A bear charged and injured a 10-year-old boy in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday, before his parents were able to get a hold of their bear spray, park officials said. 
 
 The unidentified boy was transferred to a Montana hospital after suffering puncture wounds to his back, wounds around his buttocks and an injured wrist, the National Park Service said in a statement. 
 
 The Washington state family was hiking up the Divide Trail, southeast of Old Faithful, when a bear appeared from the brush and charged the family, park officials said. The bear chased the boy, who had run from the approaching animal, and knocked him to the ground. 
 
 The boy’s parents used bear spray about five feet from the animal’s face, driving it off. The family walked back to the trailhead and drove to the Old Faithful Ranger Station. Rangers sent them to a nearby clinic before the boy was transferred to Big Sky Medical Center. 
 
 It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the bear to charge or what species it was. Both grizzly and black bears call Yellowstone home. 
 
 Park officials said that visitors should not run if they encounter a bear and should stand their ground if the animal charges. 
 
 The last reported bear attack in Yellowstone was in 2015, according to the National Park Service. The park averages one bear attack per year. 
 
 Several park visitors had been injured in animal encounters earlier this year. 
 
 A bison gored a woman in June following two separate elk attacks that injured two women. In May, another woman was rammed and injured by a bison. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park officials are warning tourists to keep their distance after a bison flipped a woman into the air as she posed for a selfie with the massive beast. 
 
 The dangerous encounter was the fifth run-in between park-goers and buffalo this year. 
 
 Park officials said the 43-year-old Mississippi woman turned her back on the animal to get a photo with it near the Fairy Falls trailhead just outside Old Faithful. 
 
 Someone nearby saw the woman and her daughter about 6 yards from the animal and warned they were too close just before it came at them. 
 
 They tried to run, but the bison caught the woman and tossed her with its head. 
 
 The woman's family drove her to a nearby clinic where she was treated for minor injuries. 
 
 "The (woman) said they knew they were doing something wrong but thought it was OK because other people were nearby," park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said. "People are getting way too close." 
 
 In separate incidents earlier this year, bison gored a 68-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl and tossed an off-trail teenager and an Australian tourist into the air. 
 
 Five bison encounters resulting in injuries is unusual during a tourist season, Bartlett said. 
 
 "We typically have one or two per year," she said. 
 
 One factor that could be contributing to added encounters is increased attendance at the park this year, Bartlett said. 
 
 The park had more than 780,000 recreational visits in June, a 17 percent increase over June 2014 and 12 percent more than the previous record set in June 2010. July and August are the busiest months of the year for tourists. 
 
 Yellowstone prohibits people from getting within 25 yards of bison and within 100 yards of bears and wolves. ||||| YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — For the second time in three weeks, a bison seriously injured a tourist in Yellowstone National Park who apparently underestimated how quickly the big, burly animals can move when they're miffed. 
 
 FILE - In this June 19, 2014, file photo, bison graze near a stream in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. For the second time in three weeks, a bison has seriously injured a tourist in Yellowstone... (Associated Press) 
 
 The bison tossed the 62-year-old Australian several times into the air Tuesday morning. The unidentified man was flown by helicopter to a hospital. He had serious but not life-threatening injuries. 
 
 The man wasn't the only person to blame for the encounter, park officials said. Several people crowded the bison as it lay on the grass near a paved sidewalk not far from the famous Old Faithful Geyser. 
 
 "The bison was already getting agitated," Yellowstone spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said. 
 
 The man stepped forward and snapped photos with an electronic notepad just 3 to 5 feet away from the animal, she said. 
 
 When the bison charged, the tourist had little chance to escape. Bison can weigh as much as a small car and run three times faster than a person. 
 
 Park officials recommend getting no closer to a bison than 25 yards. 
 
 It was the second bison attack in Yellowstone since summer tourist season began a month ago. A bison in the Old Faithful area gored a 16-year-old girl from Taiwan as she posed for a picture near the animal May 16. 
 
 The girl was treated at a hospital for serious but not life-threatening injuries and released, Bartlett said. 
 
 Many believe grizzly bears and wolves are Yellowstone's most dangerous animals. In fact, bison and elk attack a couple of people in the park every year and are responsible for more injuries, Bartlett said.
– Yellowstone National Park usually sees about one bear attack a year, though until this week there hadn't been one since 2015. That changed Thursday, after a 10-year-old was charged at by one, though thanks to his parents' quick thinking and a canister of bear spray, it appears he'll be OK. That's per a press release from the park, which details how a family of four was walking along a trail southeast of Old Faithful Thursday morning when a bear emerged from the vegetation and barreled after the boy as he started to run away. The bear caught up and knocked the boy down, at which point his parents "deployed bear spray about 5 feet from the bear's face." The bear then "shook its head" and retreated. The boy was taken to a local clinic, then to Montana's Big Sky Medical Center, where he was treated for wounds to his buttocks, a hurt wrist, and puncture wounds on his back. Park officials say they're trying to figure out what type of bear attacked him, with Fox News noting both black bears and grizzlies live in the park. The Casper Star-Tribune reports there have been a handful of other animal attacks at Yellowstone this year, including by bison and cow elk. (A man caught on video taunting a bison at Yellowstone just got jail time.)