Buffalo

buffalo an ambiguous term which has been well described/clarified by an FAO book (1977) with a foreword by W. Ross Cockrill, who is an expert on the water-buffalo.

When reference is made to buffaloes, it may be to several different animal species, all of which are called buffaloes. The big-game hunter, for example, may be describing experiences with the ferocious African buffalo; or a North American may be talking of the days of Buffalo Bill and of the vast herds of American bison; but a traveller from the Far East would, undoubtedly, be praising the virtues of the Asian water buffaloes.