Officials and bystanders at Lone Elk Park in Missouri said that within the past two weeks, two people have been injured by charging elk, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
In at least one case, a woman was left bloodied after an elk gored her while she and some friends were attempting to take a selfie with the animal, a local nature photographer told the newspaper.
“I saw the dominant bull moving toward them and I tried to yell at them to get away,” photographer Kent Burgess, who witnessed the most recent attack on Sunday afternoon, told the Post-Dispatch. “There was a lot of blood on her arm and on her face.”
On Sept. 30, another woman was hospitalized after she got too close to a bull and he gored her in the lower back, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Signs at the park warn people to stay at least 100 feet away from the elk, according to the newspaper.
“Some people unfortunately think elk are this gentle, tame animal, but that’s just not true,” Tom Ott, assistant director of the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, told the Post-Dispatch. “They are wild animals. These people who are walking up to them are asking for trouble.”