Water Buffalo - Literally (follow up)

Photo courtesy of Stacey Farrell

Earlier this week we reported on the buffalo that briefly took up residence in the St Lucia estuary, only to die two days later.  Sean, one of the St Lucia Advantage Boat Tours skippers, kindly took the time to furnish us with some more information for our follow-up to this strange story.

As can be seen in the accompanying photo, the buffalo appeared to be blind in its right eye and Sean thinks it had bad vision in its left eye too.  This could have been the troubled buffalo that had been behaving aggressively in the Western Shores Game Reserve recently and its apparent blindness and bad vision could have been the reason.  All witnesses reported that, at one stage, it was swimming in circles.  This, Sean thinks, could have been due to disorientation as a result of the blindness.

Sean said that the buffalo appeared to have entered the water from the Western Shores side, heading towards St Lucia.  One of the questions raised in our previous article, can now be cleared up.  The buffalo did indeed leave the water last Wednesday evening and re-entered late last Thursday afternoon.  Sean also thinks that the buffalo died from sheer exhaustion in trying to cross the estuary.  Only on the third day following the buffalo’s death, however, did the crocodiles manage to sink the buffalo, which was eventually done at the Narrows, and they, along with fish eagles and yellow billed kites, started their feast.  Sean remembers counting 17 crocodiles on the buffalo at one time.

To wrap up this story, all sources seem to concur that the buffalo was indeed trying to cross the water and, on its second attempt, died from exhaustion and probably not from any type of illness.

This is one of only a few strange happenings on St Lucia estuary.  The most recent prior to the buffalo, approximately two years ago, was an adult white rhino which was seen in the water.  This rhino appeared to have entered the water from the Eastern Shores side but managed to get out fairly quickly and didn’t attempt a second crossing.

Strange happenings aside, some good news from the estuary this week is that four baby hippos were born.  Late summer, after the rains, is normal birthing season for hippos and it’s great to see the pods increasing in number.  Next time you’re out on the water, keep your eyes peeled for those newborn hippos.