View source for Water buffalo

{{Taxobox
| name = Domestic Asian Water buffalo
| image = Wasserbüffel (25787818312).jpg
| image_caption =
| regnum = [[Animal]]ia
| phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]]
| classis = [[Mammal]]ia
| ordo = [[even-toed ungulate|Artiodactyla]]
| familia = [[Bovid]]ae
| subfamilia = [[Bovinae]]
| tribus = Bovini
| genus = ''Bubalus''
| species = '''''B. bubalis'''''
| binomial = ''Bubalus bubalis''
| binomial_authority = ([[Linnaeus]], [[1758]])
}}
'''Water buffaloes''' are a kind of [[bovine]]. There are '''Wild Asian Water Buffaloes''' and '''domestic buffaloes''' or '''domestic [[Asia|Asian]] water buffalo'''. They are bred in [[Asia]], [[South America]] and in [[Southern Europe]]. They were bred from the Wild Asian Water Buffalo, which is now an [[endangered species]].

Today, these buffaloes are used for their [[milk]], which has more [[fat]] than that of [[cow]]s. The milk is processed to make [[Mozzarella]], and [[curd]]. [[Feral]] populations are sometimes used to manage uncontrolled growth of [[vegetation]] around [[wetland]]s. They will simply graze it off. This keeps such bodies of water usable by [[bird]]s and other wildlife.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/3483395.stm Buffalo improve wildlife habitat - The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales use the formidable beasts to help in conservation work at the 264-acre Teifi Marshes reserve; BBC, 15 February, 2004]
</ref><ref>[http://www.ramsar.org/forum/forum_buffalos.htm "Buffalos and wetlands" -- grazing in wetland management: A discussion from the Ramsar Forum over late March 1998]</ref>

Females normally give birth to calves every other year. Young bulls  usually stay with herds of mothers, which have about 30 buffalo, for three years after birth.<ref name=national>{{Cite web
 |url= http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/water-buffalo/
 |title=Water Buffalo, Water Buffalo Pictures, Water Buffalo Facts - National Geographic
 |work=animals.nationalgeographic.com
 |date=12 March 2010
 |accessdate=1 April 2010
}}</ref> They then go on to form small all-male herds.<ref name=national/>

Water buffalo have been kept by humans for more than 5,000 years.<ref name=national/> They have helped humans with their meat, horns, hides, milk, butterfat, and power, plowing and transporting people and crops.<ref name=national/>

Wild water buffalo are [[endangered species|endangered]].<ref name=national/> They live only in a small number of [[wikt:protect|protected]] areas in countries like [[India]], [[Nepal]], [[Bhutan]], and [[Thailand]].<ref name=national/>

== References ==
{{reflist}}


{{biology-stub}}

[[Category:Bovines]]
[[Category:Mammals of Asia]]