Social Behavior
African forest buffalo have relatively small herds compared to the well-studied Cape buffalo. Cape buffalo can have herds of over one thousand members; however, forest buffalo will stay in much smaller groups—as small as three and rarely over thirty. If forest buffalo are in a large group, they will spend more time grazing since there is less need to devote time to alert behavior.
A herd of forest buffalo typically consists of one or occasionally two bulls, and a harem of female cows, juveniles, and calves. Unlike the Cape buffalo, forest buffalo bulls remain with the herd continually, year round. Whereas, Cape buffalo bulls stay in bachelor herds until the wet season when young bulls join the females, mate, help protect the young calves, and then leave. Animals usually remain in the same herd for their entire lives. Herd-switching has been observed in the female cows; however, this is not a usual occurrence and instead is an exception to the rule. Herds can split into two groups for a short period of time before merging back together.
Forest buffalo are relatively unaffected by seasonal cycles. However, in the wet season, herds will be more spread out in the forest,. and these animals tend to use resting places based on sand during the wet season but use dirt and leaves during the dry season. Moreover in open habitats such as clearings, the group was more aggregated when resting and was more rounded in shape compared to group properties noted in forest during the wet season.
Read more about this topic: African Forest Buffalo
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