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What's On A Buffalo Nickel? Not A Buffalo!

Though many people refer to the American bison as a buffalo, the two are different. The two main buffalo species—African cape buffalo and Asian water buffalo—live in Africa and Asia, and look quite different from bison. Buffalo and bison do share a taxonomic family, however, as they're both bovids.

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Key Facts In This Video

  1. Many people mistakenly think that American bison are buffalo. 00:02

  2. In historical journals, people recount seeing herds of buffalo that were approximately the size of Rhode Island. 00:33

  3. Bison numbers were reduced to the thousands as America was colonized and industrialized. 00:55

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