Bushwalk Australia

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/20 ... -park26700

He got within a metre of the bison, trying to take a photo with his tablet.

Sigh.

This is why telephoto lenses were invented.

Darwin Award candidate?

We should get out own back on the American wildlife by training kangaroos to disembowel American tourists more often

Killer wombat squads, that's what the high country needs.

Resurrect the Drop Bears If we can do it for mammoths and T-Rexs we can do it for Thyloarctis plummetus)

Moondog55 wrote:We should get out own back on the American wildlife by training kangaroos to disembowel American tourists more often

They don't need any training MD just for someone to get too close and annoying.

neilmny wrote:

Moondog55 wrote:We should get out own back on the American wildlife by training kangaroos to disembowel American tourists more often

They don't need any training MD just for someone to get too close and annoying.

And Yanks are good at that.

I love how the article doesn't bother mentionning the guy survived until halfway into the core text... Their safe distance recommendations are weird too : in Norway they tell you to stay 200 m away from a musk ox. But bisons only 25 ? I know Europeans are dark and moody but still...

The Yanks are probably talking in yards as well Hallu. Not much less but for me less is not good with an angry bovine!

Moondog55 wrote:Resurrect the Drop Bears If we can do it for mammoths and T-Rexs we can do it for Thyloarctis plummetus)

Slightly off-topic, but how did I miss the scientific classification of drop bears?!
Love the plummetus but can someone save me googling time to explain why the thyloarctos versus the phascolarctos of the koala?

Actually I mis-spelt it
http://australianmuseum.net.au/drop-bear

No worries - Google figured out that's what you meant.

I spent a week or so in Yellowstone NP last year when we travelled parts of western USA. Loved it, and the wildlife was one of the key attractions. An encounter with a full grown male Grizzly was probably the highlight (at a safe distance of about 90 metres); even then I didn't take my eyes off him though the car was only 20 metres away. On the few short hikes we did I carried the recommended bear spray (pepper spray), ready to use if needed, and a bear bell. The bison are everywhere and do as they please but are generally tolerant of people nearby as long as you remain outside their comfort zone. The park rules are made very clear as to minimum safe viewing distances - in general don't approach bears or wolves on foot within 100 yards (91 m) or other wildlife within 25 yards (23 m). That said, the animals themselves will often approach closer and it's up to visitors to move further away. It can sometimes be awkward as bison and elk will often wander beside parked cars in parking lots, linger outside the hotel doorways etc. However I really don't understand the level of stupidity required for incidents like this to happen, but apparently it does occur quite regularly every year. Definitely Darwin Award material.

Hallu, I'm guessing the distances could be based at least partly on the temperament of the animal/s as well as potential for injury. I guess musk ox could be less tolerant of people compared with bison? Might be wrong.

I guess there's also the fact that in Yellowstone they've been living alongside people for more than a century. Yellowstone sees millions of people each year entering its borders. In Norway, the musk oxen have been taken from Greenland and are not used to people, with probably thousands of visitors a year instead of millions. If you go nearer than 100 m they stop, check you out, and if you get closer they charge. Their defense is charging. For bisons if I'm not mistaken it's protecting their young inside a circle so maybe they stay in the circle and don't charge outside of it. You were lucky to see yellowstone. You say you did only short hikes, was it because long day hikes are rare ? That's what I noticed during my 3 weeks in the South West : parks have short and medium hikes (4 hours max) but almost no great day walks (6-8 hours), even though there are backcountry walks (several days). They make things a bit TOO accessible at times. Would you say Yellowstone fall in that category as well ?

Hallu wrote:I guess there's also the fact that in Yellowstone they've been living alongside people for more than a century. Yellowstone sees millions of people each year entering its borders. In Norway, the musk oxen have been taken from Greenland and are not used to people, with probably thousands of visitors a year instead of millions. If you go nearer than 100 m they stop, check you out, and if you get closer they charge. Their defense is charging. For bisons if I'm not mistaken it's protecting their young inside a circle so maybe they stay in the circle and don't charge outside of it. You were lucky to see yellowstone. You say you did only short hikes, was it because long day hikes are rare ? That's what I noticed during my 3 weeks in the South West : parks have short and medium hikes (4 hours max) but almost no great day walks (6-8 hours), even though there are backcountry walks (several days). They make things a bit TOO accessible at times. Would you say Yellowstone fall in that category as well ?

That would explain the 200m for musk ox. The circle theory could be true but I think a single bison would charge simply if someone got too close to it. I had wanted to visit Yellowstone since I was a small child (can probably blame American TV). Only took me over 50 years to get there, but better late than never. The longest hike we did was about 8km/3-4 hours. The main reason for only a few short walks was snow. We were there from early to mid May and many trails were still closed, buried under 10 feet or more of snow, and some roads were still closed. I would go later in the season next time. Regardless of that I did have trouble researching longer Yellowstone day walks - yes I noticed a gap between short-ish walks and multi-day trips. By accessible do you mean that everything is close to a road? Answer would be yes for many geothermal features like geysers and hot springs which are often barely a stones throw from the car park. Depends also on which area of the park. I saw your excellent photos recently and noticed some overlap in that I also visited Grand Canyon and Yosemite. GC was the only place where I managed a reasonably serious long day trip, into the inner canyon on Bright Angel trail - I think you went via South Kaibab?

The really amazing thing is that someone dumb enough to get that close to a bison managed to reach the age of 62.

johnw wrote:at a safe distance of about 90 metres

We encountered a black bear in Alaska, and even at 400 metres away I did not feel safe!

north-north-west wrote:The really amazing thing is that someone dumb enough to get that close to a bison managed to reach the age of 62.

The efficiency of natural selection still has a lot to be desired.

In Kruger park we were charged by a Bull Elephant, ...didn't know a Land Rover could go so fast in reverse !....Not long before, an Elephant charged a Steam Train & derailed it...gotta watch those Elephants........