00:01Here at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, our African Plains Field Exhibit is home to many African animals.
00:07One of the biggest and most interesting is the Cape Buffalo.
00:20The Safari Park is home to two Cape Buffalo herds.
00:24A group of males and females in the South Africa exhibit,
00:30and two Bachelor males in the East Africa exhibit.
00:39Why do you think these animals are called Cape Buffalo?
00:42Do they wear capes?
00:46Of course not.
00:47Their name comes from the area of the world where they live in Africa.
00:51They're also called African Buffalo.
00:53They live in the swamplands and grasslands of South and East Africa.
00:59They need a daily water supply so they often stay close to watering holes.
01:28Cape buffalo are big animals.
01:31Males can weigh more than 2,000 pounds.
01:34They are dark in color, almost black.
01:37They have very thick skin, up to 2 inches thick in some places.
01:42This helps protect them from injury during sparring and from predators.
01:49Their front hooves are wider than their rear hooves because they need to support the weight of the front part
01:55of their body,
01:56which is much heavier and more powerful than the back.
02:03The Cape buffalo's best known feature has to be those huge horns.
02:08An adult bull's horns have fused bases, forming a continuous bone shield that is referred to as a boss.
02:16From the base, the horns diverge, then bend down, and smoothly curve upwards and outwards.
02:23The distance between the ends of the horns of a large bull is more than 3 feet.
02:31If predators threaten one member of the herd, the whole group protects that animal.
02:36The Cape buffalo know there's safety in numbers.
02:39And here at the safari park, they're also very loyal friends.
02:42Didn't they lose?
02:47They're veryートs.
