Then on the video you can hear Tibbitts warning the woman to back up, but it was too late.
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While there, make sure you avoid the stupid people that don’t listen to the basics of rules that are posted everywhere throughout the park.
Olson also warns that touching wild animals is also off-limits; it’s not just risky, but also illegal.
The camera pans and you see the woman lying on the ground with the elk standing several feet away from her. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been out here”.
He was leading a group through Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming when he saw an elk in the wilderness. She replies, “It won’t happen again”. Last month, other Yellowstone visitors were charged for putting a baby bison in their vehicle because they thought the animal was cold. “Imagine a stranger coming into your home and whistling and staring and taking photos”.
Tibbitts, who’s been a tour guide in Yellowstone since the early 1990s, told EastIdahoNews that tourists harassing wildlife has become an “out of control” problem over the last few years.
A female elk can weigh as much as 500 pounds, which means the animal can cause serious injuries, even death, if it feels its offspring have been threatened, Tibbitts said.
The tour guide hopes it serves as a lesson to other tourists that wildlife need to be respected.
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“I guarantee it’ll happen again, but it won’t be her”, he said.
