No matter if they know better, some people just can't resist the urge to touch the hot stove or lick the frozen pole. How else to explain a man kneeling down to not just touch hot thermal water, but apparently taste it too?
The TouronsOfYellowstone Instagram account (@touronsofyellowstone) shared the puzzling footage that was captured by user Ian Luedke (@ian.luedke).
The video shows the park visitor kneeling on a boardwalk over one of the park's famous thermal features. He brings his hand to his mouth to take a taste, before shaking the remainder off and getting out of his crouch.
Off-screen, the onlookers are baffled by the behavior and speculate that the water probably "tastes like s***." An accompanying picture shows the scene right before the video starts, with the man dipping his fingers into the water.
The whole act is odd and very much against the park's rules that instruct tourists not to touch or soak in thermal features. Drinking the water is also a bad idea, as the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory explained.
The water can contain a brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria, unsafe levels of fluoride and arsenic, and dangerous chemicals like mercury and antimony. That probably isn't going to taste good or make you feel good either.
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There's also the risk of burns from accidents like falling into scorching hot water. Too many tourists have learned about those hazards in painful fashion to be taking liberties to stoke your curiosity.
If you want to credit the visitor with one thing, at least they didn't completely leave the boardwalk to wander directly on the thermal feature. Many others are caught doing that, whether they are merely ignoring signs forbidding it or are oblivious to them.
Unfortunately, rule-breaking at Yellowstone also extends to ignoring the rules around approaching wild animals, or throwing things into thermal features. The upshot of all these behaviors can be damage to some of the park's most iconic features, as well as serious injuries to visitors.
Commenters on Instagram were alarmed by the tourist's brazen actions.
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Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Definitely 👍 "It's a wonder he's lived this long," one viewer marveled.
"Natural selection at work, PLEASE don't interfere," another user suggested.
"The brain-eating amoeba would starve on that guy," a commenter quipped.
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