Water Buffalo Photos,News,kinds of Buffalos

 Water buffalo

Water buffaloes are especially suitable for tilling nice fields, and their milk is richer inport fat and ein than that of the dairy Cow. The large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and there are smaller feral herds in New Guinea, Tunisia and northeastern Argentina.There are at least 130 million domestic water buffalo, and more human beings depend on them than on any other domestic animal.

Domestication and breeding

Water buffaloes were domesticated in India about 5000 years ago, and in China about 4000 years ago. Two types are recognized, based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and further west to the Balkans and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The present day river buffalo is the result of complex domestication processes involving more than one maternal lineage and a significant maternal gene flow from wild populations after the initial domestication events. There are 22 breeds of the river type water buffalo known including Murrah,Nili-Ravi, Surti, Jafarabadi, Anatolian, Mediterranean and Egyptian buffalo.China has a huge variety of buffalo genetic resources, comprising 16 local swamp buffalo breeds in various regions.

In Asia

 

More than 95.8% of the world population of water buffaloes can be found in Asia including both river and swamp types. The water buffalo population in India numbered over 97.9 million head in 2003 representing 56.5 % of the world population. They are primarily of the river type with 10 well-defined breeds comprising Badhawari, Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Jafarabadi, Marathwada, Mehsana, Nagpuri, Pandharpuri, Toda and Surti. Swamp buffaloes occur only in small areas in the north-eastern part and are not distinguished into breeds

  

In Australia

Between 1824 and 1849, water buffalos were introduced into the Northern Territory fromTimor, Kisar and probably other islands in the Indonesian archipelago. In 1886, a few milking types were brought from India to Darwin. They have been the main grazing animals on the sub-coastal plains and river basins between Darwin and Arnhem Landsince the 1880s. In the early 1960s, an estimated population of 150,000 to 200,000 buffalos were living in the plains and nearby areas

In South America

Water buffalo were introduced into the Amazon River basin in 1895. They are now extensively used there for meat and dairy production. In 2005, the buffalo herd in the Brazilian Amazon stood at approximately 1.6 million head, of which approximately 460,000 were located in the lower Amazon floodplain. Breeds used include Mediterranean from Italy, Murrah and Jafarabadi from India, and Carabao from the Philippines