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| Thai Wildlife > Rare or Extinct |
Asiatic Buffalo
Species: Bubalus bubalis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms: Bos buffelus (Blemenbach, 1821); Buffelus indicus (Rutimeyer, 1865)
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Common names: Asiatic Buffalo; Wild Water Buffalo
The wild water buffalo is a short animal with gray or brown coloring. The hairs on this animal are rough and long. The neck is large and thick with a white "V" running across the front. The forehead is narrow and it does not have a round belly like the domestic water buffalo. The tail has a bushy end and runs up only to the knee level of the back legs. The ears are pointed with hairs inside them. The four legs have an off- white coloring that runs down from the knee to hooves like socks similar to wild oxen.
The wild water buffalo has large horns with a larger curve than the domestic water buffalo. The horns curve like the crescent moon with a narrow tip.
The length of the Thai wild water buffalo measures 2.4-2.8 meters. The tail measures 0.6-0.85 meters. The height up to the shoulders measure 1.6-1.9 meters. The body weight ranges from 800-1,200 kilograms.
The domestic water buffalo measures in length 1.3-1.5 meters with a height of 1.2-1.4 meters. The body weight range from 360-440 kilograms.
Habitat of the wild water buffalo ranges from India, Bunna, Indochina, to the Malay Peninsula. Thailand was once the region where the wild water buffalo lived in abundance, being found in the grasslands of all the regions except the south. However, today they have been hunted heavily and exist in the wild only at Huay Ka Keng, Uthaithani.
It likes to live in large herds and in grasslands where they can find water sources with mud for them to bathe. They are not found in dense forests and mountains where water sources are scarce.
The nose and ears of the wild water buffalo are very keen and the wild water buffalo is reputed for their tolerance. They are also very fierce and have no fear of humans because of their sheer size and sharp horns and will come out to eat in the morning and early evening, eating grass, leaves, and wild fruits.
During the day they usually bathe in the mud or sleep in the tall grasses. Caked mud on the skin helps to alleviate the heat and it also serves to protect the wild water buffalo from insects.
The wild water buffalo mates during October-November with the pregnancy period about 310 days. The mother carries one foal at a time and can reproduce at the age of three while the male reproduces at the age of two.
The wild water buffalo lives to 20-25 years. Their extinction in many areas is because of their relative lack of fear of humans and in addition since they spend a lot of time in the mud they make easy targets. Worse is that habitats have been encroached leaving them to scatter into the forests. This makes it difficult for them to live in herds and mate.
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