My Bison Rant for Today

[Rowdy Rick]

The term Bison is not new nor novel . Carl Linnaeus knew what it was when he named it in 1758 and so did the luminaries of the day yet the term Buffalo became the nom de plume used by the vast majority of people. Likewise, the term buffalo is firmly entrenched in American literature and lore until recently when its usage became intertwined in the race to revise nearly all US history. We've known what it was for hundreds of years for God's sake why have they seized the mantle of intellectual superiority and deemed it ignorant to call it buffalo? I don't get confused when you use it and assume you mean Bison bison unless you mention Cape or African buffalo to distinguish from perhaps water buffalo. I don't gripe about Prairie Dogs not really being dogs......I know that you are talking about a type of ground squirrel that lives in colonies and barks like a chihuahua in heat. I don't call Prairie Chickens grouse even though thats what they are, who knows what to call Mountain Lion or really cares except maybe to define a geographical region. I could go on on with other examples but you get my griff in that we are fooling ourselves by appearing to be informed by exclusively using the scientific term for an iconic animal we have long called buffalo. Hell, I was a scientist/biologist in a former life and have the sheepskins to back it up but I'm not on a mission to erase 250 plus years of history based on semantics. If I were giving a lecture on grassland ecology to international audiences of course the correct terminology usage is in order with popular names being secondary. However, within the confines of discourse here I'm not going look over my glasses and smirk as I correct you "Well, thats actually a Bison bison and not a buffalo you know!"



Rant over.....I must go oil my bison firearms.