Cape Buffalo are probably the most plentiful animals of the big five, and we saw a lot of them throughout our safaris. They are big - the reminded us some beefy bulls we saw in the Australian outback on the way to Uluru - they can have horns that measure up to 4 ft across, and they can be aggressive! Cape Buffalo can weigh up to 1 ton, and they are strong - they are the animal that kills the most hunters! (they have also been known to kill lions)Much like other big animals on the savanna, they live in herds (power in numbers to protect them from predators), enjoy symbiotic relationships with birds, and cover themselves in mud to protect themselves from the sun (and it keeps bugs off their skin). Scroll through - there are some neat photos with different birds on and around the buffaloes. You can learn more about cape buffaloes here https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/african-buffalo
We learned that male buffalo will often live in bachelor herds - and they split further into younger bachelors and older. We found the younger bachelor groups to be a bit more aggressive (it's in their eyes!) than others - Kifa said they will charge the safari vehicles sometimes. We saw one that looked like he might want to charge, and Kifa drove off quickly - don't mess with wild animals! We also came across older bachelor groups, it was easy to imagine them as retired old men! Finally, the oldest of buffalo prefer to live a more solitary life and, more or less, offer themselves up to the circle of life.
If you read my post yesterday, then you know we also saw a buffalo that had been killed by lions providing breakfast for the whole lion tribe (the photo I included today is not gory) - Kifa guessed by the look of it that it was a healthy buffalo and it probably took a few lions to bring it down. Nothing like witnessing nature in action!
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