You’ve got to watch out for those bison in Yellowstone National Park this time of the year. We’ve seen in the past couple of weeks that they won’t hesitate to send tourists flying into the air, and now, it looks like they know how to pop traveler’s tires too.
What are some bad times and places to get a flat tire? I’d say having a tire pop during a thunderstorm wouldn’t be good, nor would getting a flat in the middle of the night right next to a creepy cemetery (just because of the spooky factor). You could go through and rattle off a multitude of examples of bad places and bad times to get a flat tire, and another that’s worthy of mentioning is in Yellowstone near a bunch of agitated bison.
Somewhere around 5,000 bison call Yellowstone National Park home, and with most of them traveling in herds, encountering a large group like this isn’t out of the ordinary. Encountering one that seems like it’s out to get you? That’s likely as well, especially during this time of the year, which is known as “Bison Rutting Season.”
Fully grown bison can weigh over 2,000 pounds, and though that might make you think they’re slower, they can still kick it into gear when they need to. The massive beasts can reach top speeds as fast as 30 miles per hour, and all of that adds up to make North America’s largest land animals pretty intimidating. When they are in the middle of mating season, they really can put the “fear of God” in someone.
They’ve also got some sharp horns atop their head, and as you’ll see in this video below taken in Yellowstone National Park earlier this week, they are sharp enough to easily puncture a tire:
@tonya_names I think this bison knew we were NDSU Bison fans so picked on the car in front of us 😳 glad we escaped the bison hit 🦬 😤#yellowstonenationalpark #bison ♬ Taylor Swift Ready for it – reeltemplates.pro
Sheesh… that tire was no match for that speed paired with the bison’s pointy appendage.
Why did the bison attack? Well like I’ve mentioned a number of times already, it’s the bison rut. That puts the males on edge, and this car being a little too close apparently set this one over the top. All the social media users out there that saw the video think that the bison are really getting fed up with us humans:
“It saw the California plates.”
“I think the bison are sick of us.”
“This is why we got full coverage on our rental when we went to Yellowstone.”
“They’re rutting (about to mate), not a great time to be near one.”
“Changing a tire on the side of the road in Yellowstone is playing with your life.”
“The bison are completely done with tourists man.”
There might be some truth to that. After one of the park’s bison launched an old man named Carl way up into air for no reason at all, I’d say tourists visiting Yellowstone should really try to keep their distance for a while.
