Unusual Animals:
WATER BUFFALO It’s time to increase your knowledge on the water buffalo, a cloven-hoofed mammal native to Asia. • What exactly does cloven-hoofed mean? These animals have a hoof that is split into two toes. Many such animals are also ruminants, meaning they “chew their cud” in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, regurgitating their food and chewing it again. In the Jewish religion, an animal that is both a ruminant and clove-hoofed is considered kosher and may be eaten. However, if an animal has only one of these characteristics, Jews are forbidden to eat it, as it is considered unclean.
• These herbivorous buffalo have been domesticated for close to 3,000 years and are the main dairy animal in many countries, with milk that is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle. They’re also valued for their meat and leather. With about 150 million domestic water buffalo in the world, more human beings depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are relied upon for plowing and for transportation and are known as the “living tractor of the East.” About 96% of the world’s population of water buffalo can be found in Asia. • There are a very small amount of wild water buffalo, an endangered species that lives in protected areas and wildlife reserves across Asia.
• The water buffalo is a member of the Bovidae biological family, which includes bison, antelope, gazelles, sheep, goats, oxen, and domestic cattle. Members of this family are referred to as bovids.
• Some countries hold annual water buffalo racing festivals, running the animals in long slushy ditches while pulling drivers on wooden planks.
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• “The Water Buffalo Song” is sung by Larry the Cucumber in Veggie Tales’ “Silly Songs,” who croons “Everybody’s got a water buffalo. Yours is fast, but mine is slow. Oh, where’d we get them? I don’t know, but everybody’s got a water buffalo.”
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• The horns of the buffalo are often made into jewelry and musical instruments. The ney and kaval are hollow flutes made from these horns with up to seven finger holes, used in Middle Eastern music.
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• These bovids stand about 5 to 6.2 feet tall at the shoulder and have huge backward spiral-curving, crescent-shaped horns with a span of nearly 5 feet. They live to about age 25 in captivity.
• Fans of the 1960s cartoon “The Flintstones” may remember that Fred Flintstone and his pal Barney Rubble were dedicated members of the Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo Lodge No. 26, a secret society intended to be a spoof of the Freemasons, Elks Club, and Moose Lodge. Fred and Barney regularly assembled at the lodge hall to listen to their “Mystic Imperial Poobah,” or “Grand Poobah,” as he was sometimes called. The Poobah’s mission was to “draw back the veil to reveal the ancient mysteries of Water Buffalo-ary.”
King CROSSWORD
• There are two types of water buffalo – river buffalo who prefer deep water, and swamp buffalo who like to wallow in mudholes. Although similar in appearance, their genetic makeup is different, with the swamp buffalo having 48 chromosomes, and the river buffalo, 50.