South Dakota
Woman dies after bison attack in South Dakota’s Custer State Park
Hear a bison bull roar as rut season begins in Iowa
Male bison bellow to show strength and fend off rivals during their mating season, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A 70-year-old Canadian woman died after being struck by a bison May 18 while hiking with her husband in South Dakota’s Custer State Park, after another park visitor was injured by a bison earlier this month.
The couple were on the Grace Coolidge Trail and found themselves behind a group of about five bull bison, according to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. The couple paused about 500 yards from the animals and waited for them to continue up the trail and out of sight. The couple then continued hiking, came around a corner and encountered the bulls at a distance of 50 yards.
The couple stopped again, and then continued trailing the bison as the animals moved away. A bull eventually broke from the group, charged the woman, hooked her and tossed her into the air.
The woman died from her injuries.
Custer State Park is managed by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks. Spokesperson Nick Harrington said staff moved the bison from the area and are monitoring the animal’s behavior “to ensure public safety and prevent future incidents.” He said dry conditions have caused bison to spread throughout the park in search of grass, increasing the chance that visitors may encounter them on trails.
Harrington said park visitors should keep their distance from wildlife, make noise while hiking, use caution around corners and ridges, and keep pets on leashes.
“It’s important to remember that bison are wild animals and need to be treated as such,” Harrington said in a written statement. “Visitors are reminded to keep their distance from all wild animals and safely enjoy both the trails and wildlife within the park.”
On May 1, a 22-year-old hiker encountered a bison while hiking the Lost Trails by Center Lake, Harrington said in response to South Dakota Searchlight questions about prior incidents. The hiker was with a friend and their dog when they rounded a corner.
“The hiker was struck by the buffalo on the back of her legs and was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” Harrington said.
Harrington said the department is not aware of any other incidents involving bison within Custer State Park this year, and there had not been a fatal incident involving a bison in the park since 2001.
The 110-square-mile park in the Black Hills is home to a herd of about 1,400 bison, also known as buffalo. Bull bison can stand up to 7 feet tall at the shoulders, weigh 2,000 pounds and run up to 35 mph, according to the department.
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
google-site-verification: google9919194f75dd62c5.html
Presidential elections and electoral college studied by WCSCC seniors
Seniors at the WCSCC learn about presidential elections and the electoral college from civics teacher Kimberly Huffman.
A new poll shows Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden overtaking U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson in the race for the Republican nomination for governor of South Dakota, but the gap between the two is within the poll’s margin of error.
The poll commissioned by KELO-TV and conducted by Emerson College Polling in Boston shows Aberdeen businessman Doeden at 26%, Johnson at 23%, Gov. Larry Rhoden at 19% and state House Speaker Jon Hansen at 16%, with 15% of respondents undecided. The poll’s margin of error is 3.2 percentage points.
The poll was conducted May 18-19. Emerson surveyed 452 registered Republicans in the state, including 432 who said they were either very or somewhat likely to vote.
March results from the same source were Johnson 28%, Doeden 18%, Rhoden 17%, Hansen 14% and 23% undecided.
Separately, South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy commissioned polls by Mason-Dixon Polling. Those results in April showed Johnson with 34% support, Hansen at 18%, and Rhoden and Doeden each at 17%, with 14% undecided.
In October, those same groups released results of Johnson 28%, Rhoden 27%, Doeden 15%, and Hanson 10%, with 21% undecided.
The winner of the race needs 35% support in the June 2 primary election to advance to a Nov. 3 general election contest against presumptive Democratic nominee Dan Ahlers. If no Republican receives 35% support in the primary, the top two will advance to a runoff eight weeks later on July 28.
South Dakota
70-year-old woman dead after being struck by bison in South Dakota – National | Globalnews.ca
A 70-year-old woman has died after being struck by a bison while on a hiking trail in South Dakota’s Custer State Park.
The woman, who has not been identified, was hiking with her husband on the Grace Coolidge Trail in Custer State Park last week when they encountered a herd of about five bull bison, according to People, CBS affiliate KELO and the Pierre Capital Journal.
The Custer County Sheriff’s Office told the Capital Journal that the couple had paused about 450 metres from the animals and waited for them to continue up the trail. Once the couple reportedly continued hiking and came around a corner, they encountered the bison at a distance of around 45 metres, the outlet reports.
The couple stopped again and then continued trailing the bison, but a bull eventually broke from the group and charged the woman, the Capital Journal reports.
A spokesperson for the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Department (GFP) told KELO that the woman was struck by the bison in the back and died from her injuries.
Global News has reached out to South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Department and Custer County Sheriff’s Office for further comment, but has not received a response.
GFP communications manager Nick Harrington told KELO that staff have moved the bison from the area and “are actively monitoring the animal’s behavior to ensure public safety and prevent future incidents.”
Harrington said that dry conditions have caused the bison to spread out throughout the park, which means visitors should remain aware of their surroundings while on the trails.
Get breaking National news
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.
“Hikers are encouraged to make noise as they are on the trails, be mindful when rounding corners or coming across a ridge, and to keep pets on a leash,” Harrington told the outlet.
“It’s important to remember that bison are wild animals and need to be treated as such. Visitors are reminded to keep their distance from all wild animals and safely enjoy both the trails and wildlife within the park,” he added.
Park officials around the U.S. share frequent warnings not to get too close to wildlife while visiting national parks ahead of the busy summer season.
Last May, a Florida man was injured after he was charged and gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park.
The 47-year-old, who had approached the bison, escaped with only minor injuries and was treated by emergency medical personnel, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
The National Park Service mandates that visitors stay at least 23 metres away from large animals like bison.
Bison are the largest mammals in North America, can reach speeds of up to 55 km/h when charging and are able to jump several feet.
Bison can be aggressive when people don’t give them enough space, park officials said in their statement, and have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other wild animal.
At least two people were gored by bison in 2024, including an 83-year-old South Carolina woman who was seriously injured.
The woman was near the Storm Point Trail at Yellowstone Lake in June 2024 when the bison lifted her about a foot off the ground with its horns, park officials said, adding that the bison was defending its space.
In April 2024, an Idaho man was arrested on alcohol and wildlife-related charges after he was accused of kicking a bison at Yellowstone National Park, sustaining minor injuries.
The man was arrested by park rangers, who transported him to a nearby medical facility before dropping him at a county detention centre.
Authorities were notified of the incident after a parkgoer reported seeing an individual “who harassed a herd of bison and kicked a bison in the leg” near Yellowstone’s west entrance, park officials wrote in a press release.
In July 2023, a Phoenix woman was gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park, according to the National Park Service, leaving her with “significant injuries to her chest and abdomen.”
The woman was visiting Yellowstone and was walking with another person in a field near the Lake Lodge Cabins on the north shore of Lake Yellowstone when they came across two bison.
“Upon seeing them, the visitors turned to walk away from the bison,” the National Park Service stated, but one of the bison charged at them and gored the woman.
The woman was seriously injured and had to be transported by helicopter to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
—with files from The Associated Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
-
New Hampshire1 minute agoSEE THE GOOD: New Hampshire teens jump in to fix broken car wash equipment – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
-
New Jersey7 minutes agoThe House Is Our Firewall. NJ-07 Is How We Build It. – Insider NJ
-
New Mexico13 minutes agoNew Mexico early voting turnout surpasses 2024 Primary Election
-
North Dakota25 minutes agoUniversity of North Dakota seeks to scale up critical mineral refining
-
Ohio31 minutes agoColumbus public safety leaders say they were abused by OSU doctor
-
Oklahoma37 minutes agoDeadly shooting overnight near NW 23rd and Portland in Oklahoma City
-
Oregon43 minutes agoOregonians to see rare ‘blue moon’ and ‘micromoon’ early next week
-
Pennsylvania49 minutes agoMan working on vehicle crushed to death, Pennsylvania officials say
