Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Some stray thoughts on Buffalo

Some stray thoughts on Buffalo

Last updated on: September 30, 2024 at 9:19 pm by Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Some stray thoughts on Buffalo 2024-09-30T21:19:29-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

First, some pictures:

At Badlands National Park, at sunrise:

Buffalo at sunrise (own work)

and at sunset:

buffalo at sunset

We had some more but these were my two favorites from our road trip with the two key destinations being Custer State Park and Badlands National Park, and yes, the buffalo is scratching his back on the sign.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that it took as long as it did, for the kids to be almost all out of the house, for us — that is, just my husband and I — to take a road trip “out west,” and even then, the “out west” was relatively limited. Periodically I would map out long trips in a circle going from Chicago to Mount Rushmore, then to Yellowstone, down to Arches National Park and eventually the Grand Canyon, and back through Denver. But our road trips ended up being road trips through Europe, which is great, but the closest we’d come to a “big national park trip” was a smaller trip, when our oldest wasn’t even walking yet, when we flew to Cody and rented a car to spend a week in Yellowstone.

So this iteration was simpler, yet we discovered that even going as far as Mount Rushmore, there really was a lot to see, because Mount Rushmore wasn’t just isolated but adjacent to the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and Badlands National Park (plus the Minuteman Missle National Historic Site) was just an hour to the east.

Now, the Badlands which give Badlands National Park its name are viewed via a 29 mile scenic drive, with loads of overlooks for pulling over and a few (but surprisingly few) small hiking paths, and there’s another portion of the park which is labelled as “wilderness” with just a gravel road, so I really figured that, even though we had just watched a National Geographic show on the wildlife in the park, they would all be in the visitor-inaccessible areas, and we would just be enjoying the wacky landscape. But there were buffalo hanging out at the side of the road or even, once, a couple buffalo taking their time crossing the road, which I thought was really fantastic to watch.

But Custer State Park — which is to the south and west of Mount Rushmore (and I gotta admit, you can “do” Mount Rushmore itself pretty quickly) — is where the real buffalo-viewing is at, specifically at the Wildlife Loop, where there were actual herds of buffalo just hanging out. Honestly, we started on this scenic drive and were unimpressed, coming across some relatively tame burros and thinking it was as good as it was going to get, and then maybe midway through the drive, THERE THEY WERE!

Now, according to the National Geographic show, the buffalo at the Badlands live pretty much everyday buffalo lives, looking for grass to eat, male buffalo fighting to be at the top and mate with the females. But the Custer State Park had a visitor center specifically devoted to the buffalo which described a very careful management process, based on the herd size that the land would support, the rainfall patterns, etc., and if we’d come just a week later, we would have stumbled on the annual buffalo roundup, when the herd is culled and, in particular, only a few older males are allowed to stay in the herd. The center also described the rebuilding of a buffalo herd from small beginnings in 1914, starting with 36 animals from early efforts to preserve the animal in the face of extinction. (This isn’t from memory but a quick Wikipedia look-up.)

And in that visitor center, on a signboard, was an explanation of the two names, buffalo and bison. Here’s a similar statement at the National Parks page for Badlands:

There are many names for the American Bison. Scientifically, the plains bison subspecies found in Badlands National Park are of the genus Bison, of the species bison, and the subspecies bison. If you ask a wildlife biologist, these animals are called Bison bison bison!

Although these animals have “bison” three times in their scientific name, they are often called buffalo. The word buffalo is derived from the French “bœuf,” a name given to bison when French fur trappers working in the US in the early 1600s saw the animals. The word bœuf came from what the French knew as true buffalo, animals living in Africa and Asia. Although this name was a mix-up of two different animals, many people still know bison as buffalo today.

But – admittedly going from memory – the visitor center went a step further and said, either name is perfectly fine. After all, we are speakers of English, not Latin, and we ordinarily use ordinary English names, not scientific names, for animals!

But taking things a step further, the Custer center sign said, the American bison/buffalo is most closely related to the European bison, also called a wisent, so that’s why scientists use the name bison, even though the larger “family” includes other sorts of buffalo. You can look at a few pictures at this link to say, “yup, that’s what a buffalo looks like!”

And why, if there was a “European bison,” would the French trappers not have used this name? Because (here I’m referencing Wikipedia) even though at one point the European bison/wisent’s range once extended as far west as France, as long ago as 1513 their range was largely reduced to the Białowieża Forest, in far Eastern Poland, as well as though they continued to live in the wild there with protections until the early 20th century. Sadly, when Germany occupied this part of Poland during World War I, occupying troops shot nearly all the remaining wild bison, so that the only remaining bison were in zoos. Afterwards, at about the same time as American efforts to reintroduce buffalo to the wild, Poles and international supporters engaged in a similar effort, though the numbers are smaller, with a total of 2,269 at the end of 2019. Again referencing Wikipedia, there are far more bison in the United States, with population estimates of 400,000 – 500,000 in 2010, though only 20,500 are in 62 “conservation herds” (of which 15,000 are considered truly wild, “not primarily confined by fencing”), and the remainder are in commercial farmed herds. (Why aren’t there commercially-farmed bison in Europe? Maybe it’s just a matter of lacking the massive pasture land/prairie lands not suitable for cropland that we have in the United States.)

So I don’t really have a grand point here. But I really enjoyed seeing buffalo “in person” and it’s also pretty interesting to read this greater context, and I invite you to share your random buffalo-themed factoids or experiences.

Previous Post

September 30, 2024

Can we talk about IQ and Lead Poisoning?

Next Post

October 29, 2024 "Kamala Harris will save men's access to porn!"

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Yup, Pretty sure that trans athletes are a major issue that needs to be decided ..."

E Brown

In which I comment on the ..."

"Do you pray to the golden calf, too? You seem like the type."

Rick

Is there a fix for gerrymandering?

"This includes our President, who according to all accounts doesn't read unless it's 1) small ..."

captcrisis

Are 28% of Americans truly functionally ..."

"For the test being digital vs paper, people do tend to do better with hard-copy, ..."

Bemused

Are 28% of Americans truly functionally ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into what farming tool?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Scythes Pruning hooks Sickles Hoes