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Buffalo in Amboseli National Park, Kenya

 





Buffalo in Amboseli National Park, Kenya

 

In August, I sent out a Bing Image of Amboseli National Park and its link to Ernest Hemingway. Here is another photograph taken in Amboseli with a splendid view of Kilimanjaro and Cape buffalo in the foreground. Buffalos are usually listed among "The Big Five". An African buffalo is a dangerous animal, mean and unpredictable. A pride of lions will attack a lone buffalo but if a herd happens to be nearby, they will rush to the defence of their beleaguered comrade, Lions have great respect for the strength and power of these powerful beasts and their lethal horns that can gore and toss full-grown lion several feet away. More often than not, the pride decides that discretion is the better part of valour and retreats to a safe distance to lick its wounds and wait for safer prey.

 

An adult African buffalo is slightly smaller than his cousin, the American Bison. Both are about 11' long and about 2000 lbs. in weight. Bison are heavier at the shoulder and have a more massive skull but Cape buffalos are more aggressive. My most memorable encounter with a buffalo was in the Mara Game Reserve, Kenya, in the mid-sixties. My friends Felix, Victor and I were guests of Mr. Ole Tipis (brother of Mr. Justus Ole Tipis, Kenya's Defence Minister), the Chief Warden for the Reserve at the time. We had an early barbecue with a few bottles of Tusker (the preferred libation with steaks), and then made an early night of it. We were comfortably settled in the Warden's house whereas Mr. Tipis preferred to sleep in his tent as he felt cooped inside a house. He invited us to accompany him at seven in the morning next day as he wanted to investigate a report of a rogue buffalo that was making a nuisance of itself to tourist vehicles in its vicinity.

 

Dawn had already broken when we set off in Mr. Tipis's Land Rover with Mr. Tipis driving, Felix riding shotgun, and Victor and I bouncing merrily in the open back of the Land Rover. Within half an hour, Mr. Tipis had located the errant bull and began to circle it warily. It wasn't long before the buffalo decided that it had had enough of our presence and before we knew it the chase was on. Cape buffalos have stumpy legs but are capable of short bursts of over 60 m.p.h. As we bumped our way over the grassland, Mr. Tipis was more than equal to the task of keeping a safe distance from the 2,000 lb. battering ram charging behind us. I could feel the pounding of the hooves on the dry earth as I clung on to the frame of our Land Rover for dear life and looked at the red-eyed beast a spitting distance behind us. Within a few seconds (but what seemed like an eternity to me), the buffalo gave up the chase and we returned to the camp for a hearty breakfast. Victor admitted that he too was scared by the single-minded monster thundering behind us. 

 

Later that day, Mr. Tipis told us that he had gone and shot the buffalo as it was too much of a menace to tourists without the skills required to race and swerve on the bumpy terrain trying to outrun a buffalo hell-bent on pulverizing any intruder in its field of vision. Now take another look at the Bing image and remind yourself that you are not looking at a herd of cattle being rounded up for tomorrow's cattle auction at Perlich Bros... Each of those meanies could demolish your car in seconds for no reason at all and with no personal hard feelings about you.

 

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