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Tourists in Yellowstone National Park must have gotten a shot of adrenaline when they found themselves engulfed in a bison stampede right on the road!

The video captures the moment that a hundred or more bison all began running at the same time. This being Yellowstone near the end of tourist season, the roads were positively choked with cars that the bison had to negotiate around. Incredibly, the sure-footed bison didn't seem to stumble or body-check any of the cars, so no one had to get towed out of the park.  

The bison stampede kicks up a tremendous amount of dust, which hangs in the air around the cars as the animals find their way down the road. It looks like something out of the John Wayne classic Red River.  

And if a stampede like this is surely dwarfed by bison stampedes from history, when the bison ruled the American plans with a force some 30,000,000 strong. A stampede back then was liable to flatten a mountain. This one, well, it could shatter some windows or dent up a car real good. Thankfully, that didn't happen. 

Some of the commenters on Youtube see the stampede as a sign. By their logic, bison are more attuned to the earth than we are, and therefore more able to detect slight changes in the Yellowstone thermal system. Could these great big bison be running from the prospect of a supervolcanic eruption?

Not too likely, but it makes for an exciting story. 

See the whole video below, and leave a comment if you have a notion why these bison are so riled up.