A rumor that users circulated online in March 2025 claimed hundreds or possibly thousands of grizzly and black bears formed a blockade at one of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park, either in Montana or Wyoming. According to the rumor, scientists feared the animals knew of something alarming coming in the future that they themselves had not yet anticipated.
Numerous Facebook users shared a purported picture of the bears blocking a road near Yellowstone, as well as a story featuring the headline "Bears Form Unprecedented Blockade at Yellowstone Entrance—Scientists Fear They Know Something We Don't." For example, one page named You Should See This posted (archived) the photo and story on March 23 — World Bear Day. The post received more than 28,000 reactions, 4,400 comments and 15,000 shares.
The story began:
Yellowstone National Park – Tourists hoping to take in the breathtaking landscapes and geothermal wonders of Yellowstone were met with an unexpected natural phenomenon Monday morning: an impenetrable wall of bears. Hundreds—possibly thousands—of grizzly and black bears have gathered at the park's entrances, blocking all roads and refusing to budge, causing traffic delays, camper evacuations, and an existential crisis among park rangers.
"We've seen bears near the gates before, but never like this," said Yellowstone wildlife biologist Dr. Henry Clawson, watching nervously from a safe distance. "It's almost as if they're organizing. And that's… deeply unsettling."
The bears, appearing well-fed and unusually calm, have reportedly been standing shoulder to shoulder, occasionally exchanging nods and guttural grunts. Some are even holding up crude wooden signs that, while unreadable, have fueled concerns that bears may now be literate.
The rest of the story featured additional humorous hints at the truth of the matter, including about purported bear unionization efforts and suggestions to negotiate with the animals.
Several Snopes readers asked for the truth of the rumor. For example, one person asked, "Are bears blocking entrance to Yellowstone National Park?" Another reader also emailed, "Is the post about the bears blocking the road in Yellowstone true or AI?"
However, no evidence existed of bears forming a blockade at the Yellowstone entrance. Rather, the rumor originated as satire on Casper Planet — a Facebook page describing its output as satirical in nature. A manager for the page posted (archived) the story and picture on March 1. The page featured the location "Satire Street" just below a bio reading, "Delivering the Snews that doesn't matter directly to your Snews feed. Did we say this is satire? Well it is, names/locations are made up."
A Yellowstone spokesperson said by email, "We cannot confirm this photo or text and do not have any employees in the park by these names."
Fake photo of bears blocking road
As for the image depicting at least hundreds of bears lining a road, the Bear's World Facebook page — one featuring artificial intelligence-generated pictures of bears — first posted the image on Feb. 25. The caption read, "Beautiful photography with AI." Days later, on March 5, a Bear's World page manager edited the post to remove that caption.
A previous fact check examined the same AI-generated image of bears, when a Facebook page publishing satire about the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, reported a story about the animals blocking a nearby road.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.