The Nationwide Park Carrier is clearing up any misconceptions on whether or not natural world is migrating clear of Yellowstone Nationwide Park.
Movies were spreading on social media platforms that seem to turn a plethora of animals, corresponding to herds of bison, elk, mountain lions and grizzly bears, are leaving the country’s oldest nationwide park in massive amounts.
In a single video posted to TikTok and Instagram, a bunch of grizzly bears seems to be strolling alongside a highway, leaving the reserve. Others display strains of bison and teams of elk doing the similar.
Because of this, the subject has been trending on Google for the previous week.
On the other hand, the NPS believes the movies which are circulating on social media are AI-generated and “satirical in nature,” Linda Veress, a spokesperson for the NPS, informed ABC Information.
“Flora and fauna isn’t leaving Yellowstone Nationwide Park in massive numbers,” Veress stated. “This rumor is fake.”
A herd of bison graze within the space of an outdated wildfire in Yellowstone Nationwide Park in Wyoming, Dec. 29, 2020.
Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Common Pictures Workforce by way of Getty Pictures
Whilst there are herbal ebbs and flows of natural world migration inside of Yellowstone, the vast majority of motion has a tendency to occur within the iciness, Invoice Hamilton, a natural world biologist at Washington and Lee College who has been researching the ecology at Yellowstone for two decades, informed ABC Information.
Yellowstone is house to masses of species of birds, fish and mammals, in keeping with the NPS. It’s the most effective nationwide park in North The united states the place there aren’t any fences to comprise the natural world, and subsequently, they can roam freely, Hamilton stated.
“They are unfastened to return and cross, and there is a migratory trail for elk and bison and deer,” Tom Murphy, a natural world photographer who has been snapping photographs at Yellowstone for fifty years, informed ABC Information.
The animals go away the park within the iciness to recover get entry to to meals this is most probably coated in snow throughout the park, Hamilton stated. When the animals that devour crops and grasses go away, the predators apply, he added. The mountain lions apply the deer, and the wolves transfer with the elk.
Flora and fauna infrequently migrates all through the summer season, until they’re pressured out by way of an excessive tournament, corresponding to a big wildfire, Hamilton stated.
This 12 months is a “standard 12 months,” with conventional climate and moisture, Murphy stated. However elk and bison might search upper floor looking for cooler temperatures and less bugs, Murphy stated.
“There is no explanation why for them to be leaving at this time,” Murphy stated.
A grizzly undergo is observed within the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone Nationwide Park, Wyoming, July 5, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
One of the vital social media customers hypothesized that the intended migrations have been happening because of a pending eruption at Yellowstone’s supervolcano.
The park’s advanced and intensive volcanic device is carefully monitored by way of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
The present alert degree for volcanic task at Yellowstone is “standard” or “Code Inexperienced,” in keeping with the USGS.
“Geologically, it’ll erupt within the subsequent 2 million years, however most likely now not lately,” Murphy stated.
Whilst video of dozens of bison shifting in combination has been recorded up to now, it’s normally about 40 bison out of about 4,500 within the park, Hamilton stated. Within the iciness, it is more straightforward for the animals to stroll at the highway fairly than snow-covered floor, Murphy stated.
“It was once an overly small share of the overall herd measurement,” Hamilton stated. “The ones issues get seen, however it isn’t huge numbers of animals.”
A customer appears at a bison on a highway within the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone Nationwide Park, Wyoming, July 5, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
It’s straight away obvious that the video of the crowd of grizzly bears is faux as a result of bears by no means get shut in combination in that means, Hamilton stated. Grizzly bears do not congregate until there is a “heavy, productive” meals supply round, corresponding to a salmon move in Alaska or a useless bison carcass at Yellowstone.
The video of the mountain lions could also be “nonsense,” as a result of mountain lions do not migrate, Murphy stated.
“They have got a weekly spherical with a territory that they go back and forth via, however you might be now not going to peer them in a video of them operating down the street,” Murphy stated.
Whilst the incorrect information might simply be a type of leisure, it may change into relating to if folks begin to imagine it, Hamilton stated.
“It does undermine the whole belief of figuring out how issues paintings, how nature works,” Hamilton stated.
