Snowmobilers Rile Up Bison in Yellowstone National Park

A group of snowmobilers came dangerously close to some bison recently in Yellowstone National Park. In their defense, they were caught behind a line of other snowmobilers who had stopped to make way for a herd of bison that were blocking the trail.

In the video below, you'll see that bison get spooked by the engines of the snowmobiles, and anytime a bison gets excited, you don't know what might happen next. With that in mind, be prepared for some blue language in the video.

According to the National Park Service, Bison are also the largest land-dwelling mammals in North America, with the males topping out at 2000lbs. And Yellowstone is the only place that bison have lived continuously since pre-historic times. The park is there's not ours, so we should treat and respect them as the majestic animals that they are.

This past summer, a woman was gored by a bison when she approached it multiple times to take its picture.

Yellowstone's Senior Bison Biologist Chris Geremia said about the incident, “The series of events that led to the goring suggest the bison was threatened by being repeatedly approached to within 10 feet. Bison are wild animals that respond to threats by displaying aggressive behaviors like pawing the ground, snorting, bobbing their head, bellowing, and raising their tail. If that doesn’t make the threat (in this instance it was a person) move away, a threatened bison may charge. To be safe around bison, stay at least 25 yards away, move away if they approach, and run away or find cover if they charge.”

In the early 1800s, as many as 60 million bison roamed North America, but by the mid-1880s, hunters had reduced their numbers to only a few hundred. Conservation efforts replenished the number of bison to around 1,000 by 1910. Today, there are some 500,000 bison across North America. Five-thousand of those make their home in Yellowstone National Park.