Buffalo African

A founder-member of the 'Big Five' for the most obvious of reasons,the African Buffalo or Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a large African bovid. It is up to 1.7m high, 3.4m long. Savannah type buffaloes weigh 500-900kg, with only males, normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range. Forest type buffaloes are only half that size. The buffalo has always been a top contender for the ultimate safari accolade owing to its unpredictable nature which makes it highly dangerous to humans, it has not been domesticated, unlike its Asian counterpart, the Domestic Asian Water Buffalo.

Other than humans, African buffalo have few predators and are capable of defending themselves against and sometimes killing lions. Lions do kill and eat buffalo regularly, but it typically takes multiple lions to bring down a single adult buffalo, whilst the Nile crocodile will typically attack only old solitary animals and young calves. Cheetahs, leopards and spotted hyena are a threat only to newborn calves, though spotted hyenas have been recorded to kill full grown bulls on occasion. The Old male buffalos will leave the herd and form batchelor groups living close to water holes and lying in cooling mud or reed beds. These old buffalos known by the Zulu's as 'dagga boys' the word for mud are the grumpy individuals that are responsible for the most hair-rising stories.