The key facts
- A tourist grabbed a deer by the antlers and fought with it on the trail to Morskie Oko
- The video of the incident sparked outrage from the Tatra National Park administration
- The park warned that such behavior could lead to the animal's death
Scuffle on the trail to Morskie Oko
In the Polish Tatra Mountains, an attempt to pet a wild deer ended in a scuffle between the animal and a tourist. The incident took place on the popular hiking trail leading to the mountain lake Morskie Oko and was caught on video, which was posted on social media, as reported by Onet.
How it happened
A group of visitors spotted a male deer that had come out toward people and decided to approach it, but the animal did not engage. Then one of the men grabbed it by the antlers and began wrestling with it, striking it with his hand. The fight went on for some time until the two parted ways. The recording was posted by user Dariusz W.
The national park's reaction
The administration of the Tatra National Park sharply condemned the travelers' behavior, doubting that they had ever been taught the rules of interacting with nature at all. Staff of the reserve urged visitors to use common sense and stop treating forest dwellers as entertainment, emphasizing that a deer is not an attraction for petting and not a prop for photos. Tourists were advised not to feed the animal, not to approach it, and not to try to attract its attention, and if they encounter one, to simply go around it and let it leave the trail on its own. Experts warned that continuing such behavior could lead to the animal's death.
A similar case in Białowieża Forest
This is not the first such incident in Poland's protected areas: earlier, Life.ru reported on a bison attacking a tourist in the Polish part of Białowieża Forest. According to witnesses, the man came too close to the animal and frightened it, after which the beast knocked him down and circled around him, not letting him get up. Other visitors came to the victim's aid, and a passing car distracted the bison. Both cases show that conflicts between tourists and wild animals in Polish national parks happen regularly, and the Tatra administration links them precisely to ignorance of the rules of behavior in nature.
