The National Parks Service is clarifying any erroneous concepts about whether wildlife is migrating away from Yellowstone National Park.
Videos on social media platforms have been extended that seem to show a large number of animals, such as the herds of bison, alces, mountain lions and brown bears, are leaving the oldest national park in the nation in large quantities.
In a video posted in Tiktok and InstagramA group of brown bears seems to be walking along a path, leaving the reservation. Others show bison lines and Alcan groups doing the same.
As a result, the theme has been in Google trend during the past week.
However, the NPS believes that the videos that circulate on social networks are generated by AI and “satirical nature”, A ABC News, a spokeswoman for the NPS.
“Wild life does not leave Yellowstone National Park in large quantities,” said Veress. “This rumor is false.”
A bison herd in the area of an old forest fire in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, on December 29, 2020.
Jon G. Group Fuller/Vwpics/Universal Images through Getty Images
Although there are natural flows and flows of wildlife migration inside Yellowstone, most of the movement tends to occur in winter, he told ABC News Washington Wildlife Biologist and the University of Washington and reads that he has been investigating the ecology in Yellowstone for 20 years.
Yellowstone is home to hundreds of species of birds, fish and mammals, according to the NPS. It is the only National Park in North America where there are no fences to contain wildlife and, therefore, can freely wander, Hamilton said.
“They are free to come and go, and there is a migratory route for the alces, bison and deer,” Tom Murphy, a wildlife who has been taking images on Yellowstone for 50 years, told ABC News for 50 years.
Animals leave the park in winter to get better access to food that is probably covered with snow inside the park, Hamilton said. When the animals that eat plants and pastures leave, the predators continue, he added. The mountain lions follow the deer, and the wolves move with the alce.
Wild life rarely migrates during the summer, unless they are forced by an extreme event, like a great forest fire, Hamilton said.
This year is a “normal year”, with typical weather and humidity, Murphy said. But Elk and Bison can look for a higher terrain in search of colder temperatures and less insects, Murphy said.
“There is no reason for them to go right now,” Murphy said.
A brown bear is seen in the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on July 5, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
Some of the users of the social networks raised the hypothesis that the alleged migrations were occurring due to a pending eruption in Yellowstone’s Supervolcán.
The complex and extensive volcanic system of the park is thoroughly monitored by the United States geological service and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
The current alert level for volcanic activity in Yellowstone is “normal” or “green code”, according to the USGS.
“Geologically, it will explode in the next 2 million years, but probably not today,” Murphy said.
While the video of dozen bison moved together in the past, it is usually approximately 40 bison of approximately 4,500 in the park, Hamilton said. In the winter, it is easier for animals to walk along the way instead of snow -covered terrain, Murphy said.
“It was a very small percentage of the total size of the flock,” Hamilton said. “Those things are observed, but it is not a massive number of animals.”
A visitor looks at a bison on a road in the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, on July 5, 2025.
Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters
It is immediately evident that the video of the group of brown bears is false because the bears never approach together, said Hamilton. Grizzly bears do not congregate unless there is a “heavy and productive” food source, such as a salmon stream in Alaska or a dead bison body in Yellowstone.
The video of the mountain lions is also “meaningless”, because mountain lions do not migrate, Murphy said.
“They have a weekly round with a territory for which they travel, but you will not see them in a video of them running along the way,” Murphy said.
While erroneous information can be a form of entertainment, it can be worrying if people begin to believe it, Hamilton said.
“Soca the general perception of understanding how things work, how nature works,” said Hamilton.
