Cape buffalo compatibility

elefante

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
What animals have you seen Cape buffalo housed with? I know they're very aggressive, I'm curious if they do well with other species or are they usually housed in their own enclosures?
 
Antwerp Zoo houses them with 20+ species of African birds: spoonbill, trumpeter hornbill, cattle egret, white crested and violet turaco, helmeted guineafowl, violet-backed and golden-breasted starling, ringd-necked/speckled/laughing/African olive dove/pigeon, hooded vulture, hadada and glossy ibis, Abdim's stork, speckled mousebird, Von der Decken hornbill, lilac-breasted roller, white-faced and fulvous whistling duck, amongst others.
 
Boras's zoo, Sweden, famous savannah exhibit has cape buffalo together with African elephants, giraffe, zebra and antelope.
 
They’re occasionally mixed with the main savannah at Beekse Bergen, but I think that isn’t a thing anymore and that they are just kept separate.
 
Givskud Zoo currently houses them with white rhinos, sable antelopes, gemsboks, and black wildebeest.

Reserve Africaine de Sigean has forest buffaloes with blesboks and impalas, but I don't know if you were only asking about the caffer subspecies.
 
Knowsley Safari Park (UK) has/had them in a drive-through with Pere David's deer, unsure if they keep anything else with them though?

Also kept in the large field exhibit at SDWAP with lots of other species, I've seen photos in the gallery of one in very close proximity to a rhino but I suppose the size of that exhibit would help with controlling aggression.
 
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Boras's zoo, Sweden, famous savannah exhibit has cape buffalo together with African elephants, giraffe, zebra and antelope.
They all get along pretty well?

Givskud Zoo currently houses them with white rhinos, sable antelopes, gemsboks, and black wildebeest.
That sounds like an interesting mix.

Reserve Africaine de Sigean has forest buffaloes with blesboks and impalas, but I don't know if you were only asking about the caffer subspecies.
I wasn't referring to either subspecies in particular.

Knowsley Safari Park (UK) has/had them in a drive-through with Pere David's deer, unsure if they keep anything else with them though?

Also kept in the large field exhibit at SDWAP with lots of other species, I've seen photos in the gallery of one in very close proximity to a rhino but I suppose the size of that exhibit would help with controlling aggression.
Interesting choice of mixture at Knowsley. I had forgotten about SDWAP. There are quite a few species in that enclosure aren't there?
 
Knowsley Safari Park (UK) has/had them in a drive-through with Pere David's deer, unsure if they keep anything else with them though?

Also kept in the large field exhibit at SDWAP with lots of other species, I've seen photos in the gallery of one in very close proximity to a rhino but I suppose the size of that exhibit would help with controlling aggression.
It is a had unfortunately, Knowsley haven't had cape buffalo for a few years now.
 
I have seen cape buffalo with white rhino and diverse antílope in the zoologico nacional in Havana. Also cape buffalo and eland at Guadalajara zoo in México.
Hello.

I believe Havana comes in third place when it comes to the number of species mixed with Cape buffalo.

- Aepyceros melampus/Common impala;
- Alcelaphus buselaphus (caama)/ Red hartebeest;;
- Antidorcas marsupialis/Springbok;
- Bos taurus (africanus)/Sanga catlle;
- Ceratotherium simmum/Southern white rhino;
- Giraffa reticulata/Reticulated giraffe;
- Equus grevyi/Grevy's zebra;
- Equus quagga (boehmi)/Grant's zebra;
- Hippopotamus amphibius/Nile hippopotamus;
- Hippotragus equinus/Roan antelope;
- Loxodonta africana/African bush elephant;
- Oryx gazella/Gemsbok;
- Struthio camelus/Common ostrich;
- Syncerus caffer/Cape buffalo;
- Taurotragus oryx/Common eland;
- Tragelaphus strepsiceros/Greater kudu.

Source: https://zoolex.org/media/uploads/20...ippopotamuses-by-krisztian-svabik_GDToKph.pdf
 
I know I’ve seen Cape buffalo with blue wildebeest at Safari West in one of their paddocks. I THINK they both share the paddock with Burchill’s zebras too.
 
I know I’ve seen Cape buffalo with blue wildebeest at Safari West in one of their paddocks. I THINK they both share the paddock with Burchill’s zebras too.

Purebred Burchell's zebra don't exist in North America. In fact, there are no purebred populations of any of the various Plains zebra subspecies available.

They're all generics, a motley mix of Burchell's, Chapman's, and Grant's. Zoos usually just label their generic Plains zebra as whatever subspecies they most physically resemble.
 
Hello.

I believe Havana comes in third place when it comes to the number of species mixed with Cape buffalo.

- Aepyceros melampus/Common impala;
- Alcelaphus buselaphus (caama)/ Red hartebeest;;
- Antidorcas marsupialis/Springbok;
- Bos taurus (africanus)/Sanga catlle;
- Ceratotherium simmum/Southern white rhino;
- Giraffa reticulata/Reticulated giraffe;
- Equus grevyi/Grevy's zebra;
- Equus quagga (boehmi)/Grant's zebra;
- Hippopotamus amphibius/Nile hippopotamus;
- Hippotragus equinus/Roan antelope;
- Loxodonta africana/African bush elephant;
- Oryx gazella/Gemsbok;
- Struthio camelus/Common ostrich;
- Syncerus caffer/Cape buffalo;
- Taurotragus oryx/Common eland;
- Tragelaphus strepsiceros/Greater kudu.

Source: https://zoolex.org/media/uploads/20...ippopotamuses-by-krisztian-svabik_GDToKph.pdf
Hello.

It has come to my knowledge this mix has been occurring since the late 1980s, when the roster was quite different, but Cape buffalo were still included in it. In 1989, the species lineup was as follows.

1. (Struthio camelus) - Ostrich
2. (Leptoptilus crumeniferus) - Marabou stork*
3. (Balearica regulorum gibbericeps) - East African grey crowned crane*
4. (Loxodonta africana) - African bush elephant
7. (Equus grevyi) - Grevy's zebra
6. (Equus quagga boehmi) - Grant's zebra
7. (Ceratotherium simum) - Southern white rhinoceros
8. (Hippopotamus amphibius) - Nile hippopotamus
9. (Camelus dromedarius) - Dromedary camel
10. (Giraffa reticulata) - Reticulated giraffe
11. (Tragelaphus spekii) - Sitatunga
12. (Taurotragus oryx) - Common eland
13. (Bos taurus africanus) - Watusi cattle
14. (Syncerus caffer) - Cape buffalo
15. (Kobus defassa) - Defassa waterbuck
16. (Hippotragus equinus) - Roan antelope
17. (Oryx beisa) - East African oryx
18. (Oryx dammah) - Scimitar-horned oryx
19. (Oryx gazella) - Gemsbok
20. (Addax nasomaculatus) - Addax
21. (Connochaetes gnou) - Black wildebeest
22. (Connochaetes taurinus albojubatus) - Eastern white-bearded wildebeest
23. (Ammotragus lervia) - Barbary sheep

*The cranes and storks were removed from the exhibit following attacks by the Barbary sheep. Neither birds remained long enough in the exhibit to breed chicks.

A twenty-fourth species, the domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus), may also be counted, as keepers venture into the exhibit on horseback. This happens to this day.

Every animal but the the three oryx species produced offspring. The elephants and roan antelope also did not breed, but both only had (a) female(s) in the mix.

Source:
https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1748-1090.1990.tb03354.x
 
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