Other relatives of water buffalo and cattle in Asia that have been domesticated include the tithan are believed to have been domesticated from gaur from Southeast Asia and the Bali cattle are believed to have been domesticated from Banteng from Southeast Asia. They are not related to American “buffalo” or bison. True buffaloes are native to Asia and Africa. The wild Asian buffalo has been domesticated for thousands of years and bred around the world into various, mostly smaller, breeds of less than 500 kilograms (1100 pounds). The wild Asian buffalo is the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo. Water buffalo are believed to have been domesticated from wild water buffalo from Southern Asia about 6,000 years ago. Other Names: Arni, Asian Buffalo, Asian Water Buffalo, Asiatic Buffalo, Bufalo Arni, Buffle d'Eau, Buffle de l'Inde, Carabao, Indian Buffalo, Water Buffalo. Phylum: Chordatal Class: Mammalia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Bovidae Genus: Bubalus. Water buffalo: Scientific Name: Bubalus Bubalis Type: Mammal Kingdom: Animalia After maturing, buffalo are used as draft animals for five or six years, or until too old to work, when they were slaughtered and sold for meat. Even in poor areas, small paddy farmers usually have at least one animal. Able to flourish on coarse fodder and roughage indigestible by other livestock, buffalo are found in all kinds of farming areas. Buffalo, predominantly of the swamp type well suited to paddy culture.
Throughout much of Southeast Asia and South Asia water buffalo remain the chief draft animals for cultivation, although tractors have replaced them in many areas, particularly where crops other than rice are grown. Water buffaloes are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of the dairy cow. Children ride them to their wallows after their labours and clean their faces and ears.
Breeds range from the 900-kg (2,000-pound) Thai and haizi to the 400-kg wenzhou and carabao. Swamp buffalo more closely resemble wild water buffalo and are used as draft animals in rice paddies throughout Southeast Asia. Breeds include the Murrah with its curled horns, the Surati, and the Jafarabadi. The breed was selected mainly for its milk, which contains 8 percent butterfat. The origins of the domestic water buffalo types are debated, although results of a phylogenetic study indicate that the swamp type may have originated in China and domesticated about 4,000 years ago, while the river type may have originated from India and was domesticated about 5,000 years ago.Īccording to Encyclopedia Britannica: The river buffalo was present by 2500 BC in India and 1000 BC in Mesopotamia. There are two types of water buffalo-each considered a subspecies-are based on morphological and behavioural criteria: 1) the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and further west to the Balkans and Italy and 2) the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species but most likely represents the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo. The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovid found on the Indian subcontinent to Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia, in Sri Lanka, in Luzon Island in the Philippines, and in Borneo. There are 74 breeds of domestic water buffalo. One Thai farmer said, "they're the backbone of the nation and have been very important to our way of life.”Described as the “living tractor of the East,” they have been introduced to Europe, Africa, the Americas, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii.
In India their milk is a major source of protein. Water buffalo are called “carabao” in the Philippines and are regarded as the national animal there. The water buffalo population in the world is about 172 million, with 96 percent of them in Asia. They are mostly found in places where there is a lot of rain or water because they get dehydrated very easily and need water and mud to wallow around in. They are found throughout Asia and in places like Turkey, Italy, Australia and Egypt as well. Water buffalo are used for plowing and other forms of labor and as a source of meat, leather and milk.
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