Horrified tourists watch as bison boils to death in Yellowstone hot spring

Tourists at Yellowstone National Park were left in shock as they witnessed the harrowing death of a bison that fell into a scalding hot spring last week.

The tragic incident occurred at Midway Geyser Basin, close to the iconic Old Faithful geyser, where the majestic creature met its demise after accidentally plunging into the near-boiling waters.

With temperatures at the Grand Prismatic reaching a searing 88 degrees Celsius, and the boiling point hovering around 93 degrees due to the park's elevation, the animal's survival was impossible.

Louise Howard, a witness at the scene, recounted to CBS News: "There were two bison standing there," adding "I thought it was a great photo opportunity."

However, the situation quickly escalated as one bison approached the spring, dipped into a shallow area, and then leapt out. Within half a minute, the animal lost its footing by the edge of Grand Prismatic Spring and tumbled in.

"As hard as it tried, it couldn't get out," Howard described, having captured the distressing event on camera and posted it online.

While such incidents are not uncommon, with animals frequently succumbing to the park's thermal features, Michael Poland from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory explained to CBS News the rarity of this event: "There is one pool (in the Lower Geyser Basin) called Skeleton Pool," he noted, adding, "What made this a little bit different is that it happened in summer, during the day, at one of the most popular tourist areas in the whole park."

The bison was fortunate to have met its end "fairly quickly," due to the high temperatures, reports the MirrorUS. The animal's intense thrashing reportedly moved it into a hotter area of the Grand Prismatic, leading to a quicker death than usual.

Contrary to rumours, Poland clarified that the water was not acidic and this was not the cause of the bison's death. He explained: "This bison carcass is basically sitting in a pool of nearly boiling water, and ... that boiling water will eat away at the organic material, the tissues, and eventually there will just be some bone."