Woman Attacked by Bison Months After Date Was Gored at Same Utah Park
What started as a date to watch the sunset ended in a trip to the hospital after a woman was gored by a bison — at the very same location her date was attacked months earlier.
Kayleigh Davis, 22, was running along the Lakeside trail at Antelope Island State Park in Utah Friday evening when she encountered a bison, Utah State Parks said in a news release.
Witnesses said that Davis was running on an established trail, but the bison approached anyway and struck her with its head, sending her into the air.
Davis, who was running with friend Kyler Bourgeous, said that though she tried to run the bison off the trail, she believes it was spooked by four bikers who rode by.
“That’s when he flipped me up in the air,” she told NBC affiliate KSL, adding that she flew about 15 feet in the air. “[After], he was hanging over me, sniffing me for a minute, and he was digging like he was about to charge again. I just stayed still. I was actually screaming at that moment.”
Davis was airlifted to McKay Dee Hospital, where she was treated for a broken ankle and a cut on her calf, KSL reports.
The incident was all too familiar for her running mate Bourgeous, 30, who suffered a similar bison attack at Antelope Island back in June.
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Still, he thought his attack was a one-off, and didn’t think much of inviting Davis out so they could watch the sunset together.
“I thought my incident was a freak accident with really bad luck with the positioning, and that we’d be fine going back there,” he told KSL.
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He later joked to the Washington Post, “I generally am not superstitious, but I have this weird feeling that the bison there really don’t like me.”
Bourgeous was gored on the right side of his torso and thrown into the air by a bison, who later trampled him, causing broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and head injuries.
“He went down and curled up and got kicked in the head,” his mom Bonnie Bourgeous told KSL at the time. “Then he got stepped on several times. If he had not turned just one inch this way or that way, it would have gone through his heart and his lungs and his organs, and there is no way he would have survived.”
Bison attacks at the 42-square-mile preserve are rare — in the last decade, Antelope Island State Park has seen 4 million visitors, and there have been just five reported bison incidents, according to Utah State Parks.
“It could’ve been worse, I’ve been telling family members that it could’ve been worse and they’re telling me how lucky I am,” Davis told KSL. “And I’m like, it’s lucky, but it’s also unfortunate at the same time.”
