IUCN Red List<\/a> because of declining populations caused by human encroachment, poaching, disease and degradation of habitats by livestock.<\/p>\nMababe\u2019s massive herds are made up of myriad smaller obstinacies, an apt collective noun considering their temperament. From around August, they all congregate here as precious sustenance becomes scarce elsewhere. Come the rains, they\u2019ll disperse again.<\/p>\n
Congregating in large herds to prevent being singled out is one of the buffalo\u2019s many anti-predator adaptations. Credit: BBC Natural History\/Getty Images
\nMeeting the buffaloes<\/p>\n
\u201cMokete means \u2018feasts of animals\u2019 and that\u2019s what this area is all about,\u201d Jonah explains as we look through our binoculars to discover elephants and zebras roaming just beyond our buffalo herd, with even more buffaloes in the distance.<\/p>\n
Staring menacingly, the buffaloes encircle our vehicle and I see their sheer power close up. These brawny bovids have coarse grey or black hides, their calves a distinctive reddish brown. But it\u2019s the horns I find fascinating, varying hugely in shape, size and markings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all different \u2013 that\u2019s how calves recognise their mothers. This one\u2019s beautiful,\u201d says Jonah, pointing out a female with deep, drooping horns that curve all the way up into a perfect U-shape.<\/p>\n
Males are easily distinguished by the \u2018boss\u2019 \u2013 a mass of bone and keratin where the two horns meet on the top of the head. Whatever the shape or size, buffalo horns can cause fatal injuries.<\/p>\n
Should the buffaloes charge, they have a reputation for taking no prisoners, turning back to attack, stalk and kill predators or hunters, even when they\u2019re injured. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBuffaloes are unpredictable: they\u2019ll charge at any time. If you\u2019re on foot and it\u2019s too late to run, the best way to survive is to lie flat on the ground or hide behind a log so they can\u2019t hook you and flip you into the air.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I doubt I\u2019d have the fortitude to lie down if a 850kg bovid capable of running at 60kph was hurtling towards me. Thankfully, our herd seems calm and there are no lions around to spook them.<\/p>\n
Instead, the predators have been feasting on three elephants we\u2019d seen around the concession who\u2019d succumbed to old age in the 40\u02daC heat. Death\u2019s fetid stench of rotting meat and disgorged bowels hung heavy in the air as squabbling vultures swarmed around the carcasses.<\/p>\n
The threat of lions<\/p>\n
In 18 years of visiting Africa, I\u2019ve never witnessed a kill, and I\u2019m not sure I want to. Mokete\u2019s head guide, Vasco Tebalo, shows me a video on his phone of five lions suffocating a buffalo amid the dust and din of the herd. It\u2019s a tough watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is true nature,\u201d says Vasco. \u201cIt\u2019s not like TV documentaries, which are edited. When you see it with your own eyes and hear the screaming, it\u2019s all too real. It can take an hour for lions to kill a buffalo. People
think they want to see a kill but sometimes it brings them to tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next morning, we find six lions covered in glistening bloodstains, crunching the ribs of a buffalo they\u2019d killed for breakfast. Lazy hyenas hang around for skeletal scraps, while jackals quietly wait their turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We come across three lions stalking a \u2018dagga boy\u2019, the grumpy old man of the buffalo world whose name means mud in the Zulu language.<\/p>\n
When a buffalo has passed his prime, he leaves the herd to form his own gang or wander alone, often wallowing in muddy pools to keep cool and protected from insects.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t mess with these boys. They\u2019re known for being particularly belligerent and the lions decide to give this individual a miss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then we meet two Golden Boys wandering along the track. These indomitable lions, all brawn and rippling muscle, look more grey than gold from the ubiquitous dust of the black-cotton soil, but their swaying manes are the colour of straw and they walk with the swagger of rock stars. One comes up to my side of the Land Cruiser to rest in its shade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more to Mababe than lions and buffaloes. Giraffes, ostriches, zebras and warthogs intermingle on the floodplains, along with antelopes such as roan, sable, impala, dainty steenbok and herds of russet-coloured tsessebe, all potential prey for wild dogs and hyena.<\/p>\n
Above the ground, thousands, possibly millions, of sparrow-sized red-billed queleas swirl in entrancing murmurations, darkening the morning sky.<\/p>\n
Following the hunt<\/p>\n
One morning I join Russell MacLaughlin, a wildlife filmmaker, who is making a documentary on Mababe\u2019s lion-buffalo interactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first witnessed the hunts, I was blown away,\u201d he says. \u201cThis place is so special, I came here for a week and I\u2019ve stayed for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we drive, sunrise lights up the floodplain like a band of gold under stormy skies. A lioness is calling gently for her six cubs and the black tips of their tails pop up above the grasses.<\/p>\n
One plays with a broken tsessebe horn like a kitten might play with a ball of wool. It\u2019s difficult to imagine these cute cubs attacking burly bovids, but they play by their own rules when it comes to predation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got footage of these lions stalking buffaloes at three months old. They\u2019re absolutely fearless,\u201d says Russell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chobe pride hunt in the middle of the day when normal lions are sleeping. This place is wide open and there\u2019s no shade, but they\u2019ve adapted to the heat and they sit and wait to ambush the buffaloes as they come to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using his drone, Russell sees a broad black line some 6km long and calculates a herd of roughly 12,000 buffaloes. We drive for an hour to reach them, only to discover that the Golden Boys and eight of the Chobe pride have got there first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese girls aren\u2019t even three years old,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey\u2019re massive and muscular because they\u2019ve been killing so many buffaloes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amid the dust and thunder of hooves, the agitated buffaloes stare at the predators for what seems an eternity, maintaining a united, defensive wall. The lions, with full bellies, are in no rush.<\/p>\n
![\"Botswana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Botswana-lion.jpg\")
Lions must team up to tackle buffaloes, up to four times their size – Will Whitford<\/p>\n
They will watch and wait until the buffaloes head for the water. Eventually, we leave them to it and Russell describes what it\u2019s like in the thick of the action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can almost feel the ground moving when they\u2019re stampeding and lions are chasing them, and all the dust just lingers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing herds that span from horizon to horizon is one of the most incredible sightings. I\u2019ve worked on every continent but I\u2019ve never witnessed what I\u2019ve witnessed here: Mokete has been the pinnacle of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eco-engineers of the Mababe Depression<\/p>\n
On my final drive, distant dust clouds lead us to a 5,000-strong buffalo herd on the move. Interestingly, research suggests that females \u2018vote\u2019 on the route of the herd, turning towards the direction they wish to travel.<\/p>\n
The majority wins and older buffaloes lead the way. They graze on their favourite tall, coarse buffalo grasses that grow here in abundance, then chew the cud while relaxing.<\/p>\n
As eco-engineers, their role is to clear the plains to make way for the sweeter short grasses preferred by more selective grazers such as steenbok, roan and sable. At the same time, they enrich the earth with their dung.<\/p>\n
Cattle egrets<\/a> are flying all around them, shining white in the sun against the bovids\u2019 monotone shades. The birds scoop up the insects that the beasts disturb and, in return, when perched on a buffalo\u2019s back or horns, act as an early warning system for the presence of predators.<\/p>\n![\"Egrets](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1363172444.jpg\")
In a symbiotic bond, cattle egrets feed on insects churned up by hooves and alert the buffaloes to danger – Mint Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Similarly, red-billed oxpeckers pick ticks off buffalo hides, simultaneously getting a meal while cleaning their hosts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The herd marches slowly past us with intimidating bulls braying and bringing up the rear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys are very defensive,\u201d says Jonah.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey go crazy to protect the herd. For safety, they become one unit, like a big wall, with the young in the middle, making it difficult for predators to penetrate. But lions are smart. They wait until the perfect moment, then they\u2019ll just sneak in, splitting them into small groups and singling out the weak ones that can\u2019t keep up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As if on cue, the buffalo herd starts to stampede, grunting noisily, their thundering hooves kicking up the dust. I look around nervously for lions, half wanting to see my first kill, half not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d says Jonah, as they calm down. \u201cThey got spooked by warthogs. These guys see warthogs every day but today, they just decided to cause a commotion. And when one buffalo runs, they all run\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I ask Jonah how he feels about the Mababe buffaloes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re mind-blowing,\u201d he replies. \u201cYou get to enjoy the full extent of the herds here because it\u2019s so open and I never get tired of watching them. It\u2019s weird but I miss them when they\u2019ve gone. They\u2019re just magnificent. That\u2019s the only word for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right. En masse, they are truly magnificent.<\/p>\n
And to be up close to buffaloes, to sense their power, their edgy personalities and their protective loyalty\u2026 well, it\u2019s beautiful, just beautiful.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re parked up in our Land Cruiser on the golden grasslands of Botswana\u2019s Mababe Depression, surrounded by Cape…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-356894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}