Early French settlers who saw herds living near the East Coast called them bison because they looked like a European cousin. A later English naturalist described them as buffalo which name stuck, even though the term is more correctly applied to other types of wild oxen found in Asia and Africa. Bison are susceptible to tuberculosis, anthrax, and brucellosis. Their number was reduced to 750 in 1890. They were then protected and now number about 80,000.
Bison live only in parks and reserves.
MacDonald, David. 1984. Encyclopedia of Mammals. Equinox, Ltd, Oxford. 2. Nowak, Ronald. 1991. Docent information sheets.