Love to see a bison having a fun day in the snow.
It’s a good thing bison are built for the cold, because they generally have to withstand a lot of it – especially when they called Yellowstone National Park home. Even when the brutal Wyoming winter shows its teeth, and temperatures dip down into the subzero range, bison are built to last. The 2,000 pound beasts can adapt to and overcome nearly any weather you throw at them.
They’re actually some of the toughest animals on the planet, and have thrived in the cold climate of the American West for thousands of years. Much of that survival success is due to their thick coats, which creates and retains an incomparable amount of heat.
A bison’s wooly coats plays a critical role in keeping them warm (and alive) through the winter. Scientifically speaking, their fur creates such a strong layer of insulation that the snow that lands on their outer coat will not melt from the heat the bison’s skin gives off. Seems to me like bison fur would double great as home insulation.
This time of the year is generally considered to be right in the middle of winter for Yellowstone National Park. The territory sees harsh winter conditions – and is often covered in snow – from the late parts of October all the way to the early portions of May. It’s in the dead of the Yellowstone winter when bison appear to be frozen, and go viral. But no matter when the snow hits, bison are smart enough to know that they can conserve energy by utilizing the roads that are mostly cleared off.
That’s what the younger bison in this video was doing just before it switched from “responsible adult mode” to “careless kid mode.” And hey, we’d all be better off if we flipped that switch every once in a while like this wild animal did. It never hurts to act like a kid again, even if it’s just for a few minutes.
Tourists that were riding along in a Yellowstone snow coach got front-row seats to this young bison’s snow day, and they loved every second of it. Almost as much as the bison was loving the tightly-packed wintry precipitation on the roadway. Initially, it appeared that the bison may have been jumping because it was aggravated by the presence of the large vehicle… but it quickly became clear that it was just busy having the time of its life.
As you’ll see, the wild animal hopped and bounced around on the snow-covered road for a couple of seconds, and then impressively transitioned into an attempt at a snow angel. Would it still be called a snow angel is a bison is the one on its back flailing its limbs back and forth? Or would it be a snow bison? I digress… I might not know the correct and proper classification of snow angels, but I do know that this bison, and the people that were there to witness its antics and capture it all on video, were enjoying their day at Yellowstone National Park.
Check it out:
This huge bison couldn't contain its love of snow at Yellowstone National Park. pic.twitter.com/Eiae88JoYD
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 25, 2025
