This move by the bison helps them escape the wolves.
Yellowstone National Park is a beautiful, functioning ecosystem where anyone can visit and enjoy the wonders of nature. Especially in the wintertime when life becomes much rougher. The area gets a ton of snow, and the battle to survive becomes much more extreme. In many cases, predators may attempt things they might normally not do.
In today's video, this group of wolves is obviously hungry, which is why they are trailing a huge group of bison. Some tourists driving one of the park's few open roads can do nothing but sit and wait as the herd walks down the center of the road.
After the sea of bison finally passes, the passengers in the car get a good look at why the bison were seemingly in a hurry. It's a large wolf pack, and they look extremely hungry. The only problem? It looks like the passing vehicle gave the bison a brief window to make an escape.
This is not an unusual sight in Yellowstone. Bison regularly use the road and they do not yield to vehicles. I had the exact same thing happen to me in the northern part of the park near Mammoth Hot Springs several years ago. Just without the group of wolves following them.
Unfortunately for the wolves, we do not think they enjoyed a bison dinner on this day. The wolves all yielded from the vehicle back into the woods. It did not appear there were any stragglers in the herd that would be easily isolated and taken down by the wolves. Even by a pack this sizeable. Those were some healthy-looking wolves! We counted at least 16 in the pack. There were possibly more on the roadside that fled into the woods. In retrospect, it looks like the bison were smart in putting the vehicle between them and their pursuers.
Sights like this are why we prefer exploring Yellowstone in the winter months. There is something magical about our first National Park when everything is covered in white. And you often get the roads to yourselves when enjoying incredible sightings like this without all the annoying tourists!
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For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
NEXT: BISON GETS HEAD STUCK IN VEHICLE'S WINDOW FOR 10 MINUTES, FRANTICALLY TRIES TO ESCAPE
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