Buffalo - African Vacations and African Safaris

The Buffalo - The Big Five in Africa

The African Buffalo or Cape Buffalo is a bovid from the family of the Bovidae. It is up to 1.7 meters high, 3.4 meters long, and can reach a weight of 900 kilograms.

The Cape Buffalo is not closely related to the Asian Water Buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear. It is a very powerful creature, demanding respect from even a pride of lions when paths cross. Other than man, they have few natural predators and are capable of defending themselves against (and sometimes kill) lions, how ever lions sometimes kill and eat buffalo. The leopard is a threat only to newborn calves. Crossbreeding with domestic cattle has had only limited success, and the African Buffalo remains a wild animal.

Known as one of the "big five" (Lion, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, Leopard and Elephant) in Africa, the Cape Buffalo can be a volatile and formidable beast.

Cape Buffalo prefer areas of open pasture, close to jungle and swampy ground where they can wallow. They are found in Ethiopia, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, with a significant seasonal presence in Kenya and Tanzania.

The main herd consists of all sexes and ages, though bachelor groups are also found. A male is recognizable by the thickness of his horns, and is called the "Boss." Bulls mature at eight years of age. Cows first calve at five years of age, after a gestation period of 11.5 months.
Formerly occurred throughout the Northern and Southern Savanna, in arid regions wherever there is permanent water and herbage, and from sea level to the limits of forest on the highest mountains. In the Lowland Rain forest buffaloes inhabit clearings, swamps, flood plains, and secondary growth.

The Buffalo is mostly found in abundant well-watered savannas, swamps, flood plains, and montane grasslands and forests. Although herds can live in liking tall, mature grasses too coarse for most other ruminants to process.
It has massive cheek teeth, broad incisor row, and a prehensile tongue that gathers and bundles grass before each bite, enabling the buffalo to feed efficiently in longer grass.
Herbs and foliage amount to 5% of diet, considerably more when grass is scarce or too unpalatable. It has to drink at least daily when pastured on standing hay.

The Buffalo is usually considered nocturnal, but herds spend between 5 to 10.5 hours feeding at all seasons, night and day almost equally. Breeding herds range c. 2 mi (5.5 km) in the wet season, compared to 3/4 mi (2 km) covered by stodgy bachelor herds. Buffaloes daily commute up to 17 mi (27 km) between pasture and water in dry season.
The Buffalo is non-territorial and extremely sociable animal, living in large, mixed herds that inhabit exclusive, traditional home ranges. Members of the same clan often lie with backs touching, or with chin supported on a companion's back. Separate male and female rank orders are maintained, with adult males dominant over females.

Bulls past their prime leave the breeding herds and associate in bachelor herds.
The herd size often depends on habitat and pasture productivity; the more open and productive the range, the larger herds tend to be. On a broad floodplain in Kafue National Park the herds average 450 buffaloes (range 19-2075), compared to 50 in the forests and glades of Mt. Meru, Tanzania. Home ranges vary from as small as 4 sq. miles (10.5 km sq) for a herd of 138 buffaloes, to 114 sq. miles (296 km sq) for a herd of 1500. Bachelor herds of 5 to 10 up to 50 buffaloes and solitary bulls have much smaller home ranges.

Buffaloes that share the same home range may never assemble in the same herd. Although the majority aggregate during the rains, especially during the mating peak near the end, old bulls keep to themselves.
In dry months, when good pastures are reduced to scattered patches, buffaloes disperse in smaller units and prime bulls, along with sub-adult males, often form temporary bachelor herds. Units consist of clans of a dozen or more related cows and their offspring that stay together as distinct sub-herds. They can often be spotted as separate columns of tightly clustered cows in a moving herd; 4 to 5 breeding (i.e., dominant) bulls consistently accompany each clan. Subdivision of large herds in the dry season is by clans.

Each has its own trusted "pathfinder" that leads the way to pasture and water. Males leave the clans as adolescents for at 3 years and thereafter associate in peer subgroups that remain with the herd, but keep clear of breeding bulls.

A few of the parks and areas where buffaloes are both abundant and approachable are the : Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya; Ngorongoro Crater, Manyara National Park, Tanzania, Kafue National Park, Zambia; Hwange NP, Zimbabwe; Kruger National Park and a variety of game parks in South Africa.

Big Five Game Lion, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, Leopard and Elephant