Bison don't care much about boundaries. If a road or a boardwalk is standing between them and where they are headed, they will use it. In a video posted by YouTube user Wallace De Young, two bison thunder down the yellow center line on a two-lane road heading through the park. In the heart-pounding video, one bison charges straight for his car.
De Young was on vacation in Yellowstone National Park with his wife when the encounter occurred. De Young is a natural history docent and a wildlife photographer, so animal interactions aren't foreign to him. However, the two bison don't seem to care that there are large vehicles on the road all around them as they trek down the pavement. One lags behind while the lead bison keeps charging, stopping just shy of the front of De Young's car. While it had to be an intense moment, De Young and his wife seem to stay fairly calm, which can be hard to do when a 2,000-pound animal is charging headfirst toward your vehicle. For such a large land mammal, bison can run fast, hitting speeds of 35 miles per hour. They are also agile and can turn on a dime.
According to the National Park Service, between 2,300 to 5,500 bison are living in the park at any given time. Yellowstone is their natural habitat, and many Native American tribes consider them descendants of the bison that roamed Yellowstone long ago. Where they gather depends on breeding and migration, and they are split between the northern and central herds. During breeding, the northern herd resides in the Lamar Valley, and the central herd calls Hayden Valley home. According to the NPS, they have lived there since prehistoric times, and the largest public land population lives in Yellowstone. About 30,000 are in public and private herds, which are kept for preservation. Around 400,000 are kept as livestock.
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