the.com/bison
a two-ton tank that gallops faster than you sprint and turns on a dime
means A large, shaggy-shouldered wild bovine of the North American plains (and a related European species), often loosely called a buffalo.
from From Latin 'bison,' which the Romans borrowed for a wild ox — a word likely picked up from a Germanic source, a probable cousin of Old High German 'wisunt' and modern German 'Wisent.' The deeper root may carry a sense of 'the stinking one,' a nod to the animal's pungent rutting musk. The English habit of calling them 'buffalo' is a separate, looser borrowing — true buffalo live in Africa and Asia — but the misnomer stuck fast to the American beast.
- top speed
- runs up to 35 mph, faster than horses
- snow plow
- swings massive head to clear buried winter grass
- near miss
- millions reduced to a few hundred by 1900s
- comeback kings
- national mammal of the United States since 2016
- high jump
- can clear six-foot fences from standstill
american bison — once 30-60 million roamed north america, now ~500,000 in protected herds and ranches
european bison or wisent — extinct in wild by 1927, reintroduced to białowieża forest poland from 12 zoo animals
wood bison — largest subspecies, nearly extinct by 1890s, now ~5,000 in northern canada and alaska