Runaway water buffalo lead German police a merry dance
August 6, 2018
Police in Erfurt, the capital of the eastern German state of Thuringia, spent three hours on Sunday evening chasing an adult buffalo that escaped from its enclosure. The police operation was triggered after witnesses reported seeing the water buffalo in a field.
Getting the buffalo back to its enclosure was more difficult than expected. It took three hours to return the reluctant animal to its young. Police said people had not been put in any danger during the operation.
Water buffaloes can weigh up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) and can grow up to three meters long (9.8 feet) and 1.8 meters high.
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Buffaloes on the run
A pair of escaped water buffaloes caused a similar scene in July when police from the same district were dispatched to return the runaway beasts to their enclosure.
In May, a herd of runaway water buffaloes forced a nine-hour closure of one of Germany's busiest autobahns, the A3 near Leverkusen in both directions. The animals had to be sedated before they could be moved from the carriageway.
Heat wave-related?
Buffaloes suffer if forced to remain, even for a few hours, in direct sunlight, according to The Water Buffalo: New Prospects For An Underutilized Animal. "They have only one-tenth the density of sweat glands of cattle and their coating of hair is correspondingly sparse, providing little protection from the sun."
Research has further shown that buffaloes are generally heat intolerant during high temperatures (Ahmad and Tariq 2010; Maria and Haeeb 2010). Their body color — which is known to absorb heat from the sun — and affiliation to water makes it difficult to to regulate their body heat during high temperatures. This can elevate levels of the stress hormone cortisol and reduce milk yield, growth and fertility.
It has not yet been established that the buffalo escaped its enclosure because of Germany's unusually high temperatures, but the day it ran away has been confirmed as one of the hottest days of the year in Erfurt.