Man Is Arrested After Taunting Bison at Yellowstone, Park Officials Say
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Why did the bison cross the road? Apparently to get away from the belligerent human who was taunting it.
After a video of a man harassing a bison at Yellowstone National Park went viral— and after a disturbance at another national park more than 300 miles away — rangers arrested him. It was the man’s fourth run-in with park officers in less than one week.
On Tuesday, the man, identified by the authorities as Raymond Reinke, 55, was captured on video goading and lunging at the bison on a paved road in Yellowstone. The massive brown animal crossed the road and turned its back away from him, until the man gestured at the animal as if trying to coax it into a fight. He flexed his arms and then pointed — which sent the animal charging toward him.
The man did not stop there.
He tested the bison again with an animalistic grunt, balling up his fists and hunching over. The bison charged, horns lowered.
“Oh God, no, no — I can’t watch anymore!” said the woman who took a video of the action.
But the man ran away, and, luckily for him, the bison seemed to decide it had better things to do that day than prove its dominance over a tourist. The human left Yellowstone unscathed, but he still had the park’s staff to contend with.
“The individual’s behavior in this video is reckless, dangerous and illegal,” Dan Wenk, Yellowstone’s superintendent, said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The park’s regulations require visitors to stay at least 25 yards from animals like bison and elk. “People who ignore these rules are risking their lives and threatening the park experience for everyone else,” Mr. Wenk said in the post.
Yellowstone officials have warned visitors not to fraternize with bison and other wildlife before. In recent years, a woman was injured while trying to take a selfie near a bison, and a bison calf had to be euthanized after a visitor put it in the back of an S.U.V.
Mr. Reinke, who is from Pendleton, Ore., was arrested on Thursday night at Glacier National Park in Montana after a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to a news release from Yellowstone.
Rangers were called to a hotel in the park because Mr. Reinke was causing a disturbance by arguing with another guest in the dining room, the news release said, before they realized it was the same man wanted by Yellowstone law enforcement. By this time, the hotel bar had already stopped serving Mr. Reinke, said Lauren Alley, a spokeswoman for Glacier National Park.
On July 28, rangers arrested Mr. Reinke at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming for drunk and disorderly conduct, according to the news release. He spent the night in jail and was released on bond.
On Tuesday, rangers at Yellowstone stopped the vehicle Mr. Reinke was in for a traffic violation and cited him for failing to wear a seatbelt. Mr. Reinke appeared “intoxicated and argumentative,” the news release said.
Later, Mr. Reinke decided to tease the bison, prompting several reports of wildlife harassment from other visitors. Mr. Reinke was issued a citation, but after rangers saw the viral video and connected him to the earlier debauchery in Wyoming, a warrant was issued for his arrest on Thursday. He was arrested that night at the hotel and was booked into a Yellowstone jail in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo.
In addition to disturbing wildlife, Mr. Reinke faces several other charges, including being intoxicated to a degree that endangers himself or others, unreasonable noise and keeping an open container of alcohol in a vehicle, according to court documents.
Efforts to reach him for comment on Friday night were unsuccessful.
At Mr. Reinke’s court appearance on Friday, a judge ordered that he be held in jail until his next court appearance, which is set for Wednesday.
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What an idiot.
Happy long weekend to everyone.
From his record he seems to have drinking and stupidity problem. A twofer.
If the buffalo stomped the dumb ass the buffalo should receive a reward...
What I wouldn't give to have seen the bison complete his charge and eliminate one more defect of the human gene pool.
I wouldn't have minded seeing the guy end up in the ditch with a couple broken bones, however the death penalty for being a stupid drunk seems a little harsh
There is a big difference between a Mountain lion attack a jogger and a bison being taunted. He is just doing what he would do. The mountain lion sees the jogger as food, the bison sees the taunter as some other animal trying to piss him off.
I am tired of people acting like idiots and the animals paying for it. Glad he got arrested
This is sad. What is wrong with people......
What a pinhead! It's a shame the bison elected not to toss him around a little bit and break a few bones.
There was a story on Nightline last year about a Texas couple who allow their pet bison to enter their house at will.
They say he's house trained.
This family lives with a bison called 'Wild Thing' inside ...
Feb 22, 2017 · Longtime rancher Ron Bridges said they kept Wild Thing for his son to train and he ended up becoming a house pet ... "/ Nightline /video/family-lives-
I hope that they have a really large pooper scooper.
Like this?
Human being and chimpanzee DNA is 99% in common. Sometimes it shows.
Lol I don't believe a chimpanzee would have done something this stupid, what's that say about humans?