The National Park Service cleared any misunderstandings about whether wildlife was moved from Yellowstone National Park.
The video has been played on social media platforms that seem to show a large number of animals such as bison, elk, mountain lion and grizzly bears who have left the oldest national park in the United States in large numbers.
In a video posted to Tiktok and Instagram, a group of grizzly bears appear to walk along the road and leave the reserve. Others showed bison and a herd of elk do the same.
As a result, the theme has been popular on Google over the past week.
However, NPS believes that videos circulating on social media are generated and “solidarity of irony,” NPS spokesman Linda Veress told ABC News.
“Wildlife is not leaving Yellowstone National Park in large quantities,” Veress said. “This rumor is wrong.”
A herd of bison grazing in an old wildfire area in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on December 29, 2020.
Jon G. Fuller/VWPICS/Universal Image Group via Getty Images
Although there are natural wildlife migrations in Yellowstone, most movements tend to occur in the winter, Bill Hamilton, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington, told ABC News that he has studied ecology at ABC News for 20 years.
According to the NPS, Yellowstone is home to hundreds of species of birds, fish and mammals. Hamilton said it was the only national park in North America that had no fences that could contain wildlife, so they were able to roam freely.
Wildlife photographer Tom Murphy told ABC News that he came and went freely, and there was a migration path for elk, bison and deer. ”
Hamilton said the animals left the park in the winter to better get snow-covered food inside the park. He added that when animals that eat plants and grass leave, predators follow. The mountain lion follows the deer, the wolf and the elk move together.
Wildlife rarely migrates in the summer unless they are driven out by extreme events, such as large wildfires, Hamilton said.
Murphy said this year was a “normal year” with typical weather and moisture. But elk and bison may seek higher grounds in search of cooler temperatures and fewer insects, Murphy said.
“They have no reason to leave now,” Murphy said.
On July 5, 2025, a grizzly bear was seen in Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Kelly Greenley/Reuters
Some social media users assume that the supposed migration is taking place due to the supervolcanic eruption in Yellowstone.
The U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory thoroughly monitor the park’s complex and extensive volcanic systems.
According to USGS, the alarm for current volcanic activity is “normal” or “code green”.
“Geologically, this will explode in the next 2 million years, but it may not be today,” Murphy said.
Hamilton said that while dozens of bison move together in the past, there are about 4,500 bisons in the park with about 40 bisons. In winter, it is easier for animals to walk on the road instead of snow-covered ground, Murphy said.
“This is a very small proportion of the total size of the group,” Hamilton said. “These things were observed, but not a large number of animals.”
A visitor is watching a bison on a road in the Haydn Valley of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming on July 5, 2025.
Kelly Greenley/Reuters
It's obvious that a group of grizzlies' videos were fake, because bears would never get close in this way, Hamilton said. Grizzly bears won't gather unless there are “heavy, productive food sources around, such as the salmon stream in Alaska or the dead bison carcasses in Yellowstone.
Murphy said the mountain lion video was also “nonsense” because mountain lions do not immigrate.
“They have an environment every week, but they won't see them in their videos,” Murphy said.
While misinformation may be just a form of entertainment, Hamilton said it could attract attention if people start to believe it.
“It really undermines the overall view of understanding how things work, how nature works,” Hamilton said.