What species of Buffalo you can expect to see on safari
Cape/savanna buffalo - The ultimate night club doorman/bouncer.. these animals are tough, their hide sooo thick.. that it puts the strength of a lions jaws, teeth, claws & paws into real perspective. 1-1 a lion stands no chance of steak
They protect their own with might and in numbers. A herd sticks close together and makes it hard for the predators to pick off one member. Buffaloes engage in mobbing behavior when fighting off predators. They have been recorded killing a lion and chasing lions up trees and keeping them there for two hours, after the lions have killed a member of their group. Lion cubs can get trampled and killed. In one videotaped instance, known as the Battle at Kruger, a calf survived an attack by both lions and a crocodile after intervention of the herd.
The first thing any armed safari ranger will tell you, 'this is the reason I carry a weapon when walking though the thicket on a game walk.. a lone buffalo is one of the most, if not the most, dangerous animal to come across'.. One of the big five, it is known as "the Black Death" or "widowmaker", and is widely regarded as a very dangerous animal, as it gores and kills over 200 people every year. Buffaloes are sometimes reported to kill more people in Africa than any other animal, although the same claim is also made of hippos and crocodiles. Buffaloes are notorious among big-game hunters as very dangerous animals, with wounded animals reported to ambush and attack pursuers.
The adult buffalo's horns are its characteristic feature; they have fused bases, forming a continuous bone shield across the top of the head referred to as a "boss". They are widely regarded as very dangerous animals, as they gore and kill over 200 people every year.
Its not unheard of to spot a cape buffalo cousin, the mountain buffalo while tracking gorillas in Uganda/Rwanda forests
