Charles Darwin with a purple swarm around his head, contemplating the twist of fate that natural selection sidestepped these still-living honorable mentions.

2007 Honorable Mention

Next Prev Random Honorable Mentions have misadventures that stop short of the ultimate sacrifice. Nevertheless we salute the spirit of their colossal blunders with an Honorable Mention. Better luck next time!

Buffalo Stampede
2007 Honorable Mention
Unconfirmed by Darwin

(1985) On my second day at Yellowstone National Park, I rose early to get a good start on sightseeing. My second stop was a roadside parking lot near an open field where wild buffalo graze. The parking lot is lined with explicit warning signs. Buffalo are dangerous. Visitors should not leave their cars, and certainly not enter the field on foot.

I was taking snapshots with my telephoto lens when a car from California pulled in. A man with a camera emerged from the car. I heard him tell his wife that the buffalo were too far away, and he was going to walk out for a better shot.

I called over, "Read the warning signs! Stay away from the animals."

He said that nothing that big could catch him, and he walked to within fifty feet of a buffalo. I picked up the mike on my CB radio and started calling for the Park Rangers to bring a body bag.

As soon as his camera shutter clicked, the buffalo charged. Buffalo can run 35 mph for short distances, so I was amazed that this man was able to sprint fifty yards back to his car ahead of the angry animal. He slid to a stop, and managed to get in the car before the buffalo caught up.

But his car didn't escape the buffalo's attention. It rammed the car repeatedly, severely damaging the door, top, hood, radiator, lights, etc. The car was totalled. Park Rangers arrived expecting a bloody mess, but the man and his wife survived with little more than glass cuts and, I suspect, some rather interesting marks in their undershorts.

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"Where the buffalo roam..."

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