Animal Legends and Lore

[brotherbear]

Everyone knows that the Indian was so named because he was thought to be a native of India, which the early Spanish explorers believed they had reached by sailing westward from Europe. There are other similar examples of errors which have persisted in spite of correction. We misnamed the American buffalo, which scientifically is not a buffalo at all but a bison, related to the European variety. The true buffalo is a short-haired creature without a prominent hump on his shoulders, such as the African buffalo and similar varieties found in southern Asia. But the vast herds of wild bovine in our West were named buffalo by the early plainsmen, buffalo they lived and died, and buffalo they will always continue to be known. The animal they named a moose is really an elk; our elk is not an elk at all; our mountain goat is not a goat; our wild sheep is not strictly a sheep; and even our antelope, sad to say, is likewise not a member of the antelope family. The explanations are too involved to go into here, and the layman is supposed to take the scientists' word for it.

Note: also the mountain lion is not a lion nor even a true "big cat"; not being a pantherine. This beautiful native of both North and South America is called by many names including cougar, puma, panther, and catamount. Reply