Page 96 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - South Africa

94  WILD SOUTH AFRIC A

African Buffalo

Africa’s only wild ox, the African buffalo, is similar in appear ance to the Indian water
buffalo and closely related to domestic cattle. Powerfully built, with a bulk of up
to 800 kg (1,764 lb) and heavy, splayed horns, it is famed for its unpredictable
temperament. Indeed, the “great white hunters” who coined the term Big Five
regarded this ox as the most dangerous of foes. Buffaloes are the most numerous
of the Big Five, with a continent-wide population estimated at almost a
million, and are highly conspicuous in several South African reserves.
Affectionately known as
Daga Boys after an African word
meaning mud, elderly male
buffaloes tend to live singly or in
small bachelor herds, and have a
reputation for grump iness, as
well as for being quicker to
charge than indi viduals
in breeding herds.
Family and Breeding
The African buffalo is highly gregarious and non-
territorial, generally moving in mixed-sex herds of
10 to 50 animals, with one dominant male and a
hierarchical structure binding the adult females
and non-dominant males. Females come into
oestrus at the start of the rainy season and give
birth to a single calf, or more infrequently twins,
almost exactly a year later. Tensions between males
run high during the mating season, with dominant
bulls trying to pull rank, and subordinate males
fighting to challenge their breeding rights. The
imposing bulk of an adult buffalo ensures that it
has few natural enemies, and a strongly bonded
herd will cooperate to chase away predators.
Nevertheless, buffaloes are sometimes preyed
upon by lions, with the predator occasionally
coming off second best in the confrontation.

Seasonal aggregations of
more than 1,000 buffaloes can
still be seen in some parts of South
Africa, most notably in the central
and northern Kruger National
Park (see p344).

What You Might See
Buffaloes are less visibly interactive than
certain other sociable animals. When a
vehicle approaches a buffalo herd, the
mass response will often be to stare
down the vehicle or even to close in on
it. While this can be quite intimidating,
it signals curiosity – and chronic myopia Rival males often lock
– more than anything sinister. Buffaloes horns during the mating Buffaloes take to a wallow
often support hitchhiking birds – cattle season, but serious during the day, more so than
egrets, oxpeckers and starlings. injuries are rare. even rhinos and elephants.

IUCN status LC: Least Concern

094-095_EW_South_Africa.indd 94 29/06/2017 10:22