AFRICAN BUFFALO
The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is the largest of the African Bovidae, and is distantly related to domestic cattle and other buffalo species, such as the Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). However, it is renowned for its aggressive and unpredictable nature, which has prevented the species from being domesticated. One of Africa’s ‘Big Five’ (also including leopard Panthera pardus, lion Panthera leo, elephant Loxodonta africana and white rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum), the African buffalo is a sought after prize for trophy hunters and a big attraction for tourists.
Males, which can weigh up to 750 kg, develop a thick horny ‘boss’ between their horns, which grows inward across their forehead, growing larger and thicker with age. Females weigh up to 500 kg and do not develop the boss between their horns, which are thinner than those of the males. Buffalo can live for up to 20 years in the wild, with older individuals often showing scars, hair loss and broken horns.
Sexual maturity is reached at the age of four, but slow growing individuals may take longer to become fertile. The gestation period is close to a year (11.5 months). Both matings and births can occur at any time of the year, but take place most frequently during the wet season, when high-quality forage is at its most abundant. The inter-calving interval is usually longer than the gestation period, and can last up to two years. Females with dependent calves are often in worse condition than those without calves, so females can spend a year after giving birth recovering body condition before breeding again.
African buffalo also have a well-deserved reputation for being one of the most dangerous African animals, particularly when wounded. They are one of the few herbivore species that can take on and defeat adult lions. Their sharp horns are used to defend against attacking predators and these can be physically lifted up and tossed to the side. Lion cubs, when found by a buffalo herd, are sometimes chased and trampled to death.
African buffalo are found in the majority of central and southern Africa, including in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Here it is one of the most numerous mammals, after impala Aepyceros melampus and red lechwe Kobus leche (Bonyongo, 2004).
Individual buffalo herds can reach sizes of several thousand animals, but in the Delta, these rarely stay together for very long. Buffalo live in fission-fusion societies, where the size and composition of herds varies almost continually. It is possible that small groups of individuals always stay together, with large herds being conglomerations of these small groups, but recognising individual buffalo reliably can be very difficult, so this theory is difficult to confirm.
Male buffalo associate with breeding herds on a temporary basis. It is generally thought that prime males evict older males from breeding herds. However, males suffer from a loss of condition whilst they are with the herds because they seek mating opportunities and compete with other males instead of foraging (Prins, 1996). Their body condition would therefore fall to a point where they would need to leave the herd to recover the condition. Males then form bachelor herds, although these are also temporary, with solitary males being seen on a regular basis.