Submit Privacy Policy. Get Weekly Updates. Download Trip Details. Please send me a free page catalog of the World's Greatest Nature Journeys. Thank You! Click here to see your trip details PDF. You should also receive it by email momentarily. Get the Catalog. Together, Natural Habitat Adventures and World Wildlife Fund have teamed up to arrange nearly a hundred nature travel experiences around the globe, while helping to protect the spectacular places we visit and their wild inhabitants.
Request Your Catalog Continued To help us customize your catalog request, please tell us more about your travel needs:.
Multiple times a year Once a year Every 2 - 3 years Rarely. View Our Digital Catalog. Help us save paper! If you'd prefer a mailed copy, please provide your contact details here. To view our digital catalog, please enter your info below. Send Us a Message. Use the form below to send us a comment or question. Refer a Friend. Earn rewards for referring your friends! Refer Friend Privacy Policy. The African buffalo is traditionally known as the meanest beast in the bush, prone to launch a killing charge at the drop of a hat.
Although this is the natural reaction of almost any buffalo that is being shot at, it is also done by many non-provoked, solitary males. However, the majority of buffaloes in cow-calf herds are nearly as docile as cattle.
The most common species, a very large, black-pelted grassland dweller, can weigh up to 1, pounds. One subspecies, the forest buffalo, is smaller and reddish, with less robust horns.
And at least two intermediate forms are found in grassland areas where large forests merge with grasslands. In East Africa , however, animals seen in forest clearings or along grassy roads will certainly be African buffalo.
They feed and travel most often during the early morning, evening and nighttime. Buffalos spend the rest of their time lying in shade, similar to cows in a field, although they likely sleep for only about an hour per day. They are never farther than nine miles from a water source, since they must drink every day. These attributes have allowed blind, lame and even three-legged individuals to survive longer than could have been expected.
Solitary bulls, however, without the formidable protection of numbers, commonly fall prey to prides of lions. It is not uncommon, though, for lions to be fatally injured during a prolonged battle with a wounded buffalo. When a buffalo herd is threatened by a lion attack, the bulls will form a protective semi-circle around the cows and calves, shielding them from harm.
An explosive snort from a buffalo heralds alarm. A male can weigh upwards of a ton kilograms , and a female can weigh about pounds kilograms. Along with their formidable size, bison have several unique traits that help to identify them.
One of the most noticeable is the hump on their shoulders. Another characteristic is their deep brown fur, which can grow very long, especially around the face and head. Bison also grow a long beard and mane. The head of a bison is very large with a thick skull. Bison fight by crashing their heads or horns together.
Both male and female bison have short, curved, black horns, which can grow to two feet 0. Before human intervention, bison once ranged over much of North America, including central Canada and most of the interior United States. The only places free of bison were along the coasts and deserts. Today bison are only wild in national parks, state parks, and reserves.
American bison like open plains, savannas, and grasslands. Despite their immense size, bison still have to worry about predators. Buffalo calves can easily become the prey of a wolf pack or grizzly bear. American bison are herbivores. They like low growing grasses and sedges. Bison are constantly on the move and even walk while they eat.
Bison exhibit some odd behaviors throughout the year. They roll around in dirt, create depressions wallows in soil with their immense weight, and take dust baths.
Bison even rub their horns on trees. American bison like to live and travel in groups. For most of the year herds are divided by sex, with females and calves in one herd and males in another herd. When the breeding season begins in the summer, many males temporarily join the female herd and begin looking for a mate.
Bison communicate by hearing and smell. The most important communication is done with pheromones and smells, especially during reproduction. Bison also grunt, snort, and growl. The dominant bulls male bison choose a female and defend her against other males through fighting.
The males might butt heads or use their horns. Once the female agrees to mate, the pair mates several times. Males carry enormous backward-curving, crescent-shaped horns stretching close to 5 feet long with deep ridges on their surface. Females are smaller in size and weight, but they also have horns, although they are proportionately smaller.
Their wide-splayed hoofed feet prevent them from sinking too deeply in the mud and allow them to move about in wetlands and swamps. These marshes provide good cover and rich aquatic plants to forage on, although water buffalo actually prefer to feed in grasslands on grass and herbs. Females normally produce calves every other year, after a gestation of 9 to 11 months. Young bulls typically remain with maternal herds, which consist of around 30 buffalo, for three years after birth.
They then go on to form small all-male herds. Water buffalo have been domesticated for more than 5, years.
Wild water buffalo are at-risk and live only in a small number of protected areas stretching across India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and a wildlife reserve in Thailand. And populations are likely to diminish as they are interbred with domesticated water buffalo. All rights reserved. Common Name: Water Buffalo. Scientific Name: Bubalus bubalis. Type: Mammals. Diet: Herbivore. Group Name: Herd.
Size: Head and body: 8 to 9 feet; tail 2 to 3.
0コメント