Status and management of the endangered wild water buffalo ('Bubalis arnee') in Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Abstract

Asian wild water buffalo ('Bubalus arnee') are large ungulates, and the progenitors of all domestic water buffalo ('Bubalus bubalis'). There are two domestic types: the river buffalo of the Indian sub-continent and further west to the Balkans and Italy (Figure 24.1), and the swamp buffalo of Assam in the west, through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze Valley of China (Figure 24.2). All populations of 'Bubalus arnee' are considered Endangered (IUCN 2013), but in Nepal this species is protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act (His Majesty's Government Ministry of Law and Justice 1977). There is evidence of buffaloes in the Indus Valley at least 5000 years ago (Nowak 1999; Lenstra & Bradley 1999). Although the historic range is uncertain, the species may have occurred from Mesopotamia to Indochina (Sinclair 1977). River and swamp buffalo were domesticated independently from different wild stocks that diverged anywhere from 10 000-15 000 (Barker et al. 1997) to over one million years ago (Amano 'et al'. 1994), but probably around 128 000-280 000 years ago (Kumar 'et al'. 2007a). River buffalo were domesticated around 6300 BP in the western region of the Indian subcontinent (Kumar 'et a'l. 2007b). Microsatellite and mtDNA diversity analyses (Yindee 2010; Zhang 'et al'. 2011) combined with archaeological evidence (Higham 2002) indicate domestication of the swamp buffalo in southern China/northern Indo-China about 2000 BC.