{"id":349015,"date":"2025-12-14T22:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/349015\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T22:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:53:09","slug":"how-yellowstone-rangers-use-heavy-equipment-to-drag-1000-pound-carcasses-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/349015\/","title":{"rendered":"How Yellowstone Rangers Use Heavy Equipment To Drag 1,000-Pound Carcasses Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

April Mead,\u00a0a wildlife photographer based in Gardiner<\/a>, Montana, was doing her daily rounds through Yellowstone National Park in August when she happened upon an unnatural encounter in the Hayden Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several park rangers were working to remove a bison carcass from the landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very large male bison died from injuries during rut,\u201d she said. \u201cThey had to pick it up with a front-loader and put it\u00a0in the back of a bear management truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mead recorded video of the bison carcass being winched out of the field and lifted by the front-end loader. It was a morbid moment, one that most Yellowstone visitors will never see.<\/p>\n

For\u00a0her, it\u2019s a reminder of what is and isn\u2019t true about the world\u2019s first national park.<\/p>\n

\u201cYellowstone can only be truly untouched if humans are not there,\u201d she said. \u201cAs long as masses of people are there, we have to step in and make decisions to protect the animals and people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WhenWhen a 1,000-pound bison dies too close to tourist hotspots in Yellowstone National Park, rangers have to move it. That\u2019s a big job that takes tractors, winches, and front-end loaders. (Courtesy April Mead)\"WhenWhen a 1,000-pound bison dies too close to tourist hotspots in Yellowstone National Park, rangers have to move it. That\u2019s a big job that takes tractors, winches, and front-end loaders. (Courtesy April Mead)\"WhenWhen a 1,000-pound bison dies too close to tourist hotspots in Yellowstone National Park, rangers have to move it. That\u2019s a big job that takes tractors, winches, and front-end loaders. (Courtesy April Mead)Arrow leftArrow rightCarcass Control<\/p>\n

Yellowstone is lauded for being a mostly intact piece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of its 22\u00a0million acres are untouched after 153 years of being one of the nation\u2019s top tourism destinations.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Yellowstone has required human management and protection to endure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where carcass control becomes a crucial part of keeping the park\u2019s wildlife and visitors safe. Leaving a dead bison near a road is likely to attract hungry bears and wolves right to where tourists gather.<\/p>\n

Mead\u2019s first encounter with a carcass control operation was in February 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was driving through Tower-Roosevelt near the Northeast Entrance when she encountered park rangers dealing with two bison carcasses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know if it was a kill or if one of them was a kill and one just passed away,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the carcasses had coyotes on it when I got there, and there were wolf tracks all around the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even amateur Yellowstone photographers know that a carcass makes for excellent photo ops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mead stopped to capitalize on the opportunity, but park rangers had already converged on the scene to dispose of the carcasses.<\/p>\n

Both bison had died close to the Grand Loop Road and the only section of Yellowstone\u2019s interior roads that\u2019s maintained and open to traffic year-round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For park rangers, it was too close for comfort.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime a carcass is too close to the road, the park has to step in,\u201d she said. \u201cThat area gets a lot of traffic, so there\u2019d be a constant flow of people and animals. They didn\u2019t want any animals being compromised, and that\u2019s what they were trying to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dead Lift<\/p>\n

Mead noted the well-honed technique Yellowstone\u2019s rangers used to haul the two bison off the landscape. All they needed was two trucks and a winch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a pulley system,\u201d she said. \u201cOne 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winch was wrapped around the necks of each bison. With surprising speed, the 1,000-pound carcasses were dragged through the snow and into the bed of the trucks.<\/p>\n

The carcass removal Mead witnessed in August involved a much heavier bull bison. They needed to bring in a front-end loader because the massive animal was too heavy to winch onto a truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey obviously can\u2019t lift these things by hand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Many people might see this as \u201ccarcass disposal,\u201d but Mead rejects that definition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The carcasses were removed from where the bison dropped, but the park\u2019s wildlife weren\u2019t deprived of the valuable resources that carcasses provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey usually take carcasses to one of their different dump sites so that animals can enjoy them without danger,\u201d she said. \u201cPark rangers aren’t taking these carcasses away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They still go to the animals, but they\u2019re moved to a safer place where they can enjoy it without humans being around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The location of these dump sites is a closely guarded secret, specifically so humans can\u2019t intrude on an important and potentially dangerous place where predators converge to feed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of many Yellowstone locales that exist primarily for the benefit of wildlife rather than tourists.<\/p>\n

These carcass removals were a no-brainer for Mead. If they had stayed where they were, conflict would have been inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cTower Junction gets so much traffic, and the Yellowstone Wolf Project explained that animals migrate through that spot while we were there watching (the removal),\u201d she said. \u201cWolves would have to cross the road to get to those carcasses, so they\u2019d be in danger of being hit by a car or becoming too comfortable with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Behind-The-Scenes’ Access<\/p>\n

Carcass control<\/a>\u00a0is something Yellowstone rangers and the National Park Service (NPS) conduct regularly to mitigate the potential risks carcasses present to animal and visitor safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Certain locations,\u00a0like Blacktail Pond<\/a>, are notorious as \u201cdeath traps\u201d for bison and rangers regularly winch their carcasses out of the partially frozen pond because it\u2019s too close to the road.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, both Yellowstone officials and the NPS avoid disclosing details of these operations and avoid discussing it publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mead understands why they\u2019re reluctant to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s controversial,\u201d she said. \u201cPark rangers and their families have been threatened because of decisions that have been made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve had some people say some awful things on my page because I shared my videos, so I totally understand why the NPS is cagey about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an outside observer, Mead has the ability to share the \u201cbehind-the-scenes\u201d moments with Yellowstone\u2019s global fans and supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carcass removal is a less savory aspect of park management, but it\u2019s important to ensure everyone and everything in the park can coexist without conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of important work that happens in the park, and I don’t think that there’s a very good awareness about what’s involved,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople dedicate their lives to keeping animals safe and ensuring people can enjoy the animals safely, and I think it’s important that people understand what they do and why they do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mead has no interest in being an \u201cinfluencer,\u201d but takes pride in sharing the lesser-known aspects of Yellowstone with the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The millions of views on her carcass control videos are evidence that millions\u00a0of people are fascinated by all aspects of Yellowstone.<\/p>\n

Even Yellowstone\u2019s most qualified, well-intentioned, and dedicated employees have to intrude on the serenity of the natural landscape to keep people safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy to see that people are interested in what the NPS does,\u201d she said. \u201cThat takes somebody to be in Yellowstone a lot, see these different events happen, and capture them sso they can be shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As long as people are in the park, they have to step in and make decisions to protect the animals and people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April Mead,\u00a0a wildlife photographer based in Gardiner, Montana, was doing her daily rounds through Yellowstone National Park in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-349015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}