Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Asian buffalo graze in the morning and evening, and occasionally at night, on lush grass and leafy aquatic vegetation (2). During the hotter part of the day, they bathe and wallow in mud to keep cool and to protect them from biting insects (3). A gregarious but not territorial animal, this buffalo lives in stable clans of females and their young, led by a dominant matriarch (2). Young males leave this clan at the age of three, normally to join bachelor groups of around ten individuals (2). Mating is polygynous, with breeding being seasonally dependent in some areas, where it often occurs after the rainy season, for example during October and November in Thailand, and occurring year-round elsewhere. Females typically produce one calf every two years, with Asian buffalo having the longest gestation period of all bovids, lasting 300 to 340 days. Nursing lasts six to nine months and sexual maturity is reached at around one and a half years for females, three for males. Asian buffalo are known to have lived up to 12 years in the wild (6).

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