Among our common domestic animals, chickens are domesticated from wild domestic chickens, ducks from wild ducks, geese from wild geese and pigs from wild boars. But when it comes to cattle, there are many branches besides yellow cattle and buffalo, among which yellow cattle and buffalo are basically bounded by the Yangtze River, mostly buffalo in the south and yellow cattle in the north. Among them, yellow cattle are domesticated from original cattle, but domestic buffaloes are much more complicated.
Complex buffalo family
Buffalo and yellow cattle are easy to distinguish, and their ancestors are very different. The ancestors of cattle are animals laid by cattle, and buffaloes are animals laid by buffalo. They are animals of the same family and different genera, and the difference is similar to that of clouded leopard and tiger. Similarly, they can't cross to produce offspring, and there is serious reproductive isolation. Moreover, the original cow lives in the grassland, and the buffalo lives by the water and goes into the water almost every day.
Extinct cattle
Broadly speaking, all bovidae animals with buffalo in their names are buffaloes, including buffaloes and African buffaloes. What we saw in some African wild documentaries is the only surviving species of African buffalo.
In a narrow sense, buffalo is a general term for all cattle. There used to be as many as 18 species of buffalo, but for a long time, 13 species of buffalo have been extinct, leaving only 5 species. The biggest difference between them and African buffalo is that their horns are connected at the head, forming a big horn shield, which is not the characteristic of buffalo.
Among the five existing buffaloes, there is also a buffalo. In addition to domestic buffalo, the other four species are lowland buffalo, mountain buffalo, Mindoro buffalo and wild buffalo. The first three sizes of these four buffaloes are relatively small, and the largest is Mindoro Buffalo, which is unique to the Philippines, with an average weight of about 250kg, short horns and backward growth.
The lowland buffalo is smaller than the Mindoro buffalo, with an average weight of about 220kg. Its biggest feature is that it has two very thin corners and is also inclined backwards. Its throat has obvious white crescent spots, and its limbs have obvious white spots. Unlike other buffalo, lowland buffalo tend to live alone. They are mainly distributed in lowland forests in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and often appear alone or in pairs by the river.
However, the appearance of mountain buffalo and lowland buffalo is similar. They all have backward growing cone angles, and they are mainly distributed in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The difference is that mountain buffaloes mainly live in high-altitude mountainous areas, which are geographically isolated from lowland buffaloes, while mountain buffaloes have no white spots on lowland buffaloes, and their body color is mainly brown and black.
Obviously, our domestic buffaloes are quite different from these three kinds of buffaloes in appearance and appearance, so the ancestors of domestic buffaloes are only wild buffaloes. The wild buffalo is the largest among the existing buffaloes, and its horns are much more domineering than the other three buffaloes. Most importantly, it is genetically the ancestor of domestic buffalo. However, there are two subspecies of wild buffalo: swamp buffalo and river buffalo. Which buffalo is the ancestor of domestic buffalo? What's the difference between them? Let's continue to talk.
Looking for the roots and ancestors of domestic buffalo
Domestic buffaloes were domesticated from wild buffaloes in China and India about 6000 years ago. Wild buffaloes, also known as Asian buffaloes, are divided into two subspecies, among which swamp buffaloes are mainly distributed in southern China, while river buffaloes are mainly distributed in Indian, Pakistani and Mediterranean countries and regions.
From the distribution and domestication location, it is not difficult to see that domestic buffaloes in China are basically domesticated from swamp buffaloes, while domestic buffaloes in India and Southeast Asia are domesticated from river buffaloes.