The bison mating season, which runs from the middle of July through the end of August, sees male bison become more agitated and aggressive. If you don’t know what an aggressive male bison looks like, you are about to find out thanks to this video shared by Yellowstone National Park. With bison being the largest mammals in North America, seeing one lift another up is pretty damn impressive.
Fully grown male bison stand at 6 feet tall (their probably actually 5’11 and are just rounding up) and weigh around 2,000 pounds, which if you don’t know, is a full ton. So when these one-ton beasts go at one another, it is truly a heavy-weight match up.
And catching two going at each other is more likely to happen during mating season, while male bison want to show their female counterparts that they are “tough enough” and worthy to be a romantic partner.
There’s no telling what kind of beef these two bison had with one another, but the charging one clearly set the tone and seemed to put the other in its place (which was apparently 40 feet away from the rest of the herd).
The bison that gets lifted into the air and pushed off the road did its best to prepare for the attack, it just didn’t really have enough time to figure out a defense plan. The other male bison appears to attack “on a whim,” turning around and sprinting full force at the one on the road.
Surprisingly, the attacking bison somehow uses its power and strength to lift the other one ton behemoth off the ground, across the road, and into the dirt. While the aggressive bison literally put the other bison in its place, it also figuratively put it in the “friend zone” with all the female bison in the herd.
The thing got embarrassed, and it will take a while for the bison that temporarily flew to regain its positioning in the hierarchy of the bison group.
Yellowstone National Park shared the video of the fight, explaining why it occurred and using it as an example for why people shouldn’t approach them (because they have to every single day).
The caption reads:
“Bison mating season is still going on in the park. Male bison are particularly aggressive right now, though all bison and other wildlife can be dangerous.
Remember to always keep your distance: 25 yards from bison and elk; 100 yards from all other wildlife.”