Wildlife isn’t migrating out of Yellowstone Nationwide Park, regardless of misinformation spreading on social media, NPS says

The Nationwide Park Service is clearing up any misconceptions on whether or not wildlife is migrating away from Yellowstone Nationwide Park.

Movies have been spreading on social media platforms that seem to indicate a plethora of animals, corresponding to herds of bison, elk, mountain lions and grizzly bears, are leaving the nation’s oldest nationwide park in massive portions.

In a single video posted to TikTok and Instagram, a gaggle of grizzly bears seems to be strolling alongside a street, leaving the reserve. Others present strains of bison and teams of elk doing the identical.

Consequently, the subject has been trending on Google for the previous week.

Nonetheless, the NPS believes the movies which are circulating on social media are AI-generated and “satirical in nature,” Linda Veress, a spokesperson for the NPS, instructed ABC Information.

“Wildlife isn’t leaving Yellowstone Nationwide Park in massive numbers,” Veress mentioned. “This rumor is fake.”

Whereas there are pure ebbs and flows of wildlife migration inside Yellowstone, nearly all of motion tends to occur within the winter, Invoice Hamilton, a wildlife biologist at Washington and Lee College who has been researching the ecology at Yellowstone for 20 years, instructed ABC Information.

Yellowstone is house to lots of of species of birds, fish and mammals, in keeping with the NPS. It’s the solely nationwide park in North America the place there are not any fences to comprise the wildlife, and subsequently, they can roam freely, Hamilton mentioned.

“They’re free to return and go, and there is a migratory path for elk and bison and deer,” Tom Murphy, a wildlife photographer who has been snapping photos at Yellowstone for 50 years, instructed ABC Information.

The animals depart the park within the winter to get higher entry to meals that’s doubtless lined in snow contained in the park, Hamilton mentioned. When the animals that eat vegetation and grasses depart, the predators comply with, he added. The mountain lions comply with the deer, and the wolves transfer with the elk.

Wildlife hardly ever migrates throughout the summer season, except they’re pressured out by an excessive occasion, corresponding to a big wildfire, Hamilton mentioned.

This 12 months is a “regular 12 months,” with typical climate and moisture, Murphy mentioned. However elk and bison might search larger floor in quest of cooler temperatures and fewer bugs, Murphy mentioned.

“There is not any motive for them to be leaving proper now,” Murphy mentioned.

Among the social media customers hypothesized that the supposed migrations have been occurring attributable to a pending eruption at Yellowstone’s supervolcano.

The park’s advanced and intensive volcanic system is totally monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

The present alert degree for volcanic exercise at Yellowstone is “regular” or “Code Inexperienced,” in keeping with the USGS.

“Geologically, it should erupt within the subsequent 2 million years, however in all probability not in the present day,” Murphy mentioned.

Whereas video of dozens of bison transferring collectively has been recorded prior to now, it’s often about 40 bison out of about 4,500 within the park, Hamilton mentioned. Within the winter, it is simpler for the animals to stroll on the street slightly than snow-covered floor, Murphy mentioned.

“It was a really small proportion of the overall herd dimension,” Hamilton mentioned. “These issues get noticed, but it surely’s not large numbers of animals.”

It’s instantly obvious that the video of the group of grizzly bears is pretend as a result of bears by no means get shut collectively in that method, Hamilton mentioned. Grizzly bears do not congregate except there is a “heavy, productive” meals supply round, corresponding to a salmon stream in Alaska or a lifeless bison carcass at Yellowstone.

The video of the mountain lions can be “nonsense,” as a result of mountain lions do not migrate, Murphy mentioned.

“They’ve a weekly spherical with a territory that they journey by means of, however you are not going to see them in a video of them working down the street,” Murphy mentioned.

Whereas the misinformation could be a type of leisure, it will probably turn into regarding if folks begin to imagine it, Hamilton mentioned.

“It does undermine the general notion of understanding how issues work, how nature works,” Hamilton mentioned.