How is a bison different from a buffalo?
It's easy to understand why people confuse bison and buffalo.
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News •
Bison charges man's truck in terrifying moment at Yellowstone
• Oct. 15, 2026, 1:25 PM ET (USA Today)
Transcript
Ah, the Western American Plains. That grand sweeping frontier where the buffalo once grazed in uncountable numbers.
Or did they?
After all, aren’t those actually bison?
Has the buffalo been the victim of identity theft?
It’s easy to understand why people confuse bison and buffalo.
After all, they’re both large, horned, ox-like animals of the Bovidae family.
But there are differences. Specifically, the three H’s: home, hump, and horns.
Contrary to the song “Home on the Range,” buffalo do not roam in the American West.
The misnomer, which continues to be used today, is often attributed to confused explorers.
In reality, those wooly bovines who call the North American plains, as well as parts of Europe, “home”, are bison.
Of the two varieties of buffalo, water buffalo are indigenous to South Asia, while Cape buffalo roam the savannas of Africa.
You may also notice that bison have a hump at the shoulders, while buffalo don’t.
During the winter, this hump allows the bison’s head to function as a plow, sweeping away drifts of snow as it wanders the plains in search of food.
The next telltale sign is the horns.
Buffalo tend to have large horns with very pronounced arcs. Some have reached more than 6 feet, or 1.8 meters in length!
The horns of bison, however, are much shorter and very sharp.
If you want one more way to tell the difference between bison and buffalo, you can check for a beard.
Buffalo are beardless, while Bison have a beard that any hipster would be envious of.
While it’s doubtful that the confusion will get cleared up anytime soon, in the end it must be said that bison, not buffalo, are the iconic animals of the American West.
Or did they?
After all, aren’t those actually bison?
Has the buffalo been the victim of identity theft?
It’s easy to understand why people confuse bison and buffalo.
After all, they’re both large, horned, ox-like animals of the Bovidae family.
But there are differences. Specifically, the three H’s: home, hump, and horns.
Contrary to the song “Home on the Range,” buffalo do not roam in the American West.
The misnomer, which continues to be used today, is often attributed to confused explorers.
In reality, those wooly bovines who call the North American plains, as well as parts of Europe, “home”, are bison.
Of the two varieties of buffalo, water buffalo are indigenous to South Asia, while Cape buffalo roam the savannas of Africa.
You may also notice that bison have a hump at the shoulders, while buffalo don’t.
During the winter, this hump allows the bison’s head to function as a plow, sweeping away drifts of snow as it wanders the plains in search of food.
The next telltale sign is the horns.
Buffalo tend to have large horns with very pronounced arcs. Some have reached more than 6 feet, or 1.8 meters in length!
The horns of bison, however, are much shorter and very sharp.
If you want one more way to tell the difference between bison and buffalo, you can check for a beard.
Buffalo are beardless, while Bison have a beard that any hipster would be envious of.
While it’s doubtful that the confusion will get cleared up anytime soon, in the end it must be said that bison, not buffalo, are the iconic animals of the American West.
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