Savanna Buffalo / Antwerp Zoo May 1991

This female was the only Central African, Savanna or Sudan Buffalo (Syncerus caffer brachyceros) I have ever seen in any Zoo and it might have been the only one kept in a European zoo in recent history. This subspecies is not to be confused with the smaller forest buffalo.

Marvelous creature and great shot! It has an exact mix of characteristics between the Cape and Forest Buffalos it seems. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see more of them?

Beautiful animal, I've never heard of them before! Looks like a cross between a Cape Buffalo and a wildebeest

Wow thanks for posting this picture, Savannah buffaloes are a very interesting subspecies, they are on my bucket list

There are 5 recognized subspecies of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), those subspecies are the

Nile buffalo (Syncerus caffer aequinoctialis)

West african/Lake chad buffalo (Syncerus caffer brachyceros)

Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer)

Virunga buffalo (Syncerus caffer matthewsi)

and

Congo forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus)

According to the Volume 2 of the Handbook to Mammals of the World and Ungulate Taxonomy by Colin Groves and Peter Grubb, all of the listed taxa except for Syncerus caffer aequinoctialis are considered their own distinct species, however brachyceros, caffer, nanus, and matthewsi are not the only Syncerus sp. known to science, there are 2 prehistoric species, those being Syncerus acoelotus and Syncerus antiquus, both of those species lived from the late Pliocene to the early Pleistocene

Going back to the main topic of this thread, the West african/Lake chad buffalo (Syncerus caffer brachyceros). Besides Antwerp Zoo, they were kept in 7 other European collections, those being Berlin Zoo, Hamburg Zoo (Before Hagenbeck), Hanover Zoo, Vienna Zoo, Prague Zoo, Paris Vincennes Zoo, and London Zoo.

Regarding North American collections, all I am aware of is that in the 1980s Dr. Heinz Heck Jr. the former general curator of the Catskill Game Farm thought that the Congo forest buffalo (Syncerus nanus) there had brachyceros genes, but other than that I dont know of any North American zoos keeping this species

Does anybody know if any Lake chad buffalo (Syncerus brachyceros) are or have been held in zoos in their home range ?

I do remember this specimen. At that time Antwerp had 3 forms of African buffalo's at the same time :
Cape buffalo
West-african buffalo and
Congo forest buffalo !

vogelcommando said:

I do remember this specimen. At that time Antwerp had 3 forms of African buffalo's at the same time :
Cape buffalo
West-african buffalo and
Congo forest buffalo !

Click to expand...

Wow! 3 species of African buffalo (Syncerus sp.) in one place in one day, very interesting! nowdays even 1 species is hard to come by