This happened to my husband and me at the Old Faithful site.
No one did anything to provoke the stampede. The herd simply charged through the crowd. Thankfully, no one was injured but it was very scary. People were jumping away in every direction.
Later in the evening at a “Meet the Ranger” event, the ranger asked,” What is the safe distance a visitor should make from the wildlife?” I replied, As far away as possible!”
One thing is certain, you can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd....
I might point out that the "safe" distance of 100 feet can be covered by one of these bad lads with a head of steam up in two and a half seconds.
Stay away from the fluffy cows.
There are signs all over the place telling people to keep a distance from the wildlife, stay on the pathways, etc. Yet there are self entitled morons who think the rules don’t apply to them.
I was up there two years ago and saw first hand how stupid people can be. A group of Asians jumped out of a car and tried to get selfies with a bison calf. The rest of the herd was having nothing of it and started stomping their front hooves, pawing the ground while grunting. The mother finally charged at the people after a few more seconds.
1500 lbs. of hooves horns and muscle is not to be messed with. I thought that would be obvious.