In August 2026, Yellowstone National Park rangers warned the public that ravens had learned to open car doors.
A rumor that Yellowstone National Park rangers warned the public that ravens at the park had learned how to open car doors spread online in August 2026.
For example, the Facebook page Casper Planet posted shared the claim (archived) on Aug. 24:
Yellowstone Rangers Warn Visitors After Ravens Learn to Open Vehicle Doors
Yellowstone officials are warning visitors to secure and lock vehicle doors after ravens reportedly learned how to open several different types of vehicles and push button hatch backs.
Rangers say the birds have mostly taken snacks and small objects, although one visitor reported returning to find a raven sitting inside the car on the steering wheel.
Park officials recommend locking cars whenever possible and absolutely do not recommend attempting to negotiate with the ravens.
Variations of the rumor also spread on LinkedIn. Some users seemed to interpret the rumor that rangers issued a warning about ravens as true, and Snopes readers contacted us in search of more information.
To investigate the rumor’s legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Bing and Yahoo. If Yellowstone rangers had really released such a statement, these searches would have uncovered such evidence.
That was not the case. We did not find any credible reporting about ravens unlocking car doors at Yellowstone National Park. Rather, the Facebook post above primarily appeared as the top result.
We identified the rumor’s original source: satirical social media account Casper Planet, which describes its output as “Snews that doesn’t matter.”
In addition to a location tag on “Satire Street,” its Facebook bio reads (archived):
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
We reached out to the page owner for comment in January 2026 regarding another claim about AI-generated images of massive snow bank on Wyoming’s Devils Tower. The account’s administrator, Justin Hathaway, told Snopes over the phone: “I just love doing this satire stuff, it’s such an outlet for me.” He continued: “Another reason is people don’t really read things fully anymore, and it’s a good way to educate people on reading stories fully if they sound somewhat unbelievable.”
In sum, while ravens are notoriously intelligent and several species do live in Yellowstone National Park, there is no evidence that park rangers released any kind of public statement regarding ravens opening car doors.
Other Casper Planet posts Snopes has debunked include a claim that a Wyoming mountain collapsed and another that a man received a DUI while riding a bear.
Because the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use “originated as satire” or “labeled satire” ratings based on creators’ description of their work. It’s your call on whether you agree.
