water buffalo

It's hard for us to think about African buffalos (or water buffalos, as they're known locally) without being reminded of the Battle at Kruger video. Secretly hoping that would we see an epic battle between animals, we visited the watering hole (Transport Dam - where the video was filmed), only to find a lone hippopotamus. However, we did see our fair share of water buffalos in other areas of Kruger National Park.

We were often surprised to see animals grazing by themselves in the park. Twice we saw water buffalos, on their own, making their way through fields. For some reason, we assumed that they needed to stay in groups at all times for survival. Since it was just the two of us in the car all day long, we had some very interesting (and sometimes uninformed) conversations about animal behavior. One of Mina's pet peeves is anthropomorphism, but we couldn't help but making up narratives about what the animals were up to (we were driving for a long time).

Water buffalos seem like a rather ordinary animal to have included in the "big 5", but their inclusion is because of their unpredictability. The term "big 5" has it's origins in hunting, and the water buffalo (despite being an herbivore) can be a very unrelenting, aggressive, and dangerous creature. Several hundred people in South Africa are killed every year by them.

We noticed that they were always aware of our presence. Zebra's and giraffes didn't seem to care about us, but water buffalos (and wildebeests) always seemed to know when we were nearby and they actively moved away. We treated them like the elephants; took a few photos, and then moved on - quickly!

-Alex