Dagga Boys… and girl?

Dagga Boy! An old, grumpy, male Cape Buffalo… Ready to drop their head, give one last charge, and crush anything with their boss (that big bone shield on their head formed by their horns) .

These old bulls get the name dagga from black mud that they roll around in to protect their balding hides from sunburn. They move slowly in old age and form bachelor groups that are separate from the rest of the herd. You’ll often see them hanging out near water where the soft grass is easy for them to chew with their worn down teeth. Slow. Worn teeth. Balding. No wonder their grumpy.

On our sunset drive in the Kruger National Park, just outside the gate, we ran into a bunch of Dagga Boys. They were near the road and being one of the Big 5, our driver/guide, Chester, stopped.

This is why you go on one the Park’s game drives or bush walks: he immediately saw something out of place. His experience and knowledge told him that something wasn’t right. There was a female with the Dagga Boys. He pointed her out, but said that he wasn’t sure why she was with them.

She is in the foreground in this picture:

He was saying that maybe she was old too, but even then, he had never seen that. Then she turned and walked off with the bulls, slowly moving into the bush. She was limping. On her back right leg was a pretty good sized wound and the limp made her too slow to keep up with the herd, but kept her at the pace of the dagga boys.

If it would’ve been just us in our vehicle, we may have missed the cow with these daggas. The larger group of the herd was up a few meters and on the other side of the road. We would’ve stopped for pictures on both groups and assumed that it was just buffalo crossing the road and ticked one off of the Big 5 sightings…

Take a holiday in the Kruger National Park, and when you do, book some of the Park’s activities. Listen to the guides, ask them questions… We have learned about and seen natural things that we wouldn’t have otherwise…

African Buffalo and the Italian

The African Buffalo. The Black Death. They’re known by hunters to take a lot of lead, disappear in the bush, only to turn back on their own tracks and wait for the hunter to come tracking them. Then, they spring their ambush and stomp the shit out of the hunters. Buffalo battle lions; I’ve seen footage of a herd taking out a lion pride’s cubs in what seemed like a revenge killing.

If any prey animal is a bad ass mother fucker, it’s them.

I was super excited to see my first Buffalo on our 2011 trip to the Kruger. It was a lone animal though, feeding on the side of the road and I didn’t get to see a huge heard until we left Olifants a few days into our trip. We left the camp eating Ouma’s Rusks and drinking some Freshpak thinking we would grab a proper breakfast at another camp.

But the Buffalo didn’t agree. Just past the gate we came up on a large herd crossing the road. Huge bodies just kept coming out of the trees and bush on the side of the rode. And more buffalo. Cows, calves, some bulls… And up close, when you’re sitting in a Kia Picanto? You get a good idea how massive they are.

As we were sitting there trying to decide what to do, an Italian tourist and his girlfriend pulled up next to me. He asked us if we thought he could drive through. Drive through, in a compact rental car? My wife politely told him that it’s the animals world and they’ll go where they please and it might be a good idea to wait.

He couldn’t. And so he drove past me to see if he could drive on. I quickly whipped the Picanto around so that I was facing back toward Oliphants camp. I didn’t want any part of the carnage if any ensued.

The Italian gently drove forward. The Buffalo didn’t care. Or move. He inched forward a little more. A big bull stopped and looked down at the little car. I saw the brake lights come on; that was the end of the forward progress. I guess he decided (or his girlfriend did), that it was okay to wait.

We drove back up to the camp for our proper breakfast and came down when the road was clear. Later, we saw another herd out in the distance. They become one huge black mass, their hooves kicking dust into the sky. African Buffalo are truly spectacular beasts and one of the animals I am most excited to view again.