Use : Water Bison bison are to Asia as bison were to the American champaign Indians . For millennia , urine buffalo provided draft power , milk , center , hide , horn , and fuel in part of Asia where no other sources existed . They are still an inherent part of South Asian life . Riverine water buffalo also contribute up to 15 percent of the existence ’s Milk River supply . Buffalo Milk River is high in milk solids and average out eight percent butterfat , making it an idealistic medium for making soft cheeses , butter , and yogurt . Most of the ghee ( elucidate butter ) sold in India is made from buffalo milk , as is much of the gourmet mozzarella cheese craft in Italian dairies ( the United States imports 90,000 pounds of mozzarella di bufala every yr ) . Lean , tasty , piddle buffalo meat curb less than one - fourth the amount of fat and half of the cholesterol of bitch . cook , it closely resembles ( and tastes like ) light marbled kick . rancher in Trinidad developed a boeuf - character water American buffalo called the buffalypso that is now uncommitted in the United States . And , due to their intelligence and quiet nature , water buffalo are easily train to hinge on or as knead Bos taurus .
account : Water buffalo ( Bubalus bubalus ) were cultivate in the Indus Valley of India and Pakistan at least 5000 yr ago . Their root , the critically jeopardize Asian Wild Water Buffalo ( Bubalus arnee ) , still survive in limited numbers in India , Nepal , Bhutan , and Thailand . Early on the domesticated water buffalo assort into two type : swamp buffalo ( the work water buffalo associated with China and Southeast Asia ) and river or riverine buffalo ( further develop in India and Pakistan for milk production ) . piss buffalo arrived in North Africa and the Near East as early as 600 A.D. They total to Europe with Crusaders return from the Middle East . They were bring out to Australia in the other 18th century , where escapees quickly naturalized and where large feral populations still survive . The University of Florida , in an effort to uprise an constituent coming to aquatic weed controller , imported five American buffalo in 1975 . Their achiever lead to an article in the December 1976 issue of Smithsonian magazine that in act inspired Lake Charles , Louisiana businessman , A.P. Leonard , to spell 103 riverine buffalo from Trinidad and 78 swamp buffalo from Guam . Experimental ruck were at last ground at the University of Florida and at Berry College in Georgia . The American Water Buffalo Association was formed in 1986 and there are now an guess 4000 water buffalo in the United States .
Conformation : Swamp Old World buffalo are the go tractors of China and Southeast Asia . Most are brownish - gray with lighter - colored ramification and a couple of light - colored chevron markings on their dresser . They are massively build up with strong bodies and brusk legs end in large hooves that enable them to navigate Asia ’s flooded padi rice theatre with relief . Their horn are triangular in crown of thorns - section and sweep back from their forehead in a wide of the mark crescent that can easily measure five or more feet from crown to tip . Riverine buffalo are combining rough drawing and dairy animals . They can be brownish but are unremarkably ignominious ; white markings on the posterior transposition , legs , or forehead are common . They are taller , more angular , and have longer legs than swampland buffalo . Their horn cross back , then up and in , ofttimes terminating in voluted curls . While swamp buffalo have 48 chromosome and riverine buffalo 50 chromosomes , their genetic material is very similar and the two type are inter - rich . Many North American water buffalo are mixtures of the two , as are the meaty buffalypso of Trinidad . They can not , however , hybridize with genus Bos species such as domesticated Bos taurus , cackle , or bison , all of which have 60 chromosomes , nor are they close related to bison ( mistakenly called American buffalo ) or the Cape buffalo of Africa . Depending on type and stock , adult buffalo mediocre 46 - 60 inches marvelous ( measured at the withers ) and librate between 800 and 2000 pound . They have one - ten percent the phone number of sweat glands of domestic cattle and correspondingly sparse hair coating . They ’re conduct with all the hair follicles they ’ll ever have , so calf have relatively lush coat while adults have very little pilus .
Special Considerations / Notes : piss Bison bison are not exotics and thus not baffle as such . Fences that halt domesticated oxen work for water American buffalo . They thrive on borderline pasture with rough browse and take in a fraction of the feed required to advance oxen . have young trouble are virtually nil ; cows display strong mothering instincts . They ’re level-headed , long - lived , and cows oftentimes calve into their 20 ’s . With few exception , weewee American bison are uncommonly easygoing and they flourish on tending . It ’s gentle to prepare buffalo to drive . Swamp buffalo are perfectly accommodate to our southeast states . With winter protection , riverine buffalo can thrive anywhere in the United States . In hot , humid mood they choose to billow in water to cool down but hosing them with cool water system twice a day is usually sufficient .
