Asian Water Buffalo

Water Buffalo or Domestic Asian Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in the Indian Subcontinent, but also in South America, southern Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa, and elsewhere.

The great majority of the world's water buffalo live in Asia. There are established feral populations in northern Australia, but the dwindling true wild populations are thought to survive in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Thailand. All the domestic varieties and breeds descend from one common ancestor, the wild water buffalo, which is now an endangered species. The domestic water buffalo, although derived from the wild water buffalo, is the product of thousands of years of selective breeding in either the Indian Subcontinent or Southeast Asia.

Buffalo are used as draft, or pack animals; for their meat and milk. Their dung is used as a fertilizer, and as a fuel when dried. In the Chonburi of Thailand, Pakistan, and the southwestern region of Karnataka, India, there are annual water buffalo races known as kambala.

Our Water Buffalo has very pretty blue eyes. The eyes of the buffalo in the collections of New York's American Museum of Natural History has very different eyes of a much duller hue. He or she was found in a Hartford, Vermont collection and given to the Museum.

—From the collection of Greg Brower.

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