Yellowstone Rangers Bulldoze 2,000-Pound Bison Roadkill While Grizzly Circles

When a massive bull bison died next to a busy road in Yellowstone National Park, the park’s rangers, bear management team, and maintenance crews had to get creative to quickly and safely dispose of it.

April Mead, a wildlife photographer based in Gardiner, Montana, spent three hours watching the incredible scene unfold near Canyon Village on Friday morning. A front-end loader was needed to lift the 2,000-pound bison and drop it into a dump truck.

Meanwhile, the bear management team kept everyone safe from the hungry eyes of a determined grizzly.

“The grizzly came back while they were in the process of moving the carcass,” she said. “She was circling the hillside and the corrals. They had to haze her a couple of times before she left.”

Mead has seen and shared images of Yellowstone’s carcass removal process before, but this one was notably different. It seemed as if the park’s experienced staff were improvising the best way to get the job done quickly and safely.

“It’s different from all the others I’ve seen,” she said. “They spent a lot of time strategizing before they got it done.”

Carcass Chaos

Mead got to the carcass around 6 a.m. Friday. She’d heard that there was a dead bison alongside the road near Artist’s Point, south of Canyon Village, one of the busiest sections of Yellowstone once the day starts.

“I’d heard that (the bison) might have gotten hit by a car Thursday night,” Mead said.

Mead wasn’t the first one on the carcass that morning. A grizzly was already helping itself to the free meal, and a lone wolf also stopped by for a bite of breakfast.

Once Yellowstone’s rangers and the bear management team arrived, the wolf and the grizzly ran off. The grizzly didn’t go far.

“She lingered down the road for quite some time,” Mead said. “She ended up traveling back and coming down toward (the carcass), so they had to haze her a few times.”

With a massive bison carcass that had already attracted Yellowstone’s top predators, the Yellowstone crews had to work fast to get the bison away from the road.

“They had to move quickly,” Mead said. “It’s a tight area with a lot of traffic.”

That proved to be more difficult than they had anticipated.

Carcass Creativity

Animal carcasses are frequently moved and relocated in Yellowstone to put some distance between scavenging wildlife and the thousands of tourists who always congregate around them.

Mead has seen several carcass removals. The park’s staff have the process down to a science, usually using two trucks and a winch to get the job done.

“It’s like a pulley system,” she said. “One truck acts as a pivot, and then they use a winch to pull the bison out of the field and into the back of another truck.”

That didn’t work this time. According to Mead, as soon as they got a rope around the bison carcass and tried towing it, the rope snapped.

By then, a massive front loader had arrived. 

If the two-truck method isn’t viable, the park’s staff will use a front loader to scoop up a carcass and lift it onto a waiting truck.

Mead’s seen that technique before as well. It also didn’t work this time.

“I think they weren't able to get underneath it to scoop it up into the front loader, and also it was very big,” she said.

After taking some time to strategize, the crew came up with a new plan.

They tied a ratchet strap around the bison’s head and a chain around one of the back legs. They attached the strap and the chain to the front loader’s bucket, lifted the massive carcass into the air, and lowered it into the back of a dump truck.

“It was like a roast,” Mead said.

Finally, the carcass was off the road and on a truck where it could be carried off to a safe and secret dump site, where the local wildlife could feast at their leisure. Mead saw it as a creative and effective way to deal with the situation.

“I felt it would be inappropriate to clap,” she said once it was over.

Early Bird Gets The Shot (And Stink)

By 10 a.m., the bison carcass had been hauled away. Mead said the entire operation took around three hours, but there was still a lot of work to do.

“Traffic’s moving now, but the majority of it isn’t cleaned up,” she said. “They had to bring water out here because there was blood and guts all over the road.”

Mead, who’s been documenting incredible Yellowstone experiences for years, said this incident was a good example of what it takes to be an effective photographer. 

It’s a lot of stick-to-itiveness, seizing the right initiatives, and exercising a lot of patience.

“You have to get to it and be willing to wait,” she said. “A majority of my time this morning was waiting for the front loader to get there.”

And then there’s the smell.

“You have to be ready to deal with the smell,” she said. “It smells pretty bad out here right now. Like gross feet.”

There’s also a lesson about how dangerous Yellowstone’s roads can be at night, especially if someone’s going over the 30-mph speed limit on most of the Grand Loop Road. 

If the bison was killed by a vehicle strike, it would have had to have been a hard strike at significant speed.

Mead didn’t follow the truck hauling the bison carcass away, but she suspects the determined grizzly did. She gave the massive bull a small sendoff.

“Bye bye, bison,” she said. “Rest in pieces.”