Indeed they are the same (Columb... something haha columbae columbide... wait let me look it up.. ah almost.. columbidae). English is one of the few (maybe even only? Not sure) language that seperates them based on appearance. But still it wasn't any old pigeon that came to the ark. So I am torn about if you should accept pigeon (you should, because that is the animal... )
Unlike humans, owls don't spend all day checking their social media, eating junk food, or pursuing other self destructive habits. So who are we to insult their intelligence?
Too bad you added kidding, quite true actually. People are pretty stupid. If you take away their technology and things other people made for them (which they couldn't have done on their own but is wisdom carried over through the ages) most would be completely lost. Not much people are good at solving new problems.
It's not the natives that hunted them that way, it's the american settlers that wanted to kill the native tribes to have their land. Bison was one of the main source of food for the natives, there would no reason for them to massacre these animals.
Archeological evidence dates buffalo jumps as far back as 10,000 BCE. The reason to kill en masse was to reduce the effect of training the bison to further avoid humans and thus make hunting harder. Although this method of hunting had largely ended with the introduction of horses, it was still practiced occasionally as late as 1800 AD.
Europeans hardly ever used buffalo jumps, since they had plenty of guns and ammo, which was enough to nearly wipe them out completely by 1900.
EDIT: It's probably more correct to say that the practice had completely ended by 1800, as it seems that the accounts from then were not first hand. Anyway, the point is, there were some 50 million bison on the plains around 1800, and only a few thousand remained by 1900.
@TableFor1 Yes buffalo jumps were used by some Indigenous nations for hunting (e.g. hence the memorable place name Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump). But when Europeans showed up in the Americas, there were an estimated 30-50 million buffalo. By the end of the 19th century there were only several hundred animals left. Buffalo lost habitat to ranchers, were commercially over-hunted, had bounties put on them, were shot from trains. The attempted extermination of buffalo was even official army and govt policy for a few decades; it was seen as a way to starve and force Indigenous people onto reservations. Blaming Native Americans / Indigenous nations for the near-extinction of the buffalo is ahistorical.
Opossums are an order of American marsupial. The only species in Canada and the US is the Virginia opossum, which usually has its "o" dropped and is referred to as just a "possum."
You might also be thinking of the Australian animal that is also called a "possum," which is not very closely related to opossums but looks similar enough that it was named after them.
Can you accept "flea" for the clue about disease carriers? Because that was the first thing I guessed (followed by mosquito... I was really only thinking about insects for that one)
for some reason my brain went to "ant" for a stereotypically quiet animal. It's true that they're pretty quiet, but I guess they're just not famous for it
My husband said you should accept Anders for the three-second memory clue. (That's the only one I missed. I tried fish but didn't realize there was a specific answer.) Personally, I thought Ander would better fit the slow, patient, clever, ancient one but I guess it isn't all about me.
kidding, kidding...
Europeans hardly ever used buffalo jumps, since they had plenty of guns and ammo, which was enough to nearly wipe them out completely by 1900.
EDIT: It's probably more correct to say that the practice had completely ended by 1800, as it seems that the accounts from then were not first hand. Anyway, the point is, there were some 50 million bison on the plains around 1800, and only a few thousand remained by 1900.
You might also be thinking of the Australian animal that is also called a "possum," which is not very closely related to opossums but looks similar enough that it was named after them.
I actually tried cow. I thought innocent christlike = holy. So holy cow :D