Bears Leaving Yellowstone National Park? What We Know (Photo Credits: Instagram)
A viral video showing a group of bears blocking traffic has been falsely linked to Yellowstone National Park. The video, which was shared in July 2025 by social media user Scott Whitehead, was claimed to show grizzly bears “leaving” the park. It quickly gained millions of views across multiple platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
But the footage is not recent, and it isn’t from Yellowstone at all, confirmed Snopes.
Snopes traced the video back to a TikTok post by user @michellesijohn from January 16, 2025. The original post included hashtags like #bearcountry and #rapidcity, which were pointing to Bear Country USA, which is a drive-through wildlife park in South Dakota, reported Snopes. In this park, bears roam within fenced areas and often cross the road in groups, which is normal behavior for them.
Using video analysis tools, Snopes found that the original clip showed a fence in the background, something that would not be present in Yellowstone’s open landscape. The grass in the video was also brown, while Yellowstone typically has green grass during the summer months.
There is also no other evidence that bears are leaving Yellowstone in 2025. There are no reliable news reports of such an event.
Scott Whitehead, who calls himself an “animal expert,” has a history of sharing misleading content. Days before the bear video, he falsely claimed that mountain lions were moving from Yellowstone to Utah, using video footage that was actually recorded in Chile, reported Snopes. In January, a Seattle news outlet also debunked his claim about parasites coming from household taps.