Yellowstone bison charge: Stupid human tricks [Video]

New video has emerged of a grown man urging children to pet a bison at Yellowstone National Park, and the results were what some intelligent people might expect: The bison gets angry and charges.

Video, posted in August on YouTube, is going viral online. It shows a bison chasing a young boy. A grown man laughs as others urge the child to run from the animal.

The West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce was horrified by the video and posted recently on its Facebook page:

“This video is one that makes us angry. ... This group has no idea how incredibly lucky they were that no one was injured or killed.”

A lesson in bison might be handy before visiting Yellowstone. According to the National Park Service, 2,300 to 4,500 of the animals live in the park. The bison is the largest land mammal in North America, with bulls weighing up to 2,000 pounds and cows up to 1,000 pounds.

They may not look it, but they are agile and fast and can run more than 30 mph, the park service says. A bison also can turn on a dime, which helps protect the animal when predators -- or ignorant people -- approach it from behind.

Video of a separate incident, below, shows a bison pawing the ground, and a tourist encroaching closer and closer. The bison charges and the tourist is tossed into a tree.

The boy and his photo-snapping friends -- the unhelpful adult included -- got away from this more recent incident uninjured.

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