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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