Buffalo | The buffalo is also known as the African buffalo and the cape buffalo, as the buffalo is found in large herds across Africa but the buffalo is more prominent in South Africa. Although the buffalo and water buffalo
(found in Asia) look very similar it not thought that the buffalo and
the water buffalo are closely related. The African forest buffalo is a
subspecies of the African buffalo but the forest buffalo is about half
the size of the standard buffalo.
The African buffalo is
one of the most successful grazers in Africa. The buffalo inhabits
swamps and floodplains as well as the grasslands and forests of the
major mountains of Africa. Buffalo can be found from the highest mountains
to sea level areas, and the buffalo tends to prefer habitat with dense
cover such as reeds and thickets. Herd of buffalo have also been found
in open woodland and grassland.
Other than the human, the African buffalo has no real natural predators as the buffalo is able to easily defend itself using the buffalos sheer size and power. Lions, crocodiles,
leopards and hyena are all amongst those animals that prey on the
buffalo although they are usually only successful in catching the
buffalo in large numbers.
The buffalo has a very unpredictable nature
which, along with the size of the buffalo, makes the buffalo a severe
threat to humans. There are numerous buffalo attacks on humans every
year and the buffalo is thought to be one of the most dangerous animals
in Africa behind the hippo and the crocodile. Because of this the African buffalo has not been domesticated unlike the water buffalo in Asia.
No comments:
Post a Comment