ILLEGAL

Man Arrested for Taunting Bison at Yellowstone National Park

Park authorities say the 55-year-old was involved in a string of incidents at other parks.

A middle-aged man caught on video taunting a bison at Yellowstone National Park earlier this week has been arrested for the incident, and park officials now say he’s a repeat offender. In a press release on Friday, authorities at Yellowstone said the man, Raymond Reinke, had several run-ins with law enforcement rangers during visits to national parks over the last week. Before repeatedly goading and lunging at a massive bison on a Yellowstone road on Tuesday—an incident that sparked numerous wildlife harassment complaints and resulted in a viral video—Reinke was reportedly arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at Grand Teton National Park on July 28. He was also cited for a traffic violation at Yellowstone days later and involved in a disturbance at a hotel near the Glacier National Park, authorities said. Yellowstone’s superintendent, Dan Wenk, called Reinke’s confrontation with the bison “dangerous, reckless, and illegal” and thanked park rangers for his arrest Friday. “Harassing wildlife is illegal in any national park,” he said.