A pair of cowboys successfully captured an unruly bison after the animal escaped from a veterinarian's office in Texas. The incident took place on Tuesday October 25 in the town of Belton, which lies between Austin and Waco.
According to local news site KWTX, the bison belongs to a local rancher, but managed to escape from the office early in the morning in a busy downtown area. Animal control officers were called, and immediately sent out a call for cowboys and veterinarians to help get the animal back to safety.
The bison was seen in an area of thick brush and stuck with a tranquilizer dart, but this proved ineffective and it continued to evade capture. Eventually dogs were brought in to help track it, and it was spotted and tranquilized again in the early afternoon. Finally, cowboys were able to control and capture it.
The video below shows the animal being subdued and tied. The animal was then loaded into a trailer and taken to a new home at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, which houses over 1,700 individual animals, including three other bison.
"It was pretty tough because he kept beating us into brush,” said cowboy Joe Draper, who helped corral the animal. “We couldn’t get him to come out to where we could actually get a shot and get him roped and get him captured."
Although bison are native to Texas, they're rarely seen outside of captivity. One of the few exceptions is Caprock Canyon State Park, where a woman was recently gored after hiking too close to a group of the animals.
Rebecca Clark shared a video of the frightening incident (which you can watch below) as a warning to others to give bison plenty of space.
@rebeccaclark ♬ dumb dumb - sped up - mazie
"They are beautiful creatures protected by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) and are a part of the Texas State Bison Restoration Project where the park has restored the historic Charles Goodnight Bison herd (the official Texas State Bison Herd) to a portion of its former range in the park," she wrote when sharing the clip on TikTok. "I am posting to support safety while enjoying Texas State Parks."
In a Q&A posted later, Clark explained that she is now recovering from her injuries, and urged fellow hikers not to take the same risks. For more advice, see our guide how to avoid being gored by a bison.
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