Old video falsely associated with recent wildfires in Wyoming US. Here are the facts
Recently, Wyoming’s bighorn national forests have been engulfed by massive wildfires, threatening nearby communities, infrastructure, and critical resources, a video showing an Elk fleeing from a massive wildfire is doing rounds on social media platform X(formerly Twitter). Users are sharing this video and relating it to the recent wildfires in Wyoming, USA.
An account with the username @BGatesIsaPyscho posted this video on X and wrote: “Wyoming Wild Fires With all the focus on the Hurricanes Wyoming isn’t getting any News Coverage as tens thousands of acres of burns from wildfire endangering wildlife & cattle”
On investigating further, we found that several users shared this video and made similar captions. While sharing this video on X, a user named Louis KC wrote: “While the MSM will have you focused on Hurricane Wilber, they will not show you raging wildfires happening in Wyoming because they do not care about saving animals and the farming backbone of America. They only care about the destruction of Red counties”
Fact-Check
In DFRAC’s investigation, it has been found that the video was from 2021 showing Elk reaching safety after fleeing the flames of wildfires in Big Horn County of Montana. Upon reverse-searching the keyframes, we found a report by ABC News dated August 2, 2021, carrying the same video.
As per the video’s description, a firefighter filmed elk successfully fleeing the flames of a blaze in Montana’s Big Horn County, which has seen nearly 67,000 acres scorched.
Conclusion
It is clear from DFRAC ‘s fact-check that the viral video dates back to August 2021 and depicts visuals from wildfires in Montana. It is unrelated to the recent wildfires in Wyoming.
Analysis: Misleading
