BUFFALO BEDLAM

In a quiet corner of Africa a dramatic and dusty spectacle unfolds with the arrival of megaherds of buffaloes

- SUE WATT

W’RE PARKED UP IN our Land Cruiser on the golden grasslands of Botswana’s Mababe Depression, surrounded by Cape buffaloes caked in mud.

“There must be 3,000 of them here,” our guide Jonah Seboko says quietly, scanning the scene with his binoculars. “Beautiful, just beautiful.”

That’s not a word I’d ever really associated with the notoriously grumpy, graceless buffaloes, known as ‘widow-makers’ or the ‘Black Death’ for their fearsomely aggressive and vengeful disposition. Along with elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards, Cape buffaloes belong to Africa’s Big Five, the special clique of animals so-called because historically, big-game hunters regarded them as the most dangerous to pursue. Today, the Big Five have become the most sought-after sightings for safari-goers.

Buffaloes, however, aren’t quite as appealing as the rest of the much-loved quintet. They’re not classed as ‘charismatic megafauna’, those endearing mammals that charm us into caring about them and their habitats. And unlike the other members of the Big Five coterie, they don’t even have their own ‘World... Day’ to celebrate them and raise awareness of their conservation. Yet they are vital eco-engineers and revered in African cultures as symbols of strength, resilience and unity (see p78).

Those qualities come to the fore in the savage interactions between Africa’s largest herds of buffaloes and formidable lion prides. Mababe’s plains set the stage for one of the continent's most intense natural dramas starring these two archenemies.