Adventures Down Under

These buffalo are indigenous to southeast Asia; 80 animals were introduced to Australia around 1825. They now number in the tens of thousands, and without any natural predators and living in a natural salad bowl, life is pretty good for these huge bovines. The strategy was to drive along vague tracks through the bush, hoping to see bulls as they headed to shade to rest during the heat of the day. I noticed rather quickly that these buffalo are a tad different than the Cape buffalo I`d spent a lot of time studying; they were quite tolerant for the most part, even curious, and we could sometime get pretty close for a better look. But as with most trophy animals, the really big ones made themselves scarce. The rut was commencing, and most cow groups had a bull in attendance. The eucalyptus forest was interspersed with huge floodplains full of water birds and sprinkled with buffalo...it was an idyllic setting for wildlife viewing.