Who has experience with the “other buffalo” in Africa?

[MLindsay]

Dogcat1 is absolutely correct about forest buffalo. I shot 1 in 61 days in the forest. Put dogs on them many times but they never stood and fought the dogs. The one I shot, we were tracking bongo and entered an area with waist high lush vegetation and up stood 5 or 6 buffalo all around us. The pygmies released the dogs off the leash and Geoffroy and I started shooting, we got 2 but it was CRAZY for about 10 minutes!

 

[grand veneur]

Dogcat1 is absolutely correct about forest buffalo. I shot 1 in 61 days in the forest. Put dogs on them many times but they never stood and fought the dogs. The one I shot, we were tracking bongo and entered an area with waist high lush vegetation and up stood 5 or 6 buffalo all around us. The pygmies released the dogs off the leash and Geoffroy and I started shooting, we got 2 but it was CRAZY for about 10 minutes!

That is the problem with hunting Dwarf buffalo, and that is what most of the French outfitters, who organize Bongo hunts in the rain forest of Cameroon and Congo, have told me. There is a certain element of chance involved in bagging a forest buffalo, which is not exactly ideal if that is the game that you only want to hunt.

The best area for forest buffalo hunting is one where the rainforest borders wide open grasslands. Such areas exists in southwestern Congo, south of Gabon, but hunting opportunities for non-resident foreigners are very limited there. However, one keep me informed about a possible opportunity.

 

[PARA45]

Where is @Happy Myles?

 

[grand veneur]

What is the difference between Nile Buffalo and Cape Buffalo?
I was under impression they are the same?

That's right, because you have to look very closely to see a clear difference. Perhaps the horns are slightly different, the cape is not too big, but very minimally.

 

[Andrew62]

Western Savannah buffalo in Cameroon, Nile buffalo in Uganda.

 

[Green Chile]

That's right, because you have to look very closely to see a clear difference. Perhaps the horns are slightly different, the cape is not too big, but very minimally.

It's an interesting subject and not very clear. Here are 2 examples from Flack's book of buff in Nile areas that look like Cape buff instead of Nile. I highly recommend Flack's book on the subject.

 

[grand veneur]

The classification of the buffalo species in Africa needs to be viewed with some critic. There is only one wild African buffalo species, which is divided into subspecies, including all the hybrids that can occur in areas where these subspecies meet. Many classifications were made by hunters in the past and lack a scientific basis.

When you consider all the hybrids, it gets even more complicated. There must have been many more of these hybrids in the past because the areas were much more open than they are nowadays, allowing contact between subspecies that now rarely encounter each other. This also explains what is meant by Nile buffalo, where sometimes the term refers to buffalo that look more like West African buffalo than Cape buffalo.

 

[Sarg]

Hello, here is the map on the subspecies of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) I created for my upcoming book (in French) . I consulted the national parks photos in each country to determine the boundary between brachyceros (West African buffalo) and aequinoctialis (Central African and Nile buffalo).

@Olivier I think your boundary is off a bit on the Forest Buffalo in West Africa, I hunted a little & made contact with Forest Buffalo in Guinea Bissau last year .

 

[DieJager]

That is the problem with hunting Dwarf buffalo, and that is what most of the French outfitters, who organize Bongo hunts in the rain forest of Cameroon and Congo, have told me. There is a certain element of chance involved in bagging a forest buffalo, which is not exactly ideal if that is the game that you only want to hunt.

The best area for forest buffalo hunting is one where the rainforest borders wide open grasslands. Such areas exists in southwestern Congo, south of Gabon, but hunting opportunities for non-resident foreigners are very limited there. However, one keep me informed about a possible opportunity.

I saw Gabon offering dedicated dwarf buffalo hunts but they run near 50k iirc

 

[Tanks]

Yeah, Nile buffalo at Uganda is on my list for the future.

 

[Green Chile]

Uganda is intriguing due to the vast numbers of bulls that can be viewed in the open. However, that means they aren't tracking hunts and that's part of what I love about it. I will be in Moz next year for leopard but might take a buff to see a different landscape. The savannah buff sub-species look noticeably different and are in countries I haven't seen yet. They are fascinating to me.

 

[grand veneur]

I saw Gabon offering dedicated dwarf buffalo hunts but they run near 50k iirc

I don't know who are these outfitters in Gabon or Congo. Anything that is not in a catalogue of a reputable French outfitter should be treated with caution. None of these countries are comparable to the ones most of us know from Southern Africa.

 

[Andrew62]

Uganda is intriguing due to the vast numbers of bulls that can be viewed in the open. However, that means they aren't tracking hunts and that's part of what I love about it. I will be in Moz next year for leopard but might take a buff to see a different landscape. The savannah buff sub-species look noticeably different and are in countries I haven't seen yet. They are fascinating to me.

Hunting buffalo in the Karamoja area of Uganda had zero tracking of buffalo to it, rather you rode around on a truck, saw a single buffalo sometimes, smaller herds, then some huge herds of buffalo, one group was probably 1000 buffaloes. Once you found something worth pursuing, you got off the cruiser then followed up and took the shot. Nothing wrong with that sort of hunting, it's just how it happens up there in that part of the country. We had the opportunity to take 2 buffalo on this hunt.

The outfitter I hunted with in the northern part of Uganda had limited numbers of antelope to hunt.

Western savannah buffalo hunting in Cameroon was a total walk and stalk for me. We noticed fresh dung in the road, took up the tracks, 30 minutes later I had my buffalo.

 

[grand veneur]

How these many subspecies of buffalo are hunted certainly varies greatly from country to country. The most strenuous buffalo hunts I have ever done were in Burkina Faso, where we spent hours on foot every day, often midday times, by temperatures much higher than in southern Africa.

 

[channelkat]

Following. Dwarf buffalo and a Goliath Tigerfish is my dream trip.

 

[375Fox]

That is the problem with hunting Dwarf buffalo, and that is what most of the French outfitters, who organize Bongo hunts in the rain forest of Cameroon and Congo, have told me. There is a certain element of chance involved in bagging a forest buffalo, which is not exactly ideal if that is the game that you only want to hunt.

The best area for forest buffalo hunting is one where the rainforest borders wide open grasslands. Such areas exists in southwestern Congo, south of Gabon, but hunting opportunities for non-resident foreigners are very limited there. However, one keep me informed about a possible opportunity.

Congo Forrest Safaris was selling that hunt for Congo Brazzaville as described in my first post. It looked like a very interesting opportunity.

 

[steve white]

I’m never going to be a collector, but I do focus on going to new areas. The only one I’ve taken is a Savanna buffalo in Cameroon. I hope I’ll take a Nile buffalo one day in Uganda but it’s not a priority. I was speaking with Congo Forest safaris in Atlanta. They have a very unique area to hunt dwarf forest buffalo. I was surprised to seeing rolling hills and burnt savanna on dry ground. Looked like a really unique area.

From Cameroon
View attachment 746689View attachment 746688View attachment 746687

Wicked!

 

[bwanamrm]

All three of these buff are from Uganda... the first one from Aswa Lolim across from Murchison Falls National Park in 2017 and the second from Karamoja in 2020. Both are considered "Nile" because of the drop of the horn doesn't extend below the eye.

The third buff is from Karamoja in 2020 as well and is considered a "Cape" because of the drop. Go figure. All were hunted with UWS. The buff were mixed but sometimes in the same herd and differed not only in horn configuration but also color with some Karamoja bulls having a reddish to orange coloration on the body. I agree that the different subspecies interbreed and it leads to some interesting specimen if one is so inclined to chase them.

Here are the two skulls when they arrived in Houston.

 

[bwanamrm]

Here are pix of a West African Savanna buff I shot in Burkina in 2016 and the buff I shot in Cameroon a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the buff I shot in Benin in 2008 handy... that was before Iphones were ubiquitous and used as cameras, but they are similar. I would say the only difference were the Benin and Burkina bulls were slightly larger... not by much, maybe 10%.

 

[bwanamrm]

And then the good old Southern Cape buffalo... syncerus caffer!