Buffaloes: The Knights of the Jungle
There are three or four kinds of buffaloes that live in different countries. The kind that lives in America you may have already heard about. I am sorry to say that hunters have killed so many of them, that there are very few buffaloes left in the United States now; and these few are kept in parks.
So in this book I shall tell you about another kind of buffalo, that lives in the jungles of India. These are the buffaloes that have to live in herds just because they have to guard themselves from the tiger. Yet they are much bigger than all other kinds of buffaloes in the world. Many of them are more than ten feet long, and a span taller than a tall man.
They have two huge horns which stand outward, one from each side of the head. Each horn is at least a yard long; and there are some buffaloes that have horns two yards long! (See the picture facing the next page.)
So you can understand that this kind of buffalo is a strong and mighty animal. But still, if just one buffalo tried to fight a tiger, the tiger could kill him every time. Why?
Because the tiger is much quicker than the buffalo. The tiger could jump to the side to escape the buffalo's horns. Then the tiger could turn quickly, and strike the buffalo on the neck from behind. And though the buffalo's neck is very thick, the tiger himself is so strong that he could break the buffalo's neck at one blow.
So, to guard against the tiger, the buffaloes have to live together like a band of soldiers, so that the tiger never gets the chance of catching just one buffalo alone.
Now I shall tell you how these buffaloes live. They live in a part of the country where there is plenty of water, and lots of trees and grass. There is sure to be a stream or two in the jungles there, like the one where we saw the buffaloes drinking at midnight.
When the buffaloes are feeding in the jungle, and wandering here and there to find good grass to eat, they always try to remain somewhere near one of these streams.