SANParks.org Forums

I have been charged once by a buffalo and couple of times by rhino. The buff charge was serious and lucky for me I picked it up early enough. We watched a smallish herd next to the road when I spotted a bull jogging around a bush sniffing the air. I got the car into 1st and held my foot on the petrol. Suddenly it busrt semi around semi through a bush and came staight to us. I dropped the clutch and made way forward to about 100m. An Uno fiat drove in the opposite direction and the buff went for it too. The reverse lights of the Uno came on and the buff stood in the middle of the road like elephants do for a good couple of moments prohibiting anyone coming by.

Rhino is easier to backoff. Just hit hard on the side of the door or roof. As soon as it realises that u r not another rhino it relaxes, marks it's territory and moves off.

Nice pic in the beeld newspaper yesterday of 2 buffaloes staring each other square in the eye. Apparently the did not enjoy each others company and come hell or high water would not move for any car.

Persistent guys, these daggaboys.

Had the same thing happening to me. They kept coming
Lost count over 200. The only thing to do was to slowly
reverse. 2 km long Luckily we were the only ones there
that morning
(This was in Kenia, not in Kruger)

The one year we will slowly making our way to the Crocodile Bridge gate and just past Nkuhlu we came across buffalo on the road. We were giving a ranger a lift back to Lower Sabie and we did a rough count of over 500. There were still plenty in the bush around us. We decided to reverse and find another way (my Dad was gettting twitchy about the time) but when we looked back we found a huge elephant had taken up residence on the road. We stayed there for over an hour until we were allowed to move on. Needless to say, we did not make the gate and ended up spending the night in Lower Sabie. I was pleased but the fact we did not have clean cloths with us did not make it the best say.

Took this picture on the s100. Group of about 100+ buffalo. This is female with massive horns. It's horns dwarfed every male in the herd, and its body was also larger than any other female. It has no boss, and no sheath- so it must be a female.



bwana

That is indeed huge!!

I agree it looks like a female to me as well. I know further up north the Buffalo horns get more slender and longer. Maybe she an illegal? Perhaps a gene from one of her parents\greatparent that was an illegal that got through the more southern gene?

If I am not mistaken the Rowland Wards record is a female.

Hi WTM,
Yes, you are right. In any event will check later today.

bwana

Here you go...

http://www.safaripress.com/capebuffalo.html

One of the biggest buff shot was a cow in the Hectorspruit area.

The trofee head and horns or replica of it can still be seen in the bar of the hotel in Hectorspruit about 19km past Malelane gate going towards Komatipoort.

resized by bert

Saw this cow on the S100, 17June 2005. Probably the same one, she was huge and more aggresive than the males. They were close to the road, and she kept coming forward. Fun to watch!

That is exactly the same one. You spotted it about 4 days before I did. They obviously are the resident herd. Cool one!

That is quiet amazing. I did not realise the horns grew to that length. One would certainly not want to get on the wrong side of that buffalo.

I think rather than a genetic phenomenon, I think it may be a hormonal imbalance - probably too much testosterone during the foetal stages.

You dont want to get on the wrong side of ANY buff. The size of the horns does not matter... only the distance between the holes in your body will differ acording to horn size

I have posted two pictures of a buffalo cow that I photographed in 2001 on the H10 near Muntshe. She also had these very distinctive and unusual horns.