Endangered
Wild water buffalo
Bubalus arnee
The wild water buffalo is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
Appearance
The wild water buffalo has an ash-gray to black skin.
It is among the heaviest living wild bovid species, and is slightly smaller than gaur.
Its head-to-body-length is 240 to 300 cm (94 to 118 in) with a 60 to 100 cm (24 to 39 in) long tail and a shoulder height of 150 to 190 cm (59 to 75 in).
It was first described in 1792.
Range and habitat
The wild water buffalo occurs in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and Cambodia, with an unconfirmed population in Myanmar. It inhabits wet grasslands, swamps, flood plains and densely vegetated river valleys. In and around Bhutan's Royal Manas National Park, a small number of wild water buffaloes occur.
In 2023, four wild buffalos were translocated to Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve to reverse its declining population in the state.
Habitat labels include grassland and desert.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
The wild water buffalo is both diurnal and nocturnal. Adult males form bachelor groups of up to 10 individuals, with older males often being solitary, and spend the dry season apart from the female clans.
Even so, some populations breed year round. Dominant males mate with the females of a clan who subsequently drive them off.
In crisis
It has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1986, as the global population totals less than 4,000 mature individuals. A population reduction by at least 50% over the last three generations seems likely given the severity of the threats, especially hybridization. This population trend is projected to continue into the future. The most important threats are: interbreeding with feral and domestic water buffaloes in and around protected areas. Wild water buffalo is included in CITES Appendix III, and is legally protected in Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Thailand.
In 2017, 15 wild water buffaloes were reintroduced into Chitwan National Park in Nepal to establish a second viable sub-population in the country.
Wild water buffalo is 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 Wild water buffalo, Wikidata item Q1914208. 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.
