Searching for Buffalo

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Probably due to the prevailing drought, we encountered very few buffalo in the five days we spent around Satara during our winter visit to the Kruger National Park. However, that all changed when we moved northwards to Mopani, where better winter grazing seems to have attracted even more of the huge herds of these bulky beasts than we would normally have expected to see in that region.

Crossing the road
Getting irritated by the oxpeckers
Getting irritated by the oxpeckers
Strange head ornament
Deciding to fight or flee
Not impressed with being gawked at by humans
Enjoying the first rays of sun on a cold morning
Coming to water along the Tsendze
Just look at that great posture!
Beautiful old cow

30 thoughts on “Searching for Buffalo”

  1. Pingback: Herbivore Haven | de Wets Wild

  5. Ladybuggz

    We once drove through Wood Buffalo National Park in Northern Alberta, kept my eyes strained the whole way…never saw a one!! Until I became a Chef and cooked one up for a burger! lol…

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      1. Ladybuggz

        It was actually only parts of it… quite good ! Not much different then Beef…. sorry! they raise them like cattle now and they are just so docile, it doesn’t seem right does it? I feed my dog Venison…poor Bambi! I was raised on wild game like Moose and Venison… Oh, Moose gives you the farts so if you ever try it so be forewarned! lol… 🙂

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    1. de Wets Wild Post author

      Do you know whether “buffalo” or “bison” was the original name for your version of wild cattle, Janet, and when and why the other name then came into use?

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      1. sustainabilitea

        Here’s what I found in an article on Mental Floss:

        No buffalo have ever lived in North America, according to MacPhee, so how come we call bison by that name? According to the National Park Service, when early explorers came to North America—at which point there may have been as many as 60 million bison on the continent—they thought the animals resembled old world buffalo, and so they called them that. The word comes from the Portuguese bufalo, or “water buffalo,” from the Latin word bufalus, a variant of bubalus, which meant “wild ox.”

        Sounds good to me! 😉

        janet

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  11. Midwestern Plant Girl

    These guys are so adorable… well in a big horned kind of way 😉
    I still find it funny folks here in the US call our bison, buffalo. 🐂🐃

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    1. de Wets Wild Post author

      They’re very adorable – at more than an arms length! 😀

      I’ve often wondered which name was used first – bison or buffalo? Was “buffalo” a word that came over from Europe? But there, they have the European Bison, or Wisent, which looks so much like the American Bison so why not use that name rather? Was “Bison” the indigenous name for them? Could be an interesting study topic!

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