2014 News – New Pool for the Water Buffalo
In October, a pool was created for the buffalo at Grace
Children’s Home. They are water buffalo, so they obviously love
the water; in fact it is essential to keep them cool. Until the
pool was created, the ‘Buffalo Man’ had to hose them down them
each day.
In the wild, water buffalo spend much of their day submerged
in the muddy waters of Asia’s tropical and subtropical forests.
This way the animal is able to keep its body temperature stable
and prevent overheating in the high temperatures. Their
wide-splayed hoofed feet prevent them from sinking too deeply in
the mud and allow them to move about in wetlands and swamps.
These marshes provide good cover and rich aquatic plants to
forage on, although water buffalo actually prefer to feed in
grasslands on grass and herbs. The water buffalo is used as a
transportation system for transfer of heavy loads and people.
Because of that, it is also known as "tractor of the East".
They can run very fast when faced with danger, with an
average speed of 30 miles per hour. Their milk, which the
children in GCH drink, contains the greatest percent of fats
compared to other species of wild cow. This is the reason why
young water buffalos grow up quite quickly. The young are
tightly associated with their mothers in the first few years of
their life. They can survive up to nine years in the wild and up
to 25 years in captivity.
Wild water buffalo are endangered and live only in a small
number of protected areas stretching across India, Nepal, and
Bhutan, and a wildlife reserve in Thailand. And populations are
likely to diminish as they are interbred with domesticated water
buffalo.
It was a great day when the Grace Children’s Home water
buffalo were able to plunge into their own pool. In addition to
the Buffalo Pool, another smaller pool was created, and as the
photos show, both pools look very picturesque.
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