[quote]g’em wrote:
BigRagoo wrote:
NAUn wrote:
First saw this on ABC Evening News then checked out the real video. Pretty coincidental too, considering about a week and a half, two weeks, before I was at Busch Gardens in Tampa FL and saw some Cape Buffalo. They are big as hell, but no where near the size of a rhino… now a rhino vs. lion battle would be something worth seeing.
You are correct that the buffalo aren’t as big as rhinos, which can weigh a couple tons. However what makes the buffalo a bit more dangerous is that it has much better eye sight than a rhino. You have to be pretty close for a rhino to see you good enough to charge, whereas a buffalo can see quite well yards away and will charge if threatened.
It’s a pretty close call as to which are more dangerous between buffalo and rhino. Both animals have terrible eyesight, but rhinos have their eyes at the side of their head, so their binocular vision is particularly limited. Buffalo also have terrible hearing, but a remarkably strong sense of smell, whereas rhinos have both a great sense of smell and hearing - you can see their ears twitching around like sonar dishes.
Both animals have a maximum running speed of around 35 miles per hour and could easily outrun a lion, but are slow to accelerate and that’s one of the reasons a buffalo can become prey for lions at all.
Size-wise an average male buffalo will be around 1800lb, but bigger, older males can get up to 2000lb. Their horns, which have a bony core covered by a keratin layer (the same stuff that makes up our hair), can span up to a metre. They are inquisitive and aggressive by nature, and alongside hippos and crocodiles are responsible for the most human deaths by wild animals in Africa, particularly among game hunters. Stories are told about wounded animals coming to stalk their hunters!
There’s five species of rhino in the world, but for arguments’ sake if you limit it to the African species that would live side-by-side with the buffalo, there’s two to choose from: the white rhino and the black rhino. The white rhino is a more sociable, placid species, but the bigger of the two, a male easily reaching about 6000lb in weight. It has two horns, both made of dense keratin strengthened by calcium deposits (no bone) with the bigger one around 150cm big. The black rhino is a solitary animal, typically around 2500lb, the larger of its two horns around 40-50cm, but highly aggressive and will treat virtually anything as a threat - it’s not uncommon to see them attacking tree stumps. But white rhinos share this aggressive streak too if they or their young appear to be threatened by anything.
As far as how they use their weaponry - a buffalo’s horn is generally only used for show and for inter-species dominance displays, it’s hard for them to manipulate them easily to be used for defense whereas the rhino horn is routinely used for digging and fighting and could easily do huge damage to a lion.
But to cut a long story short… my money would be on the rhino over a buffalo every time.
Sorry for the nerdling input - I’m a zoologist, random animal facts is my job =)
[/quote]
Damn, G’em dropping some knowledge. Interesting stuff, thanks