AHC: Domesticated African Buffalo

[Aloha]

The Asian water buffalo (or simply water buffalo) (Bubalus bubalis) is a large domesticated bovid of Asian origin, with its ancestor possibly being the wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee).

The yak has also been domesticated.

The American bison (Bison bison) and muskox (Ovibos moschatus) have also accepted domestication to a degree.

But it seems that the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is unlike the bison, muskox or water buffalo in this regard in that it has never been domesticated, the reasoning being due to its very aggressive nature.

What would be the best way for there to at least be a form of domesticated African buffalo? Perhaps through the African forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus), the smallest subspecies (which I believe is less aggressive than Syncerus caffer caffer, the Cape buffalo)?

How would it affect African agriculture? Would it be normally a source of food, would it be used primarily as a draught animal?

 

[Escape Zeppelin]

The African forest buffalo would probably be the much better option. It likes small mixed gender herds, doesn't migrate or travel much from it's range, and seems to live a lifestyle fairly similar to the water buffalo or the auroch. On the other hand pretty much everything about the African buffalo's lifestyle is opposed to convenient domestication. Herds are massive and gender segregated for much of the year. The forest buffalo is also rather timid, especially when compared to the African buffalo's renowned ferocity.

I think a hardy, disease resistant draft animal would go over well since cattle are common in in sub-Saharan Africa (and have been for a long time if memory serves)

 

[ShortsBelfast]

What kind of buffalo are domesticated in Sicily? That is what mozzarella cheese comes from.

 

[Bobbbcat2]

What kind of buffalo are domesticated in Sicily? That is what mozzarella cheese comes from.

Water buffalo

 

[ShortsBelfast]

Water buffalo

Thanks

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

Good points on the size of herds and the genders. I thought, however, that even Cape buffalo herds are often mixed-gender? I think water buffaloes are the ones with gender-segregated herds, but it seems that they do have relatively small herds. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

To be quite honest, it does surprise me that the African forest buffalo specifically hasn't been domesticated. It's small, docile, and non-migratory. I think that it's at least big enough to be used as an effective draught animal, but I wonder how rich in protein and fat their milk would be compared to water buffalo (one thing that makes water buffalo a popular domesticated animal is the fact that its milk is richer in protein and milk than dairy cattle).

There's no need to domesticate the cape buffalo; Africans already had access to domesticated cattle (the zebu comes to mind, and the nguni, and n'dama), so any purpose served by a domesticated buffalo is already being served by cattle. The Bantu brought cattle from West Africa, which in turn came from North Africa/Europe much longer ago.

 

[twovultures]

What would be the best way for there to at least be a form of domesticated African buffalo? Perhaps through the African forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus), the smallest subspecies (which I believe is less aggressive than Syncerus caffer caffer, the Cape buffalo)?

How would it affect African agriculture? Would it be normally a source of food, would it be used primarily as a draught animal?

The best way I an think of off the top of my head is have some kind of outbreak of a rinderpest-like disease in prehistoric Cameroon just as the proto-Bantu are gearing up for their migration. They try to replace their decimated herds by capturing and taming wild animals as an emergency food source, and through this process domesticate the forest buffalo. However, IOTL they seem to have lost their cattle migrating across the Congo, and did not domesticate forest buffalo there.

As per cattle IOTL, they would be used mostly for food rather than farmwork as most sub-Saharan African agriculture is done by hoeing rather than plowing traditionally. However, if they spread throughout West Africa, their tolerance for water could see them adopted as specialized draught animals in rice paddies just as the water buffalo was in Asia

 

[DarkKayder]

If you want a domesticated African Buffalo you need two things:
The need for it, likely from a society that lacks a similar domestic. At the same time, it must be a society whos members already have extensive experience with domestication. The archeological evidence about the domestication of the auroux, the progenitor of cattle, shows that the process was horribly difficult, likely attempted unseccussfully multiple times, and only achieved by settled, well organized societies that knew what they we're doing very well.

The process seems to require prioritising intensive selection over produce for a long time, specially focusing on breeding the animals to be not just more docile, but progresively smaller as well, so that they stop breaking the enclosure. It was only later breeding for size, once the animals where fully domesticated (process that seems to take at least a few centuries).

It may seem impossibly hard, but once they mastered it, the people of the Indian Subcontinent seem to have taken to do it just for kicks: after having domesticated the auroux (into zebu, or Asian cattle), they did it again with the Buffalo, and then the Gaur. Indeed, anywhere where an organized settled society with domestication experience was in both need and proximity of a form of wild cattle, it seems to have always been domesticated in the end (the Jack, the second domestication event of the water buffalo in china, and that South East Asian bovine I can't remember).

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

and that South East Asian bovine I can't remember).

I think you're talking about the banteng, yes?

 

[wtw]

Cape are not possible, they have such a defensive response due to being out on the savannah with lions an hyenas. Getting close is extremely difficult. They are called black death by hunters for a reason. As mentioned earlier forest buffalo are much more doable.

 

[JennyB]

Are there any indigenous domesticated sub-Saharan animals? Theory - they all got used to humans long before humans got smart enough.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

Are there any indigenous domesticated sub-Saharan animals? Theory - they all got used to humans long before humans got smart enough.

The Somali wild ass counts as sub-Saharan, which is one of the nominate species of the domestic donkey (the other being the Nubian wild ass, which I guess isn't sub-Saharan). Also, the helmeted guinea fowl has been domesticated.

 

[DaveB]

Cape are not possible, they have such a defensive response due to being out on the savannah with lions an hyenas. Getting close is extremely difficult. They are called black death by hunters for a reason. As mentioned earlier forest buffalo are much more doable.

Are there any indigenous domesticated sub-Saharan animals? Theory - they all got used to humans long before humans got smart enough.

The ancestors of Cape Buffalo coexisted with Homo species as well as Lions and Hyenas as predators for over a million years. It’s hardly surprising that they’re aggressive towards humans.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

It may seem impossibly hard, but once they mastered it, the people of the Indian Subcontinent seem to have taken to do it just for kicks: after having domesticated the auroux (into zebu, or Asian cattle), they did it again with the Buffalo, and then the Gaur. Indeed, anywhere where an organized settled society with domestication experience was in both need and proximity of a form of wild cattle, it seems to have always been domesticated in the end (the Jack, the second domestication event of the water buffalo in china, and that South East Asian bovine I can't remember).

Also the yak
See
https://www.nap.edu/read/19514/chapter/3#21
For mithans (domestic gaur), yak, banteng and crosses thereof

 

[Dave Howery]

the African buffalo shares with the bison and the wisent the honor of being one of the handful of wild bovines that were never domesticated... do they share any traits in particular that leads to this?

 

[wtw]

the African buffalo shares with the bison and the wisent the honor of being one of the handful of wild bovines that were never domesticated... do they share any traits in particular that leads to this?

They live where there are/were large amounts of highly successful group hunting animals. Wolves, lions and spotted hyenas will cause an animal specie to be extremely cautious and wary of anything remotely unknown to them. People are likely to be that unknown.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

the African buffalo shares with the bison and the wisent the honor of being one of the handful of wild bovines that were never domesticated... do they share any traits in particular that leads to this?

Conceptually, cape buffalo could be domesticated - I hold the opinion that literally any animal can be domesticated given enough time - because it would become a case of picking out the members of the herd that are already less aggressive and less temperamental and breeding them so those desired traits are expressed more and more, but if there's no real need for it - i.e. if it isn't worth the danger - then it simply won't happen.

 

[DarkKayder]

the African buffalo shares with the bison and the wisent the honor of being one of the handful of wild bovines that were never domesticated... do they share any traits in particular that leads to this?

There is really no reason to to believe they are any more fierce or distrustful than the auroux was, specially considering all of the references to them we have in historical record refer to them as "indomitable", "vicious", and the like, and the archeological remains near what we believe to be the original domestication event of the Bos Taurus.

All points towards a beast that was by no means tame, pretty damn huge for any possible standard, and a form of husbandry that ressembled more the keeping of red dear (allowing for selective breeding), than the level of handling we see in modern bovines. All of that, mind you, from a starting population of less than 80 animals.

Once again, that is only achievable by sacrifising output in favour of more selective breeding (most of it directed at shrinking the animal to make it more manageble, and of course, to docility) by a society with ample experience with domestication, and presumably, extensive lactose tolerance. Neither the Plains Bison nor the Cape Buffalo are near such societies.

 

[Dave Howery]

Once again, that is only achievable by sacrifising output in favour of more selective breeding (most of it directed at shrinking the animal to make it more manageble, and of course, to docility) by a society with ample experience with domestication, and presumably, extensive lactose tolerance. Neither the Plains Bison nor the Cape Buffalo are near such societies.

the wisent did though, right next to the aurochs. Which makes you wonder if the aurochs, in spite of it's size, was just easier somehow to domesticate than the wisent or bison (which are very closely related)…

 

[DarkKayder]

the wisent did though, right next to the aurochs. Which makes you wonder if the aurochs, in spite of it's size, was just easier somehow to domesticate than the wisent or bison (which are very closely related)…

European societies didn't need to domesticate the wisent, nor the auroux all over, as domesticated cattle spread from the near east and into Europe. I'm actually quite doubtful that early European societies (during periods of low urbanization, at least), would had been capeble of what we see in the Near Eastern domestication event. As it stands, Bisons have shown themselves to be perfectly capable of being handled, though achieving true domestication would requiere a few more centuries still.