Water buffalo
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Water buffalo ( Bubalus arnee ) |
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The water buffalo ( Bubalus arnee ) belongs to the cattle group (Bovinae) and is the most widespread and best-known species of the Asian buffalo ( Bubalus ). It has become a pet in many places , but wild water buffalo are now a rarity. The Indian name Arni is often used for wild buffalo ; this means both real wild and feral domestic buffalo.
Taxonomy
The wild water buffalo was originally listed as Bubalus arnee , but the domestic buffalo as Bubalus bubalis . Today they are grouped into one species, according to the decision of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) Opinion 2027, arnee is the valid name.
However, it is controversial whether all water buffalo really belong to one species. Some see the Chinese buffalo, whose wild ancestors became extinct around 3500 years ago, a separate species of Bubalus mephistopheles . The Filipino Tamarau is occasionally listed as a subspecies of the water buffalo , which today often has the rank of an independent species.
features
A water buffalo has a head-trunk length of almost 3 meters, a shoulder height of 180 centimeters and a weight of more than a ton. These dimensions are almost only reached by wild buffalo. The domesticated specimens are usually much smaller and rarely heavier than 500 kilograms. The color of the wild animals is gray, brown or black. In domesticated buffalo there are also black and white piebald or completely white animals.
The trunk is barrel-shaped, as is typical of cattle, the tail, which is about 60 to 80 centimeters long, has an end tassel. The widely spread hooves give the animals a secure hold in their swampy habitat.
The head is usually long and relatively narrow towards the front, the ears are comparatively small. Both sexes have horns that either point straight to the side or curve inward in a semicircle. They reach a wingspan of 2 meters, more than any other living cloven-ungulate; however, the horns of the females are usually a little shorter. In addition, there are also buffalo breeds with smaller horns.
The lifespan of a wild water buffalo is 25 years; in the care of humans, water buffalo can grow older for a few years.
Wild water buffalo
Way of life
The habitat of the water buffalo is made up of open wetlands, swamp forests and densely overgrown river valleys. To protect against insects and to cool off, he often spends time in water or mud. The skin is then covered by a thick layer of mud that no blood-sucking insect can penetrate.
Since there are almost only domesticated water buffalo left in Asia, the behavior of these animals has been studied, especially in wild buffalos in northern Australia. How closely this corresponds to the original behavior is unknown. Water buffalo live here in family groups of thirty individuals, led by an old cow. The herds consist of females and their young. Young females usually stay with the herd; younger males, on the other hand, are driven out of the herd at the age of two.
The bulls become temporary solitary animals after a transitional period in bachelor associations, each comprising around ten individuals, but join a herd every year at the mating season (in northern India in October, further south at no specified season). The dominant cow retains the lead of the group during this time and chases the bulls away after the end of the mating season. Old bulls that can no longer mate live as persistent loners until they die. Most of the time they secrete voluntarily, occasionally they are forcibly evicted by a younger cop.
A cow gives birth to a young about every two years. This is born after a gestation period of 333 days and initially weighs around 40 kilograms. It is suckled about six months before it can graze on its own. The animals reach sexual maturity at the age of two to three years.
The food of the water buffalo is primarily grass, as well as almost all types of bank vegetation. Besides humans, tigers , monitor lizards and crocodiles are the only predators of the water buffalo. Tigers prefer to attack young animals or solitary animals, as a closed herd is often able to drive away the big cats through coordinated action or in individual cases even to kill them by using the horns.
Stocks
The range of the wild water buffalo has continuously shrunk since the Ice Age. In the late Pleistocene , water buffalo were also found in North Africa . At the time of the early advanced civilizations, they were widespread: from Mesopotamia to India to China and Southeast Asia .
The wild water buffalo is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the endangered red list species as "critically endangered" species ( Endangered out). However, with most populations today, it is difficult to determine which water buffalo are true wild buffalo and which are merely descendants of feral domestic buffalo. The inventory data therefore fluctuate between 200 and 4000 copies.
India is now home to the most wild water buffalo, with over 3000 specimens. But their purity is in doubt almost everywhere. They only occur in small groups in a few reserves:
- In Assam , wild water buffalo are found in the Manas National Park , Kaziranga National Park , Laokhowa Sanctuary and Dibru-Saikhowa National Park . In the Manas area, the animals also inhabit adjacent parts of Bhutan .
- In Arunachal Pradesh , wild water buffalo live in the Namdapha National Park area .
- There are two populations in Chhattisgarh : one in the Indravati National Park and the other in the Udanti Reserve. The latter could extend into neighboring areas of Orissa .
- There are other small groups in Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya .
The only population in Nepal lives in the Kosi-Tappu Game Reserve in the southeast of the country and consists of around 150 animals.
In addition, there are only tiny, scattered remnants in Southeast Asia. The only population of wild water buffalo in Thailand lives in the Huai Kha Kaeng Reserve and consists of around 50 animals that could be mixed with domestic water buffalo . A few dozen are in Cambodia in the east of Mondulkiri Province . In Vietnam and Laos the last stocks have expired. No current estimates are available for Myanmar .
Sri Lanka's wild water buffalo are likely to have a high level of domestic buffalo genes, as the recent rinderpest outbreak caused the populations to have melted significantly at the end of the 19th century and the surviving populations are likely to have crossed with domestic buffalo before they recovered.
Domesticated water buffalo
There are 150 million domesticated water buffalo (house buffalo) worldwide. Due to the switch to machine plowing, the use and thus also the number of these workhorses has decreased drastically in the last 25 years (especially e.g. in Thailand).
Domestication and Distribution
When the water buffalo was domesticated is controversial, as the bones of wild and domesticated animals cannot be distinguished. A genetic study from 2008 suggests that the first domestication did not take place in China. It is likely that the river buffalo and the swamp buffalo - the two main types of water buffalo - were domesticated independently: first the river buffalo in India about 5000 years ago, then the swamp buffalo in China about 4000 years ago.
In the Indus culture , water buffalo bones were sometimes found in large numbers (for example at the Dholavira site in Gujarat ), so it is assumed that the bones were herded and used for agriculture. Domestic buffalo came to Mesopotamia from the Indus valley , and from India and China to Southeast Asia. Long before the turn of the century there were domesticated buffalos in this entire range. Today India is the country with the most domestic buffalo, followed by Pakistan and China.
More recently, water buffalo have also found their way to other regions: in North Africa (especially Egypt ), South America (especially Brazil ), southern and central Europe, Mauritius , Australia , Hawaii and Japan , water buffalos are kept to varying degrees today. In Europe, buffaloes are used on a larger scale in Italy , Romania and Bulgaria . Around 200 buffaloes still live in Hungary , a small remainder of the former 100,000 buffalo (see buffalo reserve at Kis-Balaton ). In Australia, where buffalo keeping was largely abandoned, the animals went wild and settled in the north, where they are found in around 200,000 specimens today. Feral water buffalo are also found in smaller numbers in other countries (see below).
Domesticated buffalo are peaceful towards people and even allow themselves to be directed by children, while wild buffaloes usually flee from humans. However, the solitary old bulls occasionally become very aggressive and then attack humans and even elephants. They should occasionally be provoked by the colors yellow and orange , which is why z. B. the Thai monks with their orange robes often avoid them.
Use
Water buffalo are used to plow rice fields and as pack animals. Milk, meat and leather are also used. Another advantage of the water buffalo is that it is not affected by BSE ; Buffalo in China are occasionally infected with foot and mouth disease .
milk
Water buffalo cannot keep up with today's domestic cattle in terms of the amount of meat and milk per animal. Buffalo milk has twice as high a fat content (8%) and a longer shelf life than cow milk. 45 million tons of buffalo milk are produced in Asia every year. Through targeted breeding of increasingly productive buffalo breeds, milk production per animal has increased considerably in the last few decades. In 1970, a value of 3000 liters per animal and lactation period (about 300 days) was held as a record; today there are highly bred buffalo breeds that produce 5000 liters of milk in the same period. The Murrah is believed to be the most promising breed of buffalo in the dairy industry; Breeders assume that in the near future they will be able to produce as much milk with water buffalo as with dairy cows.
In 2015 buffalo milk, at 110 billion kilos, made up 13% of global milk production .
Buffalo milk contains 0.19 mg cholesterol per gram (beef milk: 0.14 mg). It is also rich in calcium , iron , phosphorus and vitamin A .
Mozzarella was originally made from buffalo milk - today, mozzarella made from beef milk is mostly sold, which has a lower taste and a different consistency.
flesh
Buffalo meat is hardly known in Europe, but it is a traditional part of the diet in Asia and North Africa. The global production of buffalo meat increased by 140.8% between 1970 and 2006 from 1,322,000 tons to 3,181,000 tons. For example, India, China, Egypt, Nepal and Indonesia are among the leading countries.
Buffalo meat not only has relatively low fat and cholesterol levels, it also contains a disproportionately large amount of iron and protein.
In addition, in scientific analyzes by the Institute for Food Hygiene Leipzig and the Argentine Institute for Food Technology of the National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA), a very good ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids was found. Buffalo meat contains an average of 24% protein, 1.5% fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 2% iron and 110 kilocalories per 100 grams in muscle meat.
Grazing
An example from the district of Mühldorf (Bavaria) shows how water buffalo work as habitat constructors . A wet fallow land grazed with cattle since 1996 was additionally stocked with water buffalo in 2011, the use of space and behavior of the water buffalo were examined and the amphibian fauna was observed. Through the grazing, the originally dense and high vegetation of tall perennials and reeds developed into a mosaic of pasture lawns and taller grass and perennial stands. Reeds in water bodies were greatly reduced and the tanning of the bank areas increased. The population of the common frog ( Rana temporaria ) in the area has increased significantly since the start of the project. There are also signs of an increase in the yellow-bellied toad ( Bombina variegata ). It spawns in the bank areas of a pond kept open by grazing animals and, since 2011, in the waters newly created by water buffalo. By wallowing and by the buffalos paving paths in wet areas of the pasture, vegetation-free, sunny small bodies of water were created in previously dense vegetation. There are indications that grazing with water buffalo may represent an alternative to mechanical disembarkation or the creation of such bodies of water.
Races
74 breeds of domestic buffalo are known. They are roughly divided into swamp and river buffalo:
- Swamp buffalo are primarily work animals, they are mainly bred in China and Southeast Asia. They help with the cultivation of the rice fields. Only when they are too old for work are they slaughtered and eaten. They play almost no role in milk production.
- River buffalo are bred for milk and meat production. The center of river buffalo breeding is in India, where there are the most breeds and the most productive animals.
Important breeds among the working animals are:
- Carabao ( Philippines and Guam ): gray or black fur, crescent-shaped horns
- Malay Buffalo ( Southeast Asia ): gray fur, medium-length, crescent-shaped horns
The dairy breeds include:
- Murrah ( Haryana and Punjab ): considered to be the most productive of all milk buffalo breeds, exported worldwide
- Nili-Ravi (Punjab): black fur with white markings on the face, very short horns
- Pandharpuri ( Maharashtra ): black fur, recognizable by the sword-like, huge horns (each up to 150 cm long)
- Kundi ( Sindh ): black fur, particularly heavy and massive
There are also mixed-use breeds such as Saidi in Upper Egypt and Baladi in Lower Egypt . In the meantime, breeding continues in North America and Europe.
Buffalo breeding in Germany
There are several farms where water buffalo are raised. For example, a buffalo farm with around 290 animals (as of 2014) in Hohenstein -Meidelstetten on the Swabian Alb . In 2008 there were around 1800 water buffalos in Germany. At the beginning of March 2010, according to the German Buffalo Association e. V. with 2362 buffalo almost four times as many as in 2000. In September 2018, there was one breeder with 20 Herbuch cows in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, in Saxony in February 2020 there was another breeder with two bulls and 64 cows and in Saxony- In 2017 there were still four holdings with a total of 34 animals.
Feral water buffalo
Occurrence
A very large overgrown population emerged in northern Australia towards the end of the 19th century . Smaller feral populations exist in New Guinea , Tunisia, and northeast Argentina . There are also feral herds in Colombia , Guyana , Suriname , Brazil and Uruguay as well as on the islands of New Britain and New Ireland .
Population in Australia
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Between 1823 and 1840, 80 water buffalo were for meat production by humans Northern Territory in Australia introduced. Individual animals and herds feral and reproduced under their new living conditions so quickly that, according to estimates by the Australian government, a total of 700,000 animals had to be killed between 1880 and 1970. In 1985, with a population of 350,000, more than half of the world's non-pet water buffalo were in Australia.
The wild water buffalo presented in the march regions on Australia's north coast a serious ecological problem. They strengthened by its trails and its Wallowing the soil erosion , altered by their feeding behavior, the composition of the local flora and facilitated by their Wallowing the intrusion of salt water into freshwater habitats . They changed their habitat so permanently that the number of Australian crocodiles , the Australian freshwater fish Barramundi and similar native species that lived there decreased drastically. The fact that up to 35 animals lived on one square kilometer of marshland during the dry season contributed significantly to this serious ecological impact.
Water buffalo are also carriers of bovine diseases such as tuberculosis and bovine brucellosis . The latter in particular has contributed to the fact that the water buffalo population is viewed as a plague to be controlled by both the government and the majority of the Australian population.
From 1979 to 1997, the Australian government carried out a program to shoot down feral water buffalo, with some of the animals that lived in the inaccessible marshland being shot down by helicopter . The number of wild water buffalo has decreased significantly since then. In the World Heritage belonging Kakadu National Park , for example, the number of animals living there has been reduced from 20,000 in 1988 to 250 in 1996 and thus achieved that the stocks of native plants such as certain eucalyptus types, and the Red Water Lily rebounded again.
symbolism
Mythology and popular belief
An animal as closely related to humans as the water buffalo naturally appears in many fairy tales and legends of the peoples associated with it.
In Indian mythology , the water buffalo embodies the demon Mahishasura , a hybrid of buffalo and human, who could not be defeated by any of the gods until the goddess of war Durga finally defeated him. In Hinduism , the Bengali Durgapuja and the Nepalese Dashain festival are a reminder of this battle between good and evil. It is a national holiday in Nepal . At this festival, a buffalo head is carried through the streets in procession to symbolize Mahishasura.
The buffalo appears in another, also not very positive role: Yama , in Hinduism the lord of the underworld, is often shown riding a water buffalo. On certain occasions the god himself takes the form of a buffalo.
The Chinese philosopher Laozi is mostly shown riding a water buffalo. In Chinese astrology , the buffalo is one of the twelve zodiac signs. 2021 is the next year of the Ox .
In East Timor , the water buffalo is a symbol of power. The Kaibauk , a kind of crown and symbol of power, is modeled on its horns . Although the population is almost entirely Catholic, according to animistic tradition , buffalo horns and skulls are placed on graves in addition to crosses.
Others
In the famous jungle book by Rudyard Kipling , Mowgli becomes a buffalo herder after his return to the people. It is the buffalo who ultimately trample the vicious tiger Shere Khan to death.
"Buffalo" ( khwaai ) is one of the most derogatory terms used in Thailand to characterize a person, also in the sense of an insult, and in terms of expressiveness it is comparable to "pig" in German. This means someone who is stubborn, stupid, incapable of learning, dull or immobile.
Due to its water cooling and a strong output of up to 67 hp, the Suzuki GT 750 motorcycle was quickly given the scene name “water buffalo” in German-speaking countries in the 1970s, by which it is still known today.
literature
- Bernhard Grzimek : Grzimeks animal life. Mammals Volume 13. dtv, Munich 1970. ISBN 3-423-03207-3
- Ronald Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
- The Water Buffalo. New Prospects for an Underutilized Animal . Books for Business. Washington 1981, 2002. ISBN 0-89499-193-0
- Tim Low: Feral future. The untold story of Australia's exotic invaders . Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood 2001. ISBN 0-14-029825-8 (This book describes, among other things, the ecological problems caused by the wilderness of the water buffalo in Australia.)
- Dorian Fuller: An agricultural perspective on Dravidian historical linguistics, archaeological crop packages, livestock and Dravidian crop vocabulary. In: Peter Bellwood, Colin Renfrew: Examining the farming / language dispersal hypothesis. Macdonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge 2002, 191-213. ISBN 1-902937-20-1 (for domestication)
Web links
- Prof. Dr. Zeigert and Peter Biel: Use of the water buffalo for extensive grazing of wetlands and bog areas, natural pastures and fallow land , on the homepage of his buffalo farm Hatten, 2012
- Water Buffalo in Landscape Management (LEL BW)
- Possibilities and limits of the use of water buffalo in landscape maintenance, project report etc. a. by students at HTW Dresden , 2004 (pdf)
- Zuchtverband Sächsischer Rinderzuchtverband eG: Breeding program for the water buffalo breed (February 2020, pdf)
Individual evidence
- ↑ International Commission On Zoological Nomenclature: Opinion 2027 (Case 3010). Usage of 17 specific names based on wild species which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic animals (Lepidoptera, Osteichthyes, Mammalia): conserved . In: Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature . 60, No. 1, 2003, pp. 81-84.
- ↑ a b c d Bubalus arnee in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: Hedges, S., Sagar Baral, H., Timmins, RJ & Duckworth, JW, 2008. Accessed February 16, 2013.
- ↑ Cf. DY Yang et al .: Wild or domesticated: DNA analysis of ancient water buffalo remains from north China. Journal of Archaeological Science 2008; 35: 2778-2785 ( PDF ).
- ↑ Swiss milk value chain. (PDF; 4.4 MB) In: agridea.abacuscity.ch. 2018, p. 1 , accessed on February 17, 2019 : "In 2015, 818 billion kilos of milk were produced worldwide, of which 674 billion kilos of cow's milk (82%) and 110 billion kilos of buffalo milk (13%)."
- ↑ German Nutritional Advice and Information Network (DEBInet) .
- Jump up ↑ J. Robertson, D. Ratcliff, Pe Bouton, Pv Harris, Wr Shorthose: A Comparison of Some Properties of Meat from Young Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and Cattle . In: Journal of Food Science . tape 51 , no. 1 , January 1, 1986, ISSN 1750-3841 , pp. 47-50 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-2621.1986.tb10832.x ( wiley.com [accessed July 6, 2016]).
- ↑ Helga Mäckle: Tender, low in fat and low in cholesterol: The water buffalo from Asselfingen. Retrieved July 7, 2016 .
- ^ INTA :: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. In: inta.gob.ar. Retrieved July 7, 2016 .
- ↑ A. Zahn, F. Herzog: Water buffalo as habitat constructors. The behavior of water buffalo in a standing pasture and the effects on amphibian populations. ANLiegen Natur 2015; 37 (1): 46-54 ( PDF; 1.5 MB ).
- ↑ M. Bunzel-Drüke, C. Böhm, G. Finck, R. Kämmer, E. Luick, E. Reisinger, U. Riecken, J. Riedl, M. Scharf, O. Zimball: Wilde Weiden - practical guide for year-round grazing in Conservation and landscape development. Sassendorf-Lohne: Working Group on Biological Environmental Protection in the Soest District (ed.), 2008. Page 91.
- ↑ Agnes Fazekas: Water buffalo in Germany: Buffalo Bill on the Alb. In: Spiegel Online , May 31, 2014.
- ↑ Alb buffalo GmbH, St. John: The Alb buffalo breeding herd.
- ↑ The buffalo as a gardener. In: Der Tagesspiegel Brandenburg , September 3, 2008
- ↑ Overview: The German Buffalo Association (link to the PDF at the bottom of the page).
- ↑ Rinderunion Baden-Württemberg, breeding program , page 4
- ^ SRV: Zuchtprogramm , p. 3
- ↑ Answer of the state government of November 26, 2018 to a small inquiry, printed matter 7/3664
- ^ JL Long: Introduced Mammals of the World: Their History, Distribution and Influence. Csiro Publishing 2003, ISBN 9780643099166 .
