Critically Endangered
Tamaraw
Bubalus mindorensis
Tamaraw is a mammal in the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla) — Bubalus mindorensis, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
In contrast to the carabao, the Tamaraw has a number of distinguishing characteristics. It is slightly hairier, has light markings on its face, is not gregarious, and has shorter horns that are somewhat V-shaped.
Range and habitat
The Tamaraw was first documented in 1888 on the island of Mindoro. Even so, as antimalarial medicine was developed, more people settled on the island. By 1966, the Tamaraw's range was reduced to three areas: Mount Iglit, Mount Calavite, and areas near the Sablayan Penal Settlement.
It is endemic to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, and is the only endemic Philippine bovine. It is believed, even so, to have once also lived on the nearby island of Luzon.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
In addition, the small sizes of the species' subpopulations, already spread thin throughout their fragmented range (in 1986, about 51 individuals were found in a 20-km2 area), make contact with any more than a solitary individual a rarity. Unlike the closely related water buffalo, B. Mindorensis is a solitary creature.
In crisis
The Tamaraw was originally found throughout Mindoro, from the coast to over 2000 metres above sea level in the mountains, but because of hunting and habitat loss, it is now restricted to a few remote grassy plains and is a critically endangered species. Currently, it is classified as a critically endangered species and has been so since 2000 by the IUCN on its IUCN Red List of endangered species. Enough data was gathered on the Tamaraw population by 1986, and the IUCN conservation monitoring center declared the species endangered.
Throughout succeeding surveys conducted in 1988, 1990, 1994 and 1996, the species remained listed on the Red List as endangered. Criterion B1 indicated that the species' range was less than 500 km2, and is known to exist in less than five independent locations.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Tamaraw is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Tamaraw, Wikidata item Q622878. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
