Very interesting, Tim ...
I wonder if anyone has compared the DNA of the European and American Bisons?
Because of all the cowboy movies, books, TV shows, etc., the terms buffalo and Indians will always be in my head to describe two very important parts of the American west. So, when I looked at the photos of the European Bison, I saw a buffalo ...
All the best,
Richard
In Portuguese (Brasil), we understand the name bison (bisão) as a regional variation of the general word buffalo (búfalo). There are buffalos. The North American ones are called bisons. I don't know the word origin, once it doesn't seem to come from Latin sources, but, by my own curiosity, I'll probably going to search, in near future ... If I find out anything different ...
There are South American buffalos. & Buffalos are a kind of savage ox, speaking about families ...
But the word "bison" is very related to North American Indian image & propaganda, all right, even in my generation (I'm from '76). In the '90s, Kevin Costner gave us the/a (?) Sioux name for them: tatanka ...
Gus