The Nationwide Park Service is clearing up any misconceptions on whether or not wildlife is migrating away from Yellowstone Nationwide Park.
Movies have been spreading on social media platforms that seem to point out a plethora of animals, akin to herds of bison, elk, mountain lions and grizzly bears, are leaving the nation’s oldest nationwide park in giant portions.
In a single video posted to TikTok and Instagram, a gaggle of grizzly bears seems to be strolling alongside a street, leaving the reserve. Others present lines of bison and groups of elk doing the identical.
Because of this, the subject has been trending on Google for the previous week.
Nevertheless, the NPS believes the movies which can be circulating on social media are AI-generated and “satirical in nature,” Linda Veress, a spokesperson for the NPS, advised ABC Information.
“Wildlife will not be leaving Yellowstone Nationwide Park in giant numbers,” Veress mentioned. “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A herd of bison graze within the space of an outdated wildfire in Yellowstone Nationwide Park in Wyoming, Dec. 29, 2020.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 Group through Getty Pictures
Whereas there are pure ebbs and flows of wildlife migration inside Yellowstone, nearly all of motion tends to occur within the winter, Invoice Hamilton, a wildlife biologist at Washington and Lee College who has been researching the ecology at Yellowstone for 20 years, advised ABC Information.
Yellowstone is dwelling to a whole bunch of species of birds, fish and mammals, based on the NPS. It’s the solely nationwide park in North America the place there are not any fences to comprise the wildlife, and subsequently, they’re able to roam freely, Hamilton mentioned.
“They’re free to come back and go, and there is a migratory path for elk and bison and deer,” Tom Murphy, a wildlife photographer who has been snapping photographs at Yellowstone for 50 years, advised ABC Information.
The animals go away the park within the winter to get higher entry to meals that’s probably coated in snow contained in the park, Hamilton mentioned. When the animals that eat vegetation and grasses go away, the predators comply with, he added. The mountain lions comply with the deer, and the wolves transfer with the elk.
Wildlife hardly ever migrates through the summer season, until they’re pressured out by an excessive occasion, akin to a big wildfire, Hamilton mentioned.
This 12 months is a “regular 12 months,” with typical climate and moisture, Murphy mentioned. However elk and bison might search greater floor in quest of cooler temperatures and fewer bugs, Murphy mentioned.
“There is not any motive for them to be leaving proper now,” Murphy mentioned.
A grizzly bear is seen within the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone Nationwide Park, Wyoming, July 5, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
A number of the social media customers hypothesized that the supposed migrations have been occurring on account of a pending eruption at Yellowstone’s supervolcano.
The park’s complicated and in depth volcanic system is totally monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
The present alert stage for volcanic exercise at Yellowstone is “regular” or “Code Inexperienced,” based on the USGS.
“Geologically, it may erupt within the subsequent 2 million years, however in all probability not right now,” Murphy mentioned.
Whereas video of dozens of bison transferring collectively has been recorded up to now, it’s often about 40 bison out of about 4,500 within the park, Hamilton mentioned. Within the winter, it is simpler for the animals to stroll on the street fairly than snow-covered floor, Murphy mentioned.
“It was a really small proportion of the entire herd measurement,” Hamilton mentioned. “These issues get noticed, but it surely’s not huge numbers of animals.”
A customer seems at a bison on a street within the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone Nationwide Park, Wyoming, July 5, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
It’s instantly obvious that the video of the group of grizzly bears is faux as a result of bears by no means get shut collectively in that method, Hamilton mentioned. Grizzly bears do not congregate until there is a “heavy, productive” meals supply round, akin to a salmon stream in Alaska or a useless bison carcass at Yellowstone.
The video of the mountain lions can be “nonsense,” as a result of mountain lions do not migrate, Murphy mentioned.
“They’ve a weekly spherical with a territory that they journey by way of, however you are not going to see them in a video of them working down the street,” Murphy mentioned.
Whereas the misinformation could be a type of leisure, it will probably grow to be regarding if individuals begin to imagine it, Hamilton mentioned.
“It does undermine the general notion of understanding how issues work, how nature works,” Hamilton mentioned.
