A Rocky Mountain National Park visitor was put on blast by Tourons of National Parks (@touronsofnationalparks) after behaving as if they were in a petting zoo.
The video was taken by a woman with her other hand stretched toward a mountain goat, mere feet away. The goat remained frozen while the tourist yelled out for someone named Ryan to "hurry." Finally, the goat decided to turn around, at one point facing the woman head-on with a challenging stare, before venturing up a rock to distance itself.
"Touron in Rocky Mountain National Park" the caption simply stated. "Touron" is a blended word of "tourist" and "moron," describing one who acts with extreme ignorance or disrespect, putting themselves and others, including wildlife, in danger.
The goat's moving away peacefully was a stroke of luck for the person with the outstretched hand. It is in a mountain goat's makeup to stand their ground, as they are aggressively territorial and will use their horns to defend themselves when threatened. Park officials warn visitors to never surround, crowd, chase, or follow a mountain goat.
The National Park Service advises always keeping a distance of 50 yards from mountain goats. Their sharp horns and powerful bodies are capable of inflicting significant and even lethal injuries. In 2010, for example, a mountain goat fatally gored a hiker in Olympic National Park.
Similarly, in Yellowstone National Park, five people were attacked by a bison in the span of three months after getting too close for photos in 2015. One woman and her daughter said other people were close and thought it was OK. They learned the hard way that this was not the case. Even if the animal "looks friendly," such as this marmot in Mount Rainier National Park, it is dangerous.
Wild animals are, in fact, wild and unpredictable, which is why tourists should familiarize themselves with the rules and regulations of any park they visit and keep safe distances from wildlife at all times — no matter what anyone else is doing, no matter how good the picture might be, no matter how "cute" they are.
When humans encroach on animals, it can cause behavioral changes. For instance, when you try to feed wildlife, it can lead to food conditioning, wherein animals become used to and rely on human food sources. They can become more aggressive over time to obtain that food. Animals that harm humans, even when provoked, may face euthanasia, which is what happened to a locally famous deer in Scotland after it was continually fed by tourists.
The mountain goat incident in the Rockies was met with a resounding shake of the head.
One Instagrammer sarcastically wrote, "Apparently didn't see those daggers on its head."
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$200 or more 💰 "Do these people think these are disney animatronics?" another commented.
A third added: "She's lucky she still has a face. Or a head."
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