Buffalo - Growing Old - by Grant Marcus

This is a guest post by Grant Marcus. You can view the original post as well as photos by Grant Marcus on his website, www.grantmarcus.com 

GROWING OLD

This is the last post before the weekend.Buffalo are herd animals and rely on one another for protection. The group dynamics work like this : There are one dominant male with his sub-ordinant males beneath him and they are the protectors in the herd. When buffalo move around  especially towards water the females will be in the middle with their young in close proximity of them. The reason the males are on the outsides of the herd is to serve as protectors.

The bulls can not stay with the herd forever. Buffalo move around everyday and when the bulls get old they struggle to keep up with the herd and they fall behind eventually . These old bulls tend to hang around waterholes and riverines. We call the old bulls Daga (Like Gaga but with a D) boys, daga means concrete or cement. Buffalo suffer from the same condition as men when they grow older, hair loss ! So to help with skin protection they roll around in the mud with  a thick crust of dry mud on their bodies as result, therefore the name daga boy. These old boys form bachelor groups anything from 3-9 animals in one group. When they get older there senses deteriorate as well and with that their fuse grow shorter and they are a lot more grumpier then they were when they were young.

When you look these guys in the eyes there facial expression tells you that he is broke, lost his wife, his an alchoholic and that you owe him money. Very scary to bump into these guys on  a walking safari.

The next time when you see a daga boy you will understand why they look like they do. They are the animal for me that has the most characteristic features of all the pensioner animals out there.

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