MEDORA, N.D. (AP) — A teenage visitor to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota has been injured by a bison.
Officials at Theodore Roosevelt National Park say the 17-year-old male from Colorado was on a trail Saturday and walked between two bull bison that had been fighting. One bison charged the teen who was struck in the back, gored in the thigh and tossed about six feet in the air.
Park rangers and Billings County paramedics treated the teen at the scene until he could be taken by helicopter to a Bismarck hospital. Authorities say he is in stable condition.
Park regulations require that visitors stay at least 25 yards away from large animals such as bison, elk, deer and horses.
Authorities are not naming the teenager or identifying where in Colorado he is from.
In a Good Morning America interview, the teenager said he didn't try to be aggressive toward the animals or get close to them.
"There was another group of hikers that had just gone past him... I didn't feel unsafe at any point while I was around him, and then all of sudden he just came and charged at me," he said.
He landed on his backpack, which he says saved his life, or at least softened a fall that would have resulted in much more serious injuries.
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