What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?

+1 vote
asked Oct 18, 2019 in Other-Environment by Syracuseg789 (330 points)
What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?

2 Answers

0 votes
answered Oct 19, 2019 by Adf289 (58,200 points)
Buffalo and Bison are pretty similar animals and can sometimes be confused with each other when you look at them especially from a distance.

But if you get close enough to either a Bison or a Buffalo you can tell they are different types of animals and are not exactly the same.

The main difference between a Buffalo and a Bison is that the Buffalo is a beardless animal while the Bison is not and has a beard to it.

If you see the beard then it's a Bison and if you don't see a beard then it's a Buffalo.

That's the easiest way to tell the difference between a Buffalo and a Bison.

Another way you can tell the difference between a Buffalo and a Bison is to look at the horns.

The horns on Bison are like typical cow horns; in buffalo, they are relatively huge, sweeping arcs.

Bison also have a large shoulder hump.

Telling the difference between the two species of bison is slightly tougher as an average male European bison has less hair, especially in the cape, or mane.
0 votes
answered Jul 31, 2023 by Egsbendict (20,790 points)
Bison are sometimes called buffalo in casual use, but they are two different animals.

Bison are native to North America and Europe, while buffalo are native to Africa and Asia.

In general, bison have larger heads, humps, and overall size, while buffalo have longer, curvier horns.

A buffalo and bison could breed.

If a male bison and a female buffalo got with each other and wanted to mate then they could breed and then you would have half a buffalo and half a bison as the baby.

I have never heard of any buffalo or bison breeding together but I'm sure it has happened many years ago even before humans existed.

Bison have existed for thousands of years so it is possible that a bison and buffalo mated before and we were not around to know about it.

But if you did have a bison and a buffalo in the same pasture and one was male and the other was female and they decided to mate up and have sex then yes they could mate.

98,443 questions

94,716 answers

1,269 comments

6,992,429 users

...