You’ve seen them on the back of a nickel. You’ve seen them roaming through the geothermal steam of Yellowstone National Park. Most of us grew up singing about the home where the "buffalo" roam, but here is the thing: they aren't buffalo. Not even close. If you want to get technical, and scientists really do, the massive, shaggy-maned beasts of the American West are Bison bison.
So, why are bison called buffalo by almost everyone in North America?
It’s a linguistic accident that stuck. It’s a mix of bad biology, French explorers being a bit confused, and a cultural identity that became so deeply rooted it basically ignored the science. Honestly, even if you correct someone at a National Park today, they’re probably going to keep calling them buffalo. It’s just part of the American vernacular now. But the history behind the naming mix-up tells a much larger story about how we perceive the natural world and how language evolves over centuries of exploration and colonization.
The French Connection and the Word "Boeuf"
Way back in the 1600s, when French explorers were trekking across the continent, they ran into these enormous, humped cattle. They didn't have a word for a North American bison. What they did have were memories of the "buffel" or "boeuf" back in Europe and Africa.
The French word boeuf basically refers to beef or oxen. Over time, that morphed. English speakers heard boeuf, twisted it into "buffler," and eventually smoothed it out into "buffalo." It’s a classic case of people seeing something new and trying to describe it using the closest thing they already knew.
Samuel de Champlain and other early explorers weren't taxonomists. They were just trying to survive and document what they saw. To them, if it looked like a big, hairy cow, it was a buffalo. By the time the 1700s rolled around, the term was already so common that trying to change it would have been like trying to stop a stampede.
Biology Doesn't Care About Our Nicknames
Biologically speaking, there are only two "true" buffalo species in the world: the Cape buffalo of Africa and the Water buffalo of Asia.
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They look nothing like the American bison. True buffalo don't have that iconic shoulder hump. They don't have the thick, woolly beard or the massive, low-slung head designed for plowing through snow. Instead, they have huge, sweeping horns that look like a handlebar mustache made of bone. Bison are more closely related to domestic cattle than they are to the African Cape buffalo.
If you put a bison and a water buffalo next to each other, the differences are jarring. Bison are built for the cold. Their thick coat sheds in the summer and grows into a heavy, insulating blanket for the winter. Buffalo are built for heat and water. They have sparse hair and spend half their lives submerged in mud or rivers to stay cool.
Why Are Bison Called Buffalo in Our Songs and Stories?
Culture usually beats science in a popularity contest.
Think about the song "Home on the Range." Written in the early 1870s by Brewster M. Higley, it solidified the term in the American psyche. You can't exactly sing "Oh, give me a home where the American bison roam." It doesn't have the same ring to it. It’s clunky. It feels like a textbook rather than a folk song.
Then you have "Buffalo Bill" Cody. He was perhaps the most famous man in the world at the turn of the 20th century. His Wild West shows traveled across Europe and the United States, showcasing "buffalo" hunting and riding. He didn't call himself "Bison Bill." The branding was already set. The name was tied to the rugged, romanticized version of the American West that the world was hungry to consume.
By the time the American Bison Society was formed in 1905—led by heavyweights like William Hornaday and Theodore Roosevelt—the name "buffalo" was already a permanent fixture of the English language. Even though these men were scientists and conservationists who knew the difference, they often used the terms interchangeably in their writing because that’s how the public understood the animal.
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The Indigenous Perspective
It is worth noting that the "bison vs. buffalo" debate is largely a European-language issue. Indigenous nations across North America have their own specific names for the animal that predate both "bison" and "buffalo" by thousands of years.
For the Lakota, the animal is Tatanka. For the Blackfoot, it is Iinnii. For the Pawnee, it is Taraha. These names carry spiritual and ecological weight that "buffalo" or "bison" simply cannot capture. Many Indigenous conservation groups today use the term "buffalo" intentionally as a way to reclaim the narrative from the colonial "bison" used in scientific management, viewing the animal as a relative rather than a specimen. This adds another layer to why the name persists—it’s not just a mistake; for many, it’s a term of endearment and historical connection.
The Near Extinction That Defined a Name
In the 1800s, there were roughly 30 to 60 million bison roaming North America. By the late 1880s, that number had plummeted to fewer than 1,000. It was a systematic slaughter, driven by both commercial interests and a government policy aimed at removing the primary food source of Great Plains Indigenous tribes.
Because this tragedy happened during the height of the "buffalo" era, the animal’s identity became forever linked to its near-disappearance. The "Buffalo Nickel," minted from 1913 to 1938, featured a bison (specifically one named Black Diamond from the Central Park Zoo). It wasn't called the "Bison Nickel." When people fought to save the species, they were fighting for the "American Buffalo."
Can You Use the Terms Interchangeably?
If you're writing a scientific paper for a peer-reviewed journal, use bison. If you're talking to a park ranger at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, you can use either. They won't judge you. Well, some might, but most know what you mean.
In the United States, "buffalo" is considered an acceptable common name. It’s similar to how we call "pronghorn" "antelope." Strictly speaking, pronghorn aren't antelope (they are actually more closely related to giraffes), but if you call them antelope in Wyoming, everyone knows exactly what you’re talking about. Language is a living thing. It’s messy.
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The Great Taxonomy Debate
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the science for a second. If you really want to impress people at a dinner party, you can talk about the genus.
- Genus Bison: This includes the American bison and the European bison (the wisent).
- Genus Bubalus: This is where the water buffalo lives.
- Genus Syncerus: This is the African Cape buffalo.
Bison have 14 pairs of ribs. Buffalo only have 13. Bison have those massive humps, which are actually composed of bone and muscle to support their heavy heads while they swing them back and forth to clear snow. Buffalo don't need that. They don't live in places where they have to plow through four feet of powder to find a blade of grass.
Where to See Them Today
If you want to see why they were called "boeuf" by the French, you have to see them in person. They are deceptively fast. They can run up to 35 miles per hour and jump six feet in the air. People often treat them like fuzzy cows, which is a massive mistake. Every year, tourists get too close in Yellowstone and find out the hard way that these are 2,000-pound wild animals with very little patience for selfies.
Currently, the best places to see large herds are:
- Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming/Montana/Idaho): The only place in the U.S. where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.
- Custer State Park (South Dakota): Home to one of the largest publicly owned herds. The annual Buffalo Roundup here is a massive event.
- Antelope Island State Park (Utah): A unique spot where you can see bison against the backdrop of the Great Salt Lake.
- Elk Island National Park (Alberta, Canada): Crucial for the conservation of both plains and wood bison.
Real-World Action Steps
Knowing the difference between these animals is more than just a trivia point; it’s about understanding the history of the land you're standing on. If you're interested in the future of the American bison, here is how you can actually engage with the topic:
- Support the InterTribal Buffalo Council: This federally recognized organization works to restore buffalo to Indian Country to preserve historical, cultural, and spiritual ties.
- Visit a National Wildlife Refuge: Instead of just the big national parks, check out places like the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR in Colorado. It’s smaller, but the conservation work there is top-tier.
- Buy Sustainable: If you eat bison meat, look for producers who practice regenerative grazing. Bison are actually better for the North American grasslands than cattle because their hooves and grazing patterns stimulate native plant growth.
- Check the Label: If you see "buffalo mozzarella" in the store, that is actually made from the milk of Italian water buffalo, not the shaggy beasts of the Dakotas. Now you know why.
The name "buffalo" isn't going anywhere. It’s too baked into the crust of American history. But the next time you see a herd, you can appreciate them for what they actually are: a resilient, prehistoric survivor that almost vanished from the earth, regardless of what name we decide to give them.