Have you ever been up close and personal with a bison? Better yet, has one ever popped your tire? There’s a first time for everything, especially as you can see in this video. A bison walked up beside an SUV during a slow-moving Yellowstone National Park traffic jam and appeared to puncture one of its tires. TikTok user tonya_names shared the clip and wrote that the bison “pops tire of the car in front of us”, capturing the moment showing the bison messing with the vehicle in front of hers.
The video opens on a large bison walking along the right side of the road, close to the lane, as traffic crawls in both directions. The SUV ahead of the person filming inches forward while the animal stays beside it. The bison lowers its head near the passenger side of the vehicle, around the wheel. The caption says the tire popped a moment later.
The person who posted the clip said they had already begun rolling up their window before their own vehicle drew any closer. After the apparent puncture, the bison moved away from the SUV and turned back toward the road. Traffic then began creeping forward again.
Right after the bison moved away from the SUV, the camera zoomed in on the flat tire. The SUV drifted over to the shoulder with its now-useless tire. And that was that for that particular Yellowstone excursion, at least up until that point.
Bison Are the Most Dangerous Animal in Yellowstone
@tonya_names Bison pops tire of the car in front of us. I was starting to roll the window up before we got any closer. You can hear the air release as the tire popped. @Matthew Isdahl #yellowstonenationalpark #bison #bisonpoptire ♬ original sound – Tonya Names
Yellowstone as a whole for the uninitiated can be dangerous. But bison are especially. They injure more people in Yellowstone than any other animal, a point park officials repeat almost every time one gores a visitor. The National Park Service describes bison as unpredictable and says they’ll defend their space when they feel threatened.
In 2025 alone, two men were gored in separate incidents after approaching the animals, and past years have included a woman thrown 10 feet into the air on a boardwalk and another who suffered spinal fractures and collapsed lungs. Park officials at Yellowstone say there hasn’t been an increase in these incidents, only a steady stream of them.
What You Should Do in a Yellowstone Bison Jam
If you find yourself in a Yellowstone bison jam one day, it’s simple. Don’t get out of your car. Stay in the vehicle and be patient. Yellowstone requires visitors to keep at least 25 yards from bison, elk, and other large animals, and 100 yards from bears and wolves, and it tells drivers to slow down and avoid crowding animals that are on or near the road
That distance is hard to keep in a line of stopped traffic, which is part of what the video illustrates. When a bison chooses to walk beside the cars, a driver’s options narrow to waiting it out with the windows up. A popped tire is a far better outcome than a goring, though a disabled vehicle inside the park brings its own trouble, since it can block a crowded road and leave people dealing with a repair.
And you should get up and out of the situation as soon as you can.