I read the "Death in Yellowstone" book as well. The first story was about someone who decided to go try rescuing their dog by jumping off the boardwalks into one of the cauldrons. Needless to say, I am not into autodarwination, so I'm staying well within where the signs say.
As for bison/buffalo, if I want to deal with calves, there are a few ranches nearby that I can always ask to come on site... and because the animals have almost zero natural predators, they react to people a lot differently than true wild animals.
