What determines whether a male animal is a bull, a ram or a buck? A lot of larger male animals like elephant, hippo, etc. are called bulls but so are smaller ones. A male deer is called a buck but a male moose which is a member of the deer family is called a bull.

I'm think that if I shoot a male rabbit or groundhog, I should be able to call it a bull or ram if I want to. It would be much more impressive if I could speak of a bull groundhog.

Inquiring minds want to know.

A rabbit is a buck, don't know about a whistle pig.

A frog is a bull, I think.

In terms of South African game;

My understanding is in antelope species larger than an Nyala +/- 120 kg or 265 lbs), males are known as bulls and females as cows. For species smaller than Nyala, the males are known as rams and the females are ewes. Interestingly, a Nyala male is referred to as a bull, and the female is a ewe.

(Introduced) Fallow deer are generally referred to as stags and does.

Not sure why the other herbivores such as elephant, hippo, rhino and giraffe are referred to as bull & cow.

I certainly don't know if I'm right but this is what I do.

Nyala and bigger species the males are called bulls.

Smaller than Nyala male animals are called bucks or rams. I don't know what the differentiation is, if any. I have heard male impala referred to as bucks or rams interchangeably by PHs and Tour guides. I suspect it's an Afrikaans to English thing.

In Afrikaans I hear male impala's called Rooibok Rams (Literal translation: Redbuck Ram). In English I've heard both Impala Buck and Impala Ram. If one is more correct than the other I don't know. Since I know what is meant in either case I don't guess it really matters.

Still it would be interesting if someone could shed some light on it.

i believe it follows the logic why we have johns, & joes, & petes & freds

I have heard male duikers refered to as bulls, go figure. I still don't know what a male ground hog is called. Could it be a boar?

I have a wild bull chipmunk in my backyard!

So is a Waterbuck female a buck??? Is he a Ram or a Bull??

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
What determines whether a male animal is a bull, a ram or a buck? A lot of larger male animals like elephant, hippo, etc. are called bulls but so are smaller ones. A male deer is called a buck but a male moose which is a member of the deer family is called a bull.

I'm think that if I shoot a male rabbit or groundhog, I should be able to call it a bull or ram if I want to. It would be much more impressive if I could speak of a bull groundhog.

Inquiring minds want to know.

#1. I believe the answer here is simply tradition.

#2. (traditionally) A male rabbit is a buck and a male groundhog is a boar! ...a male raccoon is a boar a female is a sow but a baby is a kit (kitten)! If you're looking for some hard rule with logical background you're going to be disappointed.

OK so why is it SpringBOK and not BushBOK?

quote:

Originally posted by oupa:

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
What determines whether a male animal is a bull, a ram or a buck? A lot of larger male animals like elephant, hippo, etc. are called bulls but so are smaller ones. A male deer is called a buck but a male moose which is a member of the deer family is called a bull.

I'm think that if I shoot a male rabbit or groundhog, I should be able to call it a bull or ram if I want to. It would be much more impressive if I could speak of a bull groundhog.

Inquiring minds want to know.

#1. I believe the answer here is simply tradition.

#2. (traditionally) A male rabbit is a buck and a male groundhog is a boar! ...a male raccoon is a boar a female is a sow but a baby is a kit (kitten)! If you're looking for some hard rule with logical background you're going to be disappointed.

That is my understanding of the situation also

SSR

A lamb is a ram and a donkey's an ass but a ram in the ass is a goose

Rich Elliott

quote:

Originally posted by umshiniwam:
In terms of South African game;



(Introduced) Fallow deer are generally referred to as stags and does.

In NZ Fallow are a BUCK and a Doe. It is the Red deer that is a Stag with a Hind and the Wapiti is a Bull and a Cow. All deer but with different names.

Von Gruff.

As I understand it, a South African who goes out to shoot an antelope will be hunting "buck," no matter the type, size, age or sex of the antelope.

Antelope smaller than nyala are rams, ewes, and lambs; antelope the size of nyala and larger, along with buffaloes and elephants, are bulls, cows and calves. Fallow deer will be called stags and hinds in much of Europe, but bucks, does and fawns in southern Africa and the USA.

What I have trouble with is calling the meat from any game animal, including elephant, warthog and ostrich, "venison" in Africa.

Bill Quimby

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Elliott:
A lamb is a ram and a donkey's an ass but a ram in the ass is a goose

Rich Elliott

And mares eat oats and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy too; wouldn't you?

quote:

Fallow deer will be called stags and hinds in much of Europe

When I hunted woodland caribou in Newfoundland in 1996, the newfies called the male caribou stags.

In 2000 in Nunavut hunting caribou the folks there cxalled the males bulls.

Since there is apparently no hard and fast rule about what to call what, I'm going to start calling the male groundhogs I shoot bulls and the females cows. I will call it the official Central Ohio nomenclature. With time, I believe others will come around to my way.

quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Huffaker:
OK so why is it SpringBOK and not BushBOK?

We call then springbok because the "spring" part is Afrikaans which, in the context of this animal's name is translated to "jump", and it is customary [or maybe even a language rule?] to not mix languages in one word. So in proper English the whole of the Afrikaans word has been assimilated into the language as springbok. Similarly a steenbok is so named because at the time of first encounter with this animal its colour resembled closely the bolour of a typical brick of the day, and a brick is called a "steen" in Afrikaans. In the case of a bushbuck both parts of the Afrikaans name bosbok was translated bos = bush and bok = buck. Another one in which the entire name was kept is gemsbok, which is proper English, and is also proper Afrikaans. Just to show how closely related English and Afrikaans [in fact also Flemish and Dutch] really is try telling me in which language the following sentence is written: "My pen is in my hand."

I don't think there is any rules to this, but that is simply how a language evolves. Sometinges the whole original Afrikaans or Dutch name was assimilated into the later arrivals in the southern parts of Africa's English language. Sometimes the two parts of the name were both translated. Bushbuck, reedbuck, waterbuck are a few examples of the later case, while blesbok, gemsbok and springbok are better known examples of the former case. There is no rule - only tradition!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
Since there is apparently no hard and fast rule about what to call what, I'm going to start calling the male groundhogs I shoot bulls and the females cows. I will call it the official Central Ohio nomenclature. With time, I believe others will come around to my way.

Will this apply to marmots also?



SSR

The original British term for male deer was Stag - red, fallow, etc. but Roe buck. The introduced species such as Sika are stags but a Muntjack male may be a ram in some circles. I have heard it referred to as a ram in India (where some local languages refer to them as a "wild goat").

I have read of a male ibex called bucks while wild sheep are rams.

The Himalayan tahr is a type of goat & the male should be a billy but here in NZ we call it a bull but the female is a nanny (goat). A male chamois is a buck.

In NZ we call red, sika & sambar males as stags but Wapiti are bulls and white tail & fallow deer are bucks.

The Nilghai male is called a bull as its English name is Blue Bull - Ghai in Hindi is cow.

I know my cat is a Tom.

Rich,
That was hilarious!!!

Call it what you will, just hurry up and shoot straight.

Personally I believe the single ( actually two ) issue that dictates if a bull or a buck or a stag is - TESTICLES

quote:

Originally posted by Cross L:

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
Since there is apparently no hard and fast rule about what to call what, I'm going to start calling the male groundhogs I shoot bulls and the females cows. I will call it the official Central Ohio nomenclature. With time, I believe others will come around to my way.

Will this apply to marmots also?

Definitely; it will apply to marmots.

So let us progress to Rooihartebees, Rooibok,Swartwildebees,Blouwildebees, Blesbokke,
Bontebok,Swart Springbok,Buffel and of course the mighty Renoster!
I need a Renoster!!

quote:

Originally posted by Tom In Tennessee:
So let us progress to Rooihartebees, Rooibok,Swartwildebees,Blouwildebees, Blesbokke,
Bontebok,Swart Springbok,Buffel and of course the mighty Renoster!
I need a Renoster!!

Put your billfold and both your moneybelts on the table.

I was baffled by the bull/cow, ram/ewe thing when I was hunting. Nice to finally know the way it is sorted out.
Just for the record. Although we always called groundhogs boars and sows. We call them grundsows in PA Dutch. The correct biologic descriptive name is he-chuck for a male and she chuck for a female. Can't say that I ever heard them called that by regular people, just by book biologists.
Bfly

I just like to call them "DEAD" chucks or maybe "chucketts".