What are you looking at?

A Sri Lankan wild buffalo is annoyed

I see you staring at me. You’re wondering ‘what happened to his horn’? Yeah I’m missing one. I had a bad run in with Dirty Harry and his friends Smith & Wesson. They run things around this part of the jungle now. Wild buffaloes are territorial, so fighting is just a way of life. I suppose I was grazing where I shouldn’t have been. But I wish I hadn’t lost the horn. It always helps to have two when a hungry leopard starts eyeing you. Oh I’ve given a few of them some nasty heave-ho’s in my time! They’re the only predator I have to worry about, because even the biggest croc won’t touch a fully grown buffalo like me.

Fun Facts

I used to be the guy that ran things around here, one tonne of pure muscle… even the actual wild buffaloes were scared of me. What? You didn’t know there were other types? Well you get the domesticated buffaloes that belong to people, then you get us feral buffaloes that are descended from the domesticated ones that escaped to the jungles and you get the original-lean-and-mean-viscious jungle buffaloes. I used to hold my own against them all, but now I’m old. I should have just kept my temper and chilled out in a muddy waterhole instead of messing with Harry and his gang. But old habits die hard right?

Story of the Photo

Wild buffaloes can be seen in the vicinity of the Mahoora Tented Safari Camp in Yala thanks to the abundant water holes in the area. This grizzled veteran, however, was photographed inside the Park by Dilum, whilst on a safari.