Talk:African Buffalo
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The picture shows a herd of Gnu, not Cape Buffalo.
Who wrote this article? This is gibberish. Did you really want to write about lions little boy?
The picture shows a buffalo now. I would say that "on occasion" is incorrect about lion predation on buff. It is never an easy job but some prides spend months out of the year preying on buffalo. Smaller prides, especially with other food sources, do avoid them. Hunting buff does cause lion casualties. Also, why are two species of wild cattle called "buffalo" if they are not closely related and not the other species.
The talk of the lions in relation to the cape buffalo sounded like it was too drawn out and loosely based on fact.
what do you mean? You mean lions do take down cape buffalo on a regualr basis? No, that's garbage. Only when they have no choice, they have to prey on buffaloes. If they have access to wildebeest and zebra etc, they say goodbye to the beast. A single lion is nothing against the buffalo, so the big cat never attempts to take on this powerful prey alone. Hic, on "lions behaving badly" show on NGC, 4 male lions have to cooperate to kill an adult buffalo. is that convincing enough?
Buffaloes have killed many lions in fact. Recently, there is an article on NGM titled: relentless enemies. The author, who observed these 2 animals for years, said that a pride of lions has been reduced to only 2 now because of hunting buffaloes. Most of the pride members died by hooves or horns.
- I saw that article. It dealt with lions and buffalo on a single (though rather large) island. Three prides of lions live there, and the one the article focused on eats buffalo *exclusively*. The article ended with a photo of the battered members of one of the other prides, and the caption said all but two of them had since been killed by buffalo. There was no indication that the main pride was dying out, though the article acknowledged that members were occasionally injured or killed while hunting. While most lions may only hunt buffalo when they're desperate, that it not true of all lions.
- I also once saw a wildlife documentary in which a herd of buffalo happened upon a pride of lions that had just eaten. The lions weren't interested in hunting so soon after a big meal and probably couldn't exert themselves much while digesting so much food, so they were content to let the buffalo pass them by. The boss of the buffalo had other ideas, though. He decided to attack the lions and the others joined him in the effort. They managed to kill most of the pride's cubs (6 out of 9, I think). The adults fought back fiercely, but it was in vain and they had to retreat after each parry; they were heavily outnumbered and were more likely to be killed than to bring down even one of the herd. When it was over the buffalo walked away with just some scratches.
Actually not only the articles. This husband and wife team spent 2 years producing the 2 hour TV show: Relentless enemies, which indicates a pride has been reduced to doom by hunting buffaloes. In 1 fight with a bull, 6 lionesses attack, and after the fight ends, only 3 remain. This + the article make me certain that one of the 3 prides is now dying. ~~S~~
[edit] buffalo in zoo
has anyone seen a cape buffalo in zoo? How tall and how big is it?
[edit] What they eat
Does anybody know what they eat? I've been looking for what Cape Buffalos eat but I can't find it!!! If you want to write about animals, please tell what they eat!!!
- Mostly grass, but some tree leaves, and fruit if they can get it. Steve Dufour 06:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Speed
I don't think cape buffalo can run at 56 km/h. If you have watched enough scences of lions hunting buffaloes, you'll realize that it's a very slow animals, that's why the lions have no problem catching one. They run like pigs, very heavily. Cape buffalo also doesn't defend themselves effeciently, their hind legs are too heavy to deliver flying kicks like the bison and other long legged cattles; their horns are too curved, leaving a very narrow range of strike. That's why lions can kill cape buffaloes
