#bubalus

Green pond frogs (Euphlyctis hexadactylus) perch on an Asiatic water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) in Kumana National Park, Sri Lanka

Water Buffalo Bubalus bubalis

A domestic bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) is most probably the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo. Water buffaloes are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle.

i have too many to list here rn but off the top of my head, recently ive been thinking a lot about how much i love north african/saharan prehistoric rock art! i actually didn’t learn about this in college, i researched it myself, cuz surprise surprise the art history field is so western-focused that they only ever teach you about european rock art in survey courses and to learn about other cultures in depth often u have to take specific courses cuz whats considered the core/basic curriculum is european & american art (it sucks majorly). i’m only 1 semester into freshman year so i havent gotten to take many specified courses

but anyways i love all prehistoric art so so much but i’m especially awed by the saharan style, especially in its earliest form the ‘bubalus’ period aka the ‘large wild animal’ period, created by hunter-gatherer peoples ca 10,000-7,000 BCE. just look at it

from Tin Taghirt, Algeria

dabous giraffes from Nigeria

i find the geometric style and deep carving into the rocks so so beautiful. this is just one small fragment of one of my favorite topics in art history (sculpture & prehistoric art)

Asiatic buffalo (Bubalus arnee)

Island Weirdness #33 — Big Pigs & Tiny Buffalo

Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the islands of the Philippines were formed by volcanic activity at the junction between several tectonic plates. Most of the 7461 islands that make up the archipelago have never been connected to any other landmass, leading to a huge number of unique endemic species evolving from whatever managed to arrive via ocean rafting events.

Celebochoerus cagayanensis was a giant species of pig, known from the island of Luzon. Living around 800,000 years ago in the mid-Pleistocene, it had enormous tusks and stood around 1m tall at the shoulder (3'3") — similar in size to the very largest modern pigs, the African giant forest hogs.

The giant forest hogs are also some of its closest living relatives, along with the river pigs, and back in the Miocene and Pliocene similar pigs were present in Asia. Celebochoerus' ancestors probably arrived in the Philippines from Taiwan, and eventually spread onwards to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to the south, where another species of Celebochoerus existed.

In contrast to the huge pigs of Luzon, the Cebu tamaraw (Bubalus cebuensis) was a particularly tiny species of wild cattle related to modern water buffalo. Just 75cm at the shoulder (2'6"), it was an example of insular dwarfism even smaller than the modern tamaraw which still survives on the island of Mindoro.

Wild water buffalo

A commission from late last year, third in this series(? I guess?), after the Grey crowned crane and the African lion. All three were for the same person on deviantart.

A wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) cooling off in a pond in Sri Lanka