African buffalo

Distribution

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the African buffalo distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

• Farmland
• Flooded grassland
• Broadleaf forest
• Tropical dry forest
• Tropical grassland
• Rainforest

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

• Predation defence
• Hierarchical
• Acoustic communication
• Herbivorous
• Maternal care
• Polygynous
• Active at birth
• Social
• Adapted to running
• Chemical communication
• Sexual dimorphism
• Visual communication
• Viviparous

The African buffalo up close

At first sight, a herd of African buffalos look like a group of large cows, but unlike cows they have a fearsome reputation for aggression and strength. They are not to be confused with the bison of North America and Europe, which are also sometimes called 'buffalos'. Recent research has also shown that buffalos display some fascinating behaviour.

Diet

Regular feeding on fresh greens is very important to buffalos and they quickly begin to suffer from malnutrition when food is scarce. Grass makes up a large part of their diet, but they also browse on bushes and trees. Being large animals they can easily overheat, so they feed mostly during the cool night, and rest during the heat of the day.

Habitat

African buffalos can be found in a surprising variety of places. As well as living on the African savannah, they are found in tropical forests near the equator. Forest buffalos are sometimes classified as a smaller, darker subspecies than those living on the savannah, which are known as Cape buffalos.

Social behaviour

Female buffalos form large herds on the savannah, up to 1,000 strong, whilst males generally live on their own or in small groups. Herds of females are immensely protective of each other and their calves, allowing even three-legged or blind members to survive.

Interesting feature

Herds of female African buffalos appear to have a unique way of deciding in which direction to move: they vote on it! When the herd is ready to move on after resting, individuals start to stand up and face the direction in which they wish to move.

Eventually, when enough members have 'voted', the dominant female leads the herd off in the direction that most of the individuals have faced.