Visiting a national park can be a magical experience, allowing you to see animals in their natural habitat, but it's vital to remember that they are wild and unpredictable. A video on Instagram shows one visitor getting way too close to one of the park animals.
TouronsOfYellowstone (@touronsofyellowstone), an account that chronicles park visitors making poor choices, shared a video of a person in a Ford truck petting a bighorn sheep.
The sheep takes the petting at first but then runs away. The caption reads, "Please do NOT touch the horns on the Big Horn Rams, and try not to let the rams lick your vehicle if possible."
The Yellowstone Park safety rules indicate you should "always stay at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears, wolves, and cougars, and at least 25 yards (23 m) away from all other animals."
While these people managed to get away safely, that isn't always the case. According to a Time report, a mother and daughter tried to take a selfie with a bison, which charged them and threw the mother into the air. Luckily, she had only minor injuries.
Park visitors frequently get too close to wild animals. In another encounter, tourists took pictures of a bison while it grazed.
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TouronsOfYellowstone also noted that bighorn sheep like salt and tend to lick vehicles, as shown in the video. However, some sheep carry "pneumonia-causing bacterial pathogens."
Sheep can pass pathogens to one another when they lick the cars.
The account also said, "The last pneumonia outbreak in the Jackson Bighorn Sheep Herd occurred in 2011 and 2012, when approximately 30% of the sheep died."
So keeping your distance is also for the safety of the wildlife. There was one unfortunate incident where four unleashed dogs killed a marmot, a large squirrel. The dogs' owner laughed at the dead rodent. When pets kill wildlife, it disrupts the ecosystem.
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Definitely 👍 If you have the chance to visit one of these beautiful places, make sure to vacation responsibly and follow the safety rules provided by the parks.
People in the comments were pretty upset about the tourist's actions.
One user said, "I guess they don't care about desensitizing animals to humans and risking the animals' lives, let alone their own."
Another commented, "Why are these people not fined and expelled from the park forever?!"
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