’s definitely the shoes. Check the video, the guy is just in his socks:
As the video shows, our shoeless hero follows the bison as it wanders through traffic in the Yellowstone National Park.
In the footage the bison turns to taunt the man, probably to say ‘lol I got your shoes m8, jog on sock boy’. The man can then be seen beating his chest and waving his arms before the animal charges at him.
Lindsey Jones, who filmed the incident, said:
My family and I were driving through Hayden Valley in Yellowstone looking at wildlife and the scenery when we came upon slowed traffic due to bison along the road. I videoed him from our vehicle as he was walking and making growling sounds.
I presume she is talking about the bison here, but it could well be the man in socks.
Lindsey continued:
We noticed behind us a man in socks and no shoes walking up the road towards the bison. He gestured to the animal to get off the road and then proceeded to challenge him. The bison went after him a couple times and then carried on with what he was doing before he was bothered.
The man did not appear to be injured and we are unsure of what happened to him after as we moved forward with traffic.
ViralHogWhile someone in another car shouts ‘Get out of there!’, the white-socked wanderer stands his ground, obviously confident because he knows he can run well fast just in socks. I hope there’s no loose pebbles on the road though, ‘cos if there is he’s going down like a sack of spuds.
According to the National Park Service, Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.
They also warn about the dangers of bison, saying:
Wild animals are unpredictable and dangerous.
Every year people are injured when they approach animals too closely. Animals that attack people may need to be relocated or killed.
The National Park Service also advises that visitors ‘always remain’ at least 100 yards away from bears or wolves, and at least 25 yards away from all other wildlife. Shoes or no shoes.
In other huge-animals-charging-at-things news, a rhino was filmed squaring up to and battering a car with a family inside at a safari park in Puebla, Mexico.
Luckily the family were uninjured, and actually called their trip to the safari park ‘an experience they’ll never forget’.
The car, however, might need some body work:
Maybe they should’ve taken their shoes off, they definitely would’ve outrun the rhinos then.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.