Asian Water Buffalo: The Original 'Joe Black'

It’s one of those unbearably hot summer afternoons as you walk along a dry riverbed, under leafless trees that can’t offer any shade. Everything is dried up – the rivers, the trees, the earth with its varicose-like cracks… yet, it is humid… there must be water nearby, you keep on saying to yourself.

When you take the next bend on the river, the most inviting sight welcomes you - a pool of water, taken over by a herd of water buffalo, submerged, with only their heads out, not frolicking but sitting pretty, totally blissed-out. No, the mud-splattered creatures have come for neither arthritis nor beauty treatments – they are in their natural habitat.

Such habitats are also breeding ground for insects that bite and plants with stinging thorns, against which the water buffalo protects itself with its tough, armor-like skin. The coating of mud on its skin is a further deterrent to insects. Oh, for those persistent little insects that just don’t understand ‘body language,’ and think that body paint is only made from chocolate, there’s always the bushy tip of the long tail, waving from side to side when the buffalo is out of the water.

If you ever tried treading water in a pond or river with a muddy bottom, you are no stranger to that sinking feeling you get when your feet get stuck in the mud and you have to pull them out, one at a time, in order to keep squelching forward. But the water buffalo is not a stick-in-the-mud (pun intended) – he has broad, splayed hoofs that prevent him from sinking and a specialized joint just above the hoof, which allows extra mobility in such situations. This is one reason water buffaloes are preferred over other draught animals, for ploughing muddy paddy fields in India.

Despite being bulky animals, water buffalo are not predators – they are herbivorous, grazing on floating vegetation and aquatic plants, often low in nutrients. To ensure that they get the necessary nutrients, they eat a wide variety of food by grazing on land as well, eating grass and almost anything remotely cellulosic like bark, twigs, paper and even those disgusting black plastic bags that have found their way into places man has yet to set foot.

In the wild, water buffalo live in herds made up of family clans, each consisting of about 30 related females and their young, headed by an older female. Adult males form small groups of up to 10, while aging males go solo!

Both the male and female water buffalo have horns – the largest measuring on average, one meter, tip to tip. Since they themselves are not predators, they use the horns as defense against their predators; the tiger being the only one that can kill a full-grown water buffalo.

The other use of the horns is during the mating season when a dominant male lays claim to a small group of females and has to compete with the other males. But the toughest part is still not over – the females very often reject the suitor violently, using their own horns, taking the term, ‘horny’ to new heights!

A female water buffalo gives birth to just one calf after about 310 days. If the calf is female, she gets to stay with her mother for life and if male, he is driven away before he is three years old. That ring a bell? No, not the one round the buffalo’s neck. Similar prejudices… different preferences.

The water buffalo is one animal that pauses to look at humans, as if in contemplation, their sad eyes pitiable, yet compassionate at the same time… Yama’s choice couldn’t have been better in choosing this gentle beast of burden, to unburden man of life’s trials and tribulations.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com