Pertanika 2(2), 125-127 (1979)

Grazing Behaviour of the Swamp Buffalo {Bubalus bubalis}H. KASSIM and K. BAHARIN

Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science,Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor.

Key words: Swamp buffalo; grazing behaviour; thermoregulation

RINGKASAN

Satu penyelidikan tmtang tabiat kerbau telah dijalankal~ di ladang Universiti Pertanian Malaysia,Puchong. Keputusannya menunjukkan yang ragutan (memakan rumput) dilakukan sepanjang hari dimanakebanyakannya pada waktu siang. Sebagai satu cara untuk mengimbangkan suhu badan kerbau-kerbau inisuka berkubang diwaktu siang dan malam dan ini adalah penting untuk kesehatan dan produksi. Diwaktumalam kerbau-kerbau ini samada berbaring atau berdiri dan kadangkala berjalan. Ruminasi berlaku semasakerbau-kerbau ini berkubang dan berbaring.

SUMMARY

Studies on the grazing behaviour of the swamp buffaloes were carried out ill the Universiti PertaniallMalaysia farm at Puchong. The results have shown that grazing took place throughout the whole 24-hourperiod with the greater part during the da;y. As a means of thermoregulation the animals wallowed in a poolof water during the day and night,. this was important in controlling body temperature and for the animals'well-being and hence their productivity. During the night the animals were either lying down or standing,.there was with very little walking. Rumination took place while the animals were wallowing or lying down.

INTRODUCTION

The behaviour of an animal IS controlledby many factors. Among the most importantare nutrition and physiological thermoregulation.The regulation of feed intake to provide formaintenance and productive requirement is alsogreatly influenced by the regulation of bodytemperature which is related to the optimalthermal conditions for biochemical processes.

In the hot humid environment of Malaysia,the behaviour of the animals greatly narrows therange of heat loads from that of autonomicthermoregulation. When buffaloes are allowedto graze in an open field they exhibit behaviouralchanges adaptable to the environment. Thisknowledge enables us to understand and providethe necessary requirements for the buffaloes toachieve optimal production. This study wasconducted to determine the behaviour of buffaloesin the open field by recording the various activitiesexhibited by buffaloes during a defined timeperiod.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Four female and three male two-year oldwater buffaloes were al10wed to graze freely in

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an eleven-acre pasture in the UPM farm atPuchong. The grazing area selected enclosed apool of water so that the animals could haveaccess to wallowing. A water tank was alsoplaced inside the paddock to provide drinkingwater.

Observation of the behaviour of the buffaloesin the paddock was done from a tower placed onhigh ground at one corner of the paddock. Theanimals were observed for twenty-four hoursfor two days with the aid of a pair of binoculars.White markers on the body and the horn wereused to identify the buffaloes. Day was definedfrom 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. and night was from8.00 p.m. to 8.00 a.m.

Observation during the day was simple butsome difficulties were encountered during thenight. Night observations of the various activitieswere done by intermittently il1uminating theanimals with torchlight. Precautions were takento ensure minimum disturbance of the animals.

Five main activities of the animals wereobserved and recorded. These were grazing,wal1owing, walking, standing and lying down.

H. KASSIM AND K. BAHARIN

RESULTS AND DJSCUSSION

W.llowing

lying down

Grllin,

30

'0

10

10

00

.0

00

.0

lam 4pm Ipm

Tim. of DIY

Fig. 1: Main diurnal activities of the Swampbuffaloes.

..!'i 30

~

.; 20

:i

The buffaloes were seen to move in a groupand this influenced the behaviour of an individualanimal. There were also differences in maleand female behaviour as shown in Table 1. Thebehaviour of the buffaloes was observed andrecorded as day and night activities. The mainday activities were grazing and wallowing andthe main night activities were standing, lyingdown, grazing with intermittent wallowing andwalking, as shown in Fig. 1. Hafez et ai, (1969)suggested that, in tropical climates, night grazingmay occur more frequently among cattle duringthe more comfortable periods when the tempera­ture was lower. But this was not the case withour buffaloes which grazed more during the day,mostly in the evening. Their grazing behaviourwas complemented by wallowing which helpsto cool the body temperature brought about bybody metabolism and solar heat. In our studythe animals were observed to start grazing earlyin the morning, and by 10.00 a.m., wallowinghad begun and continued, with intermittentgrazing, till 8.00 p.m. (Fig. 1). This seems tobe a result of increasing ambient temperaturewhich has been shown to increase the bodytemperature and respiration rates (Badreldin andGhany, 1952; Kassim et ai. 1977). The highestrecorded temperature at noon was 32°C. Swampbuffaloes apparently need to wallow in a pool ofwater or mud to cool themselves. This form ofbehavioural thermoregulation (Baldwin, 1973)is an adaptive process to accelerate heat losssince buffaloes are unable to dissipate excessbody heat through sweating (Hafez and Shafei,1954; Hafez et ai. 1955). The natural wallowingprobably was very effective in reducing body

TABLE 1

AnimalType

Males(n = 3)

Females(n = 4)

Mean time spent for the day and night in each of the five activities

Time spent (hours)

Grazing Standing Walking Wallowing Lying down

Day 5.00 1.63 0.90 4.47 0.02

Night 2.25 4.87 1.45 2.45 0.97

Total 7.25 6.50 2.35 6.92 0.99(30.2%) (27%) (9.8%) (28.8%) (4.2%)

Day 3.87 1.32 0.86 5.90 0.05

Night 2.90 3.28 0.93 0.03 4.85

Total 6.77 4.60 1.79 5.93 4.90

(28.3%) (19.2%) (7.5%) (24.6%) (20.4%)

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GRAZING BEHAVIOUR OF THE SWAMP BUFFALO

emperature as was pointed out by Kassim et al.(1977) who showed that even by artificially coolingthe animals with water the body temperatureand respiration rate were maintained at normal(low) level. Wallowing at noon, therefore,would remove excess body heat through thewater and mud of the wallowing pool. Rumi­nating was observed to take place while theanimals were wallowing. However, it wasobserved that at 2.00 p.m. the animals startedto graze again and wallowed intermittently.

In the evening, after 8.00 p.m., the animalstended to stand. There was little walking andgrazing at night. After midnight the animalswere observed to lie down and spend some timewallowing. The cool of the morning created awider temperature gradient between the animaland the environment. This would have increasedthe convective heat transfer from the respiratorysystem and the skin. If there were winds ordraughts then more heat transfer (loss) wouldtake place. Lying down or wallowing wouldprobably reduce this heat loss because of thesmaller total exposed surface area and less heatlost through conduction with the ground andwater.

There were behavioural differences betweenthe males and females. The most prominentwas that the females spent more time lying downand less time wallowing at night. When thefemales were lying down the males tended tostand and walk around as if guarding the females.

These observations suggest that the buffaloeswere experiencing a degree of heat stress andwallowed in order to cool themselves. The

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animals grazed early in the morning and in theevening. For the well being of these animalsit is suggested that a wallowing area is essential;and if this were not available then a shed shouldbe built in the gmzing area for the animals toprotect themselves against heat stress.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to Drs. S. Sivaraj, R. Karu­payah, S. Santhana Das, N. Devi, V. Panicker,N. Sewellenggam and Shamsul Kamal for theirassistance during the study.

REFERENCES

BADRELDlN, A. L. and M. A. GHANY. (1952): Adap­tive mechanisms of buffaloes to ambient tempera­ture. Natllre. 170: 457-458.

BALDWIN, B. A. (1973): Behavioral therm01'eglllationin "Heat Loss from Animals and Man." J. L.Monteith and L. E. Mount (Eds). London:Butterworths. pp. 97-117.

HAFEz, E. S. E., BADRELDlN, A. L. and SHAFEI, M. M.(1955): Skin structure of Egyptian buffaloes andcattle with particular reference to sweat glands.J. Agric. Sci. Camb. 46: 19-30.

HAFEZ, E. S. E., SCHEIN, M. W., and EWBANK, R.(1969) : The behavior of cattle in "The behaviorof domestic animals" (2nd Ed.) (Ed.)E. S. E. Hafez.Baltimore. The Williams and Wilkins Co.

HAFEZ, E. S. E. and SHAFEI, M. M. (1954): Sweatingmechanism in the domestic buffalo. Natllre. 174:1181-1182.

KASSIM, H., RICHARDS, S. A. and SYKES, A. H. (1977):Field observations on temperature regulation inthe swamp buffalo. Mal. Appl. Bioi. 6: 91-92.

( Received 28 June 1979)