Bison 'running for lives' sense doomsday?

A brief YouTube video of bison purportedly "running for their lives" through Yellowstone National Park had federal officials scrambling this week to quell the "doomsday" fears of thousands spooked by the unexplained behavior of the thundering herd.

As WND reported, the video raised eyebrows and talk of an impending eruption of the park's super-volcano after a magnitude 4.8 temblor struck in the northwest section of Yellowstone late Sunday.

Yellowstone officials and government geologists assured guests and the public that no such threat exists.

"It was a spring-like day, and they were frisky. Contrary to online reports, it's a natural occurrence and not the end of the world," park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said.

The man who claims to have shot the original video and posted it to his Facebook page says it actually shows bison galloping down a paved road that leads deeper into the park.

“Those bison were running for the sake of running,” said Leckie, in an interview Thursday. “There was nothing chasing them. There was no mudslide. They were just running."

The video went viral two weeks after it was uploaded under the title, "Yellowstone bison on the run for the joy of spring."

“Eruptionists and conspiracists pirated the video and misrepresented it, suggesting that it was shot after the earthquakes. Then news agency after news agency started picking up on it, without looking at the original video to see what my actual intent was.

"My little video went from 20 hits to more than 90,000 hits.

"It’s amazing how quickly and rapidly information can be repackaged to convey something other than its original intent."

Government geologists report no noticeable post-quake changes to the landscape near the super-volcano and say the recent seismic activity does not suggest an eruption sooner than tens of thousands of years, according to Reuters.

"The chance of that happening in our lifetimes is exceedingly insignificant," said Peter Cervelli, associate director for science and technology at the U.S. Geological Survey's Volcano Science Center in California.