THE BUFFALO 
BUBALUS AFRICANUS 
M ANY of the most notable species of African game animals 
have — or once had — a very wide distribution, but, with 
the possible exception of the elephant, none more so than 
the buffalo, if one may be permitted to lump under one 
designation all the many sub-species and geographical 
races into which that animal has been divided. There is, 
of course, a very great difference in outward appearance between the large 
black Cape buffalo and its various small red congeners which inhabit the 
forests of Nigeria and the basin of the Congo; but between the buffaloes of 
South Africa and those of East Africa and Uganda the difference is not 
great, and these latter are linked by intermediate forms with the flatter - 
horned races of the Nile Valley and Abyssinia, and these again by many 
other races with the small -horned dwarf buffaloes of West Africa. For the 
purpose of this article, therefore, 1 shall include all races of buffaloes 
under the term “ African buffalo,” for, indeed, in habits and disposition 
these animals seem to be very similar in whatever part of the continent 
they may be met with. A century ago the buffalo was found throughout 
the coastal region of South Africa, as well as in the valleys of the Orange 
and Vaal rivers and in every other part of the country where the conditions 
were suitable to its requirements. These latter included besides pasturage 
and an abundant supply of water, shade from the heat of the sun, and thus 
in South Africa buffaloes were never found on the open, shadeless plains 
either of the Transvaal or Southern Rhodesia, but were very numerous 
throughout the valleys of the Limpopo and the Zambesi and all their 
tributaries. Nowhere could they ever have been more plentiful than they 
were some forty years ago in the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls, 
and westwards from there, all along the southern bank of the Zambesi 
and up the valley of the Chobi. 
The buffalo is often spoken of as the most dangerous of all African game, 
an animal of so morose and savage a disposition that he is always inclined 
to charge without any provocation, and so vindictive and cunning that 
if wounded, he will almost certainly, after having run off for a short 
distance, circle round and then stand motionless behind a bush, waiting to 
dash out on whoever may be following on his tracks. Now, let me say at 
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