Trail Runner Gored to Death by Bison on Antelope Island State Park, UT

A trail runner has died after a suspected bison attack on Antelope Island State Park, UT on Saturday.

Larry Adams, 55, from Syracuse, UT was discovered by two women who heard his cry for help. The women were walking along the island’s lakeside trail.

“The women called 911 and state park personnel responded. They then promptly administered first aid and called for a medical helicopter to transport the injured man to the University of Utah hospital for further treatment.”

– official state park press release

Adams was about a mile from where he’d parked his car and looks to have been gored by one of the island’s famous bison. Eugene Swalberg, the public affairs coordinator for the Utah State Parks, says his injuries were consistent with a goring, and he also had lacerations consistent with being thrown by a bison.

The man was found on the north end of the island, near the corrals and the admin building, in an area that is frequented by bison. His hat and headphones were found nearby, so it appears he may have spooked the bison.

Bison are large, even-toed ungulates in the genus Bison within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and six extinct species are recognized. Of the six extinct species, five became extinct in the Quaternary extinction event. Bison palaeosinensis evolved in the Early Pleistocene in South Asia and was the evolutionary ancestor of B. priscus (steppe bison), which was the ancestor of all other Bison species. From 2 million years ago to 6,000 BC, steppe bison ranged across the mammoth steppe, inhabiting Europe and northern Asia with B. schoetensacki (woodland bison), and North America with B. antiquus, B. latifrons, and B. occidentalis. The last species to go extinct, B. occidentalis, was succeeded at 3,000 BC by B. bison.

Of the two surviving species, the American bison, B. bison, found only in North America, is the more numerous. Although commonly known as a buffalo in the United States and Canada, it is only distantly related to the true buffalo.

• Related: Antelope Island/Great Salt Lake, UT Trip Report: The Baja California of Utah… But With Buffalos

Antelope Island, with an area of 42 square miles (109 km2), is the largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake, Utah, United States. The island lies in the southeastern portion of the lake, near Salt Lake City and Davis County, and becomes a peninsula when the lake is at extremely low levels. It is protected as Antelope Island State Park.