Photo permission pending from Mark Boulton

The African buffalo, also known as the Cape buffalo, is a member of a group of animals called Africa’s “Big Five,” a category reserved for Africa’s greatest wild animals.

The African buffalo is an extremely large member of the Bovine family, thus having many cow-like features such as the snout and droopy ears (Cuthbert 1923). There is a lot of variability in the size, weight, and color of the buffalos.  Adult buffalos can grow to be 1-1.7 m tall (shoulder height) and weigh between 500-900 kg (Newell 2000). They are black or grey in color, however often times they may look reddish or white after wallowing in mud. The buffalo calves are often reddish-brown and are covered in hair that will gradually fall out as they mature(Ryan 2006).

Both males and females grow horns that protrude from the sides of the head.  Only males have a boss that connects the two horns, this acts as a shield for the head in times of fighting. Overall there is little sexual dimorphism within the species (Newell 2000).