DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
Asia, also introduced to other continents. Wetlands and marshes.
BEHAVIOUR
Water buffalo plays a large role as tractive force in the cultivation of wetland rice fields in China and Vietnam. Wild individuals spend most of the day immersed
in the muddy tropical waters and subtropical forests of Asia. Water buffalo will wallow in mud to cool them off and also prevent insect bites.
DIET
Grasses, herbs, aquatic plants, leaves, crops.
REPRODUCTION
Gestation last 10-11 months. The female usually gives birth to one young, which follows her mother shortly after birth, staying in the herd for the first 3 years.
Milk feeding lasts 5 – 12 months.
GOOD TO KNOW
Water buffalo have been domesticated for more than 5,000 years. They have buttressed humanity’s survival with their meat, horns, hides, milk, butterfat, and power, plowing and transporting people and crops. Wild water buffalo are at-risk and live only in a small number of protected areas stretching across India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and a wildlife reserve in Thailand.
- Latin name: Bubalis bubalis
- IUCN –Red List – EN – Endangered
- CITES – Appendix III
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