Power and strength: the formidable African buffalo (8 photos)

The African buffalo is one of the strongest animals that not every predator dares to attack. In the continuation of the article, read about the horned inhabitant of Africa, for whom the best defense is attack.





Previously, among hunters, and today among tourists, you can often hear the term “African Big Five”. These are the five largest, charismatic, strong and formidable animals on the continent: elephant, lion, leopard, rhinoceros and buffalo. They have been hunted since ancient times, but today animals from the top five, as usual, become not prey, but a welcome guest on safari. But even after people replaced the gun with a camera, the title of the most dangerous still remains with... the African buffalo!



But why buffalo? Neither the king of beasts, nor a huge elephant, but some kind of horned cow? It's all about two things: size and behavior. Scientists identify up to 5 clearly distinguishable subspecies, where the largest are the black savannah buffaloes living in the south of the continent. These artiodactyls grow up to 2 meters at the withers and gain over 1 ton of weight. For comparison, most breeds of domestic cows are half the size.





Doesn't sound too impressive? Well, add to these dimensions an extremely unpredictable, violent character. It is for this reason that Africans did not even try to domesticate local ungulates, even though they are found throughout the continent. Even though the animals have learned to be unpretentious, gaining mass on grass alone, you wouldn’t wish such a cow on the farm to your enemy.



The bird is my only friend. I won’t attack her (I just won’t reach her).

But among themselves, buffaloes are very peaceful and pleasant guys. They live in large herds - from 10 to 1000 individuals. The size of the group depends on the amount of resources in a particular territory. Animals actively interact with each other and build a hierarchy, the basis of which is related cows and calves. The males flock to them. Some become high-ranking alphas, others become low-ranking buddies.



The larger, stronger and older the bull, the correspondingly higher its status and the more rights it has to mate. If someone wants to challenge this right, the ungulates find out the steepness by dueling with horns. Serious injuries rarely occur, which cannot be said about encounters between buffalos and potential predators over beef.



Adult females and males jealously guard the young and old. Healthy animals graze on the outskirts, constantly checking the situation. Buffalo's vision is not very good - the animals rely more on hearing and smell. The only one capable of encroaching on the herd is a pride of lions. At the first sign of threat, the elders sound the alarm. If running is not an option, the herd gathers in a ring: the oldest and most experienced ones hold the defense around the calves and weaker individuals. And the meat begins.



Everything is clear to everyone about horns and hooves - animals have ideally perfected the technique of stringing and trampling. But the matter does not end with defense alone. Cows love to mock the enemy even when he is already defeated! For example, a herd herds big cats into a tree and keeps them there for several hours at a time - like dogs, only with hooves and much angrier. Buffaloes attack lions even when they had no intention of hunting at all. The strategy “the best defense is an attack” is called mobbing. Animals unite and attack predators. A herd of giant cow cows scares the pride like a security guard scares first-graders. Sometimes such attacks end in death. And for lions.



Naturalist Evgenia Timonova described an incident from her trip to Africa. Before her eyes, a herd of buffalos attacked a family of resting lions. Buffaloes, being skilled hunters, divided the group of predators. On one side were a lion and lionesses, on the other - lionesses and lion cubs. The buffaloes began to take care of the latter. As a result, only three out of seven lion cubs managed to escape from the hooves and horns.

Buffaloes are not even afraid of people. Sad statistics say that ungulates kill humans in half of the attacks. That is,If an angry bull is running towards you, you won’t have time to call a notary. Even poachers do not risk going after an African bull. Too many risks. And there’s nothing to take from ungulates: massive horns are often damaged by insect larvae, the skin is covered in scars from subcutaneous parasites and ticks, and the meat—you can even eat domestic beef.

Today, among the big five, buffaloes feel the best. And even compared to other herbivores on the mainland, our heroes are not going to die out yet.