Sometimes these animals are just hilarious. The things they do don’t always make sense to us, but it is always cool to see something unexpected in the wild.
Bison are massive animals with males weighing up to 2,000 pounds and standing over 6 feet tall at the shoulder. Females are slightly smaller weighing up to 1,000 pounds and standing around 5 feet tall at the shoulder.
Yellowstone National Park is home to the largest remaining wild bison population in the United States with about 5,000 fluctuating in and out of the park boundaries. During the winter months, bison in Yellowstone National Park gather in large herds to find food and shelter. These herds can consist of hundreds, even thousands of bison at a time.
Bison are generally peaceful animals and will not bother humans unless provoked. Although, like many other animals including humans, they can become aggressive if they feel threatened. When a bison is angry, it will often snort, paw the ground, and lower its head. This is a clear warning sign that the bison is feeling threatened.
If a bison charges, it can reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour and rams with its head down. That’s a big and powerful animal to have mad at you.
These tourists were out for a ride on a Yellowstone snowcoach when they came across a bison during their travels. The bison is seen out the front window standing in front of the vehicle. It jumps up and down into the snow twisting around that seems to say it doesn’t like the vehicle, but it also seems to be pretty playful at the sight of the snow.
The bison stops jumping and immediately hits the ground and rolls to its side as the tourists laugh hysterically at it. It then stands up and doesn’t want to get out of their way as it runs in front of them.
That is one interesting bison, and one hell of a show for the park visitors.
Bison Stampede Halts Traffic At Yellowstone National Park
My kinda traffic jam.
You never know what you’re gonna see at Yellowstone. While traveling through the park in Wyoming, one parkgoer found herself in the middle of a full blown bison stampede.
“I was just driving through Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming for a lovely fall adventure when the bison – as we often see happen – decided to conduct traffic their own way.”
Pretty damn cool. A bit nerve-racking, but still… really damn cool. And so far, this viral encounter has racked up nearly 2 million views on Facebook. If you’ve haven’t made it out to Yellowstone yet, put that one on your bucket list (and then scratch it off) ASAP.
Bison Surround Campers In Their Tents At Yellowstone
That would scare the life out of you after a sleep in your tent.
Imagine waking up in Yellowstone and seeing whole herd surrounding your campsite would give you the biggest scare ever.
Bison are massive and have the potential to get mad and run you right over. This is the opposite of what you want when you go to one of these parks, but it is just one of the risks of seeing some really cool stuff.
At least these folks are intelligent.
The video starts with a whole herd surround a tent set out in the wild, with one bison laying down and rolling onto its back. The person who formerly occupied the tent is filming and starts to debrief us on what is taking place.
“This is Slough Creek 2021, Bison rut. Our back-country campsite has been taken over. We had to evacuate our tent when we heard the ruckus coming. And now we sit and wait.”
Talk about a wild morning…you’ve gotta think a herd of bison would make you up more than you’re typical morning coffee.
The man makes light of the whole situation
“Ironically the kids were asking me earlier if I ever had bison near my tent”
Should have knocked on wood. That is bound to happen after something like that is said.
The bison roll round and surround the campsite as the camper figures there are more than 300.
I just can’t imagine waking up to the sound of them coming in. That would bring you to your feet pretty quick.
Good thing the campers were smart and made distance from these large beasts.
Bison Runs Full Speed Through The Snow
“Dashing through the snow, coming right towards our windshield, we should probably go, if we don’t we might get killed…”
Hopefully you read that in the tune of “Jingle Bells,” though I do think that it is still a little early for Christmas music. Parodies of Christmas classics that pertain to bison will temporarily get a pass.
Not to brag on myself, but I do feel like I was able to work up a rather accurate and narrative storyline in just a couple of lines from the traditional Christmas song. You’ll watch the video here in a second and say “yeah that pretty much summed it up.”
In the clip, some snowcats (the snow-trekking vehicle) were making their way down a slippery slope of snow when a massive, full-grown bison started running right towards them.
Let me remind you that we humans had to design a vehicle like this to effectively navigate and traverse snow, all while this bison is just powering through the powdery precipitation on its own with ease.
And as an added bonus, the 2,000 pound beast was running uphill, whereas the snowcats were moving down the snow slope. There’s no speed-gun to confirm this, but it looks like the bison was pretty close to its top speed (around 35 miles per hour) while running 1) in the snow and (2 uphill.
The showcase of pure, natural power garnered a breathtaking “oh my goodness” from someone within the vehicle as the big ole bison dashed right past the windows of the special snow vehicle.
It looked like there was plenty of room in between the tree line and the snowcat for the bison to run through, but the big animal (largest land animal in North America) decided to cut it really close, and practically grazed the side of the vehicle.
Luckily for the people inside the snowcat, they just got to observe the raw power of bison from a close distance, and didn’t have to worry about how to keep the vehicle moving with one of the bison’s horns stuck through one of the windows.
Take a look:
I hope I’m never driving a vehicle and have to stare down a bison running full speed right at me. Absolutely terrifying…
