NL·0292Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Bubalus arnee
- Family
- Bovidae
- Native to
- Northeast India (Assam, Arunachal), Chhattisgarh, Nepal (Koshi Tappu), Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia
- Habitat
- Floodplain grassland, Swamp, Riverine forest
Wild water buffalo
Bubalus arnee
Also calledArnā bhaiṃsā (Hindi) · Asian buffalo
The wild ancestor of the domestic water buffalo, a massive bovine of floodplain grasslands with the longest horn span of any living bovid. Fewer than 4,000 are thought to survive, most of them in Assam, and many are at risk of hybridising with domestic buffalo.
The wild water buffalo, also called Asian buffalo, Asiatic buffalo and wild buffalo, is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It was first described in 1792. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iSpends hot hours submerged in rivers and wallows with only head and horns showing
- iiHorns can span up to about 2 m tip to tip
- iiiHerds defend themselves from tigers by charging together
In the field
Field marks
- aSilhouette: huge, dark grey-black bovine with very wide, crescent-shaped horns swept out and back
- bHorns flattened and ridged near the base
- cPale chevron on the throat and whitish lower legs ('socks')
- dSparse coat; signs include mud wallows and trampled reedbed trails
- Not to be confused with
- Domestic and feral water buffalo are smaller, with shorter horns and often a sagging belly; hybrids are hard to separate. Gaur has a high shoulder ridge, white socks and shorter upcurved horns.
- Where to see it
- Kaziranga and Manas national parks, Dibru-Saikhowa (Assam); Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (Nepal); Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (Chhattisgarh); Huai Kha Khaeng (Thailand)
- When
- Resident; best in Kaziranga's dry season (November–April)
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Grasses, sedges, aquatic plants, herbs and crops
- Habitat
- Wet grassland, swamps and river valleys with dense vegetation and water
- Size
- Shoulder height 1.5–1.9 m; 600–1,200 kg
- Lifespan
- About 25 years
Females and calves live in herds of 10–30; bulls form bachelor groups and join herds in the rut, after the monsoon.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Northeast India (Assam, Arunachal), Chhattisgarh, Nepal (Koshi Tappu), Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Bubalus arnee in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
The buffalo is the vahana (mount) of Yama, the Hindu god of death, and the demon Mahishasura took buffalo form before Durga slew him. It is the state animal of Chhattisgarh.
Curiosity
Domestic water buffalo, descended from this species, now number around 200 million worldwide, while their wild ancestor is endangered.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 74125.