Video Snapshot: Bison on the road

Bison are a regular occurrence along the wintry roads of Yellowstone.  If you had a choice of pushing through chest deep snow or walking along a packed path that conveniently leads from one meadow to the next, what would you do?  The bison aren't stupid, they'll take the road.

Maybe.

Do the bison follow our roads or do our roads follow the natural migration corridors of the bison?  Roads are easier to build in areas that are already flat (river flood plains).  Early park engineers were also concerned with build scenic roads.  This put the roads through valleys, connecting one meadow to the next by following the rivers.  These same routes were and are probably used by bison today.

Groomed roads and bison are what kicked off the big debate on winter use in Yellowstone National Park.  By grooming the roads, are we making surviving the winter easier for bison?  Winter is the number one killer of bison and they are on a tight energy budget.  They can conserve energy by walking on the road and not trudging through the deep pow-pow (oh man, is pow-pow an obnoxious word!).  The National Parks operate under "natural regulation."  The idea is that nature can take care of itself a lot better than we can, as long as all of the main players are in place (predators, prey, flora, climate).  Would the advantages afforded to bison by grooming the roads be a violation of natural regulation?