An angry bison attacked a 65-year-old grandfather at Yellowstone National Park on Friday, launching the man about 8 feet into the air.

The man, Carl McDaniel, of Washington state, and his grandson were visiting the park when the animal charged at them. The family was standing at what was considered a safe distance of about 100 yards when the bison attacked.

Possibly agitated by a passing white truck, the angry animal tore across the road toward a grove of trees, where it first did a tango with one tree before chasing after McDaniel tossing him heavenward

Former combat photographer Mike MacLeod filmed the scene but stopped shortly after McDaniel landed.

“After Carl hit the ground, the bison was standing extremely agitated right next to him,” MacLeod said. “I had to do something quickly. I was afraid he was going to get stomped or gored. I was afraid the bison would go after Carl.”

MacLeod and a group of visitors quickly made themselves an “alternative target” for the bull, he said.

“We weren’t too close,” MacLeod said. “We still had options to seek cover.”

The crowd quickly frightened the bison away, he said.

“Once the bull saw people running at it, he turned around and ran and ran,” MacLeod said. “I tell people it was like watching a bulldozer move out at 50 miles an hour — he was so big and impressive.”

One camper stood guard where the bull had headed while others gave McDaniel first aid.

“He broke his leg,” MacLeod said. “He had some other injuries, but he did break his leg.”

This time of year — rutting season — male bison are fighting for mates, and that may have caused the bison to act the way he did, he said.

“He’s a girl-crazy bison,” MacLeod said.

Anything sets a male bison off during rutting season, he said.

“He was a bull. When the rut starts, the males start fighting each other for breeding rights,” MacLeod said. “They look for any kind of a target — they’d chase a scrap of paper across the ground if they were aggravated.”

MacLeod’s wife, Barbara, noticed the bison wandering into a campground and told him to pick up his camera. A group of boys standing in front of a tent were taking the animal’s picture.

“They were minding their own business when the bison approached and suddenly charged. They scattered,” he said. “People started yelling and screaming and warning other campers a bison had come into the campground.”

The bison approached, sat down and started rolling in the dusty road, MacLeod said.

“You can’t see it in the video, but other campers were significantly closer (than was the grandfather),” he said.

Why the bison picked the pair when they were clearly no threat is anybody’s guess, MacLeod said.

MacLeod served as a combat photographer with the 82nd Airborne Division in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The Army trains you,” he said. “When you see a dangerous situation, you go towards danger, not away from it. That’s exactly what I did.”

Since his video started being broadcast across the internet and on the nightly news, MacLeod has become a media sensation. He’s heard from reporters from Australia, Denmark, Ireland and even Rexburg.

An Australian reporter thought the attack was an AI creation.

“You never know these days,” MacLeod said. “I texted Carl that in one of the reports — some expert said it was AI. (It suggested) the victim turned into a tent and started running. I said, ‘Carl, did you feel like a tent?’ He said, ‘My broken femur will attest to the fact that it was not AI.’”

McDaniel was worried that he had done something to upset the bison, but MacLeod’s video proved he hadn’t.

“Carl wanted to know if he had done the right thing,” MacLeod said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I did do the right thing.’ He was worried about setting the wrong example for his grandkid and other people.”

When told it was remarkable that MacLeod stopped filming to help Carl, MacLeod didn’t think much of it.

“He may have saved his grandson’s life,” MacLeod said.

Married to Barbara for 35 years, MacLeod and his wife are the parents of two children who think the bison incident was “crazy,” he said.

In the meantime, MacLeod plans to license the video to news organizations.

He shrugs off any suggestion that he saved McDaniel’s life.

“It was just Army training,” he said. “In a firefight, if one of my fellow paratroopers was hurt, I’d do the same thing. It was not so much a decision but training.”