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In the summer of 1988, wildfire swept across approximately 36% of Yellowstone National Park. The largest fires in the park's recorded history. The news coverage was apocalyptic. Commentators predicted the permanent destruction of the ecosystem. The bison of Yellowstone, which had been reintroduced after near-extinction a century earlier, moved ahead of the flames. They knew. Nobody knows exactly how they knew. They moved in the right direction at the right time. After the fire passed, they returned to the burnt ground within days. The ash was rich in minerals. The fresh growth pushing up through the blackened soil was, by all accounts, the sweetest grass of the year. The bison grazed it hard. Their grazing stimulated regrowth. Their hooves worked the ash into the soil. Their dung replaced the burnt organic matter. The parts of Yellowstone that recovered fastest after the 1988 fires were the parts the bison had grazed. The parts that took longest to recover were the parts the bison could not reach, or had been fenced out of. Fire is part of a grassland ecosystem. Bison are part of a grassland ecosystem. The two work together. The people who thought Yellowstone was destroyed in 1988 did not understand either fire or bison, which is roughly the level of ecological literacy currently driving policy discussions about ruminants in general. Yellowstone is fine. The bison are fine. The policy discussions, less so.