Photographer captures video of injured bison at Yellowstone, says spreading awareness is key

By: Amelia Hobson

Originally Posted: Oct 1, 2026 / 09:07 PM MDT

YELLOWSTONE, WYO. (ABC4) — A photo and videographer is speaking after one of her videos of a Bison at Yellowstone National Park spinning in circles went viral. She says she has never seen a bison act this way before.

Tammy Neufeld says she spends days at a time filming the natural landscape and wildlife throughout Yellowstone and Western Wyoming. Recently, she came across something bizarre- a bison spinning in the river.

“Another friend had seen this bison like a week before. He’d been doing this for a couple weeks,” she said. “And, so, I just went there last week and saw him and saw him several days in a row, exhibiting the same behavior, standing in the river, spinning in circles.”

When she found the bison, who she has named Spinny, she saw that he appears to be injured on his right eye, which she says could be why he is spinning.

Neufeld says she wasn’t quite sure what to expect or to make of Spinny. As a wildlife photographer, she regularly sees Bison with injuries, but none quite like him.What was found among 20k pieces of trash removed from Yellowstone hydrothermal areas

“They’re massive animals and they can move and they’re fast and they can fight to the death. So I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to be looking at,” Neufeld said. “But then when you get there, it’s very poignant because he seems very lost and he seems afraid. His tail was shaking and agitated. So, you really feel sorry for him.

Neufeld also questions whether or not Spinny has a concussion, since he appears so disoriented. It appears that many others have questions as well, with thousands of people commenting on the videos of Spinney and asking for updates.

However, Neufeld says she has not seen Spinney the Bison for several days, and that he may have died or moved somewhere safer. She believes that the Park Rangers are aware about him, but that there isn’t much they can do.

“They just generally try not to interfere and let nature be nature. So, I don’t know if they’ve been on the cusp of doing something about it, but now he’s gone. So that might have taken care of that issue for them,” she said.How to make ABC4 your preferred news source on Google

ABC4.com has also reached out to the park to see if this behavior is normal or could be related to an injury, and to know how they handle injured wildlife. We are waiting to hear back.

While the concerned fans of Spinney may be disappointed, Neufeld says this is a reminder of the truth behind nature.

“It’s not always just coming here and everything’s marvelous. This is real life and nature is harsh and then things happen. So I try to share pretty much everything I see with my viewers,” she said. “In this case, they got very attached to the story of Spidney and then wanted to know, have updates of him every day.”

She continued, “I’ve seen a lot of bison with goring wounds in their sides and stomachs and they get up and walk it off. And I’ve seen a lot of bison that have died from, from a fight. And so, it’s a, it’s a whole rainbow of things that can happen.”