To me, these are the least impressive of the Big 5. But that's just a personal preference. Maybe because they are in abundance and not that threatening looking. But, looks can be deceiving. They are part of the Big 5 for a reason. They can be very dangerous to the hunter, especially if wounded.
These animals are large and heavy with the adults exceeding 1500 lbs or about 750 kg. They mainly eat off the grasslands, so they must consume large amounts to maintain that weight.
I don't recall seeing any walking alone. They are quite gregarious creatures and generally run in large herds. There is safety in numbers, and they use that to their advantage. If a pride of lions should come upon them to feed, the buffalo will use their numbers to gang up on them and stave away their attack.
Both the females and males have horns and are capable of inflicting damage. The male horns are more distinctive with the curvature at the ends of them.
They have a strange glare to them if they look at you. It is said of the them, that they look at you as if you owe them money. Well, if that's true I will gladly pay!
My encounters with the buffalo in the park were quite benign. To me they just seemed like cattle grazing along not paying much attention to the tourists driving through their home in their vehicles. I guess we all just get used to things after awhile, but I would hate for the tables to be turned and have to tolerate them grazing through my house whenever they felt like it.
Here you can see them together in their small herd. I never witnessed a herd of 100's so I cannot tel you how larger the herds can get. the herds I witnessed were more in the 10's.
The ground was quite bare in this area so I am not sure why they were even there, Perhaps they were wandering through or perhaps they had already cleaned out the place.
These appeared to be of the female variety based on the curvature of their horns.
Who do you think will stop first? If you guessed the human, you are right. The animals in the park are conditioned to know they have the right of way so don't play chicken with a buffalo. They likely outweigh you and your compact.
Here's the male. See how his horns are curved inward at the top?
There's that look I was talking about. He is looking for that $20 he thinks I borrowed from him. But hey, I think it was your brother that gave it to me! Oh well, I guess I better pay you.
The African Buffalo, one of the Big 5 at Kruger National Park.
It's really cool how the animals just graze you wonder what would inflict them to attack . Seems like that car was close. It's unique about the difference in the horns. Nice pictures even Fred and Barney