A 55-year-old man from Utah has passed away after likely being gored by a bison at Antelope Island State Park.
The man, whose name has not been released, was out for a run on Saturday (August 29). Two women heard the injured man calling for help and found him on one of the island’s many trails. They called 911 and the man received medical attention until he could be transported via helicopter to the University of Utah Hospital.
“Two women were on the Lakeside Trail and heard an individual calling for help,” said Eugene Swalberg, public affairs coordinator for the Utah State Parks. “They found a 55-year-old man from Davis County who’d been injured, and they called 911.”
The man was about a mile from where he had parked his car, his hat and earbuds were nearby. He was found with wounds that suggested he had been gored. “We just don’t know the circumstances, but he does have wounds and injuries consistent with a goring … and maybe if he was thrown, lacerations from the rocks,” Swalberg said. “But there was no eyewitness, and we don’t know how long he’d been lying there. He certainly had injuries consistent with a goring, but it’s still under investigation, so we cannot definitively say that’s what happened.”
The island is the largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake and is home to one of the oldest and largest bison herds in the United States. Just like public bison herds found at other state and national parks around the country, the Antelope Island herd has reported numerous bison attacks in recent years.
In June of 2019, a man was struck by a bison while on a running trail. Three months later, that same man was at the island park with a woman who was hospitalized after being gored by a bison.
One day prior to Saturday’s attack the park posted a warning to visitors, saying, “Always keep an eye on your surrounding and give animals a lot of distance.”