This Week in Yellowstone National Park
Jul 27, 2026 · 44 min · 11 segments
You asked for it, so here you go. This episode is me discussing the bison attack at the campground, as well as talking about bison safety, how to be a good steward of Yellowstone, and generally all…
Then the most recent bison attack at Bridge Bay Campground where the video of the guy getting tossed went viral.
And then if you've been paying attention, just over the weekend, there was a bison that rammed into a car and popped its tire.
The summer is their mating season, also known as the rut.
They have to battle each other for mating rights.
They have to show that they're big and bad.
It's basically like an Old West bar.
Everybody's kind of amped up.
Obviously, bison aren't drinking, but the way that they're behaving have them very narrow-sighted.
They are locked in for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is to ensure the survival of their genetics.
To do that, they must make sure that they are the biggest, baddest thing out there.
it generally starts to kick off in June, really picks up in July, then the first week, first two weeks of August, and then starts tailing off.
And once it tails off, it goes to the elk rut, which is the elk mating season.
So there's really not a letup of aggressive animals, starting from when bears emerge from dens until the snows fall.
As soon as people are out, that is when animals are active and aggressive.
This is also when most people visit the parks, which is why we have this issue of so many instances of bear attacks in the spring and early summer, then these bison incidents, then later we're going to hear about elk, and then it's going to be bighorn sheep, and then winter is going to hit, and it's going to be a little bit of calm.
The increase of visitation, the mating seasons, the emergence from dens, all of these things are really what makes...
The park, a slightly dangerous place.
It's not really that dangerous.
Obviously, there is danger everywhere.
But one of the things I'm going to be talking about a little later is the false narrative being pushed online about just how dangerous it is in the park and how anybody that's doing anything wrong is going to get hurt and killed.
Then the most recent bison attack at Bridge Bay Campground where the video of the guy getting tossed went viral.
And then if you've been paying attention, just over the weekend, there was a bison that rammed into a car and popped its tire.
The summer is their mating season, also known as the rut.
They have to battle each other for mating rights.
They have to show that they're big and bad.
It's basically like an Old West bar.
Everybody's kind of amped up.
Obviously, bison aren't drinking, but the way that they're behaving have them very narrow-sighted.
They are locked in for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is to ensure the survival of their genetics.
To do that, they must make sure that they are the biggest, baddest thing out there.
it generally starts to kick off in June, really picks up in July, then the first week, first two weeks of August, and then starts tailing off.
And once it tails off, it goes to the elk rut, which is the elk mating season.
So there's really not a letup of aggressive animals, starting from when bears emerge from dens until the snows fall.
As soon as people are out, that is when animals are active and aggressive.
This is also when most people visit the parks, which is why we have this issue of so many instances of bear attacks in the spring and early summer, then these bison incidents, then later we're going to hear about elk, and then it's going to be bighorn sheep, and then winter is going to hit, and it's going to be a little bit of calm.
The increase of visitation, the mating seasons, the emergence from dens, all of these things are really what makes...
The park, a slightly dangerous place.
It's not really that dangerous.
Obviously, there is danger everywhere.
But one of the things I'm going to be talking about a little later is the false narrative being pushed online about just how dangerous it is in the park and how anybody that's doing anything wrong is going to get hurt and killed.
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