All African buffalo are classified in the Subfamily Bovinae
of the Antelope Family Bovidae. Two Tribes are recognised
within the Bovinae: the Bovini tribe which is exclusive
to the buffalo Syncerus caffer (Sparrman 1779) and the Tragelaphini
which includes five antelope species of the 'kudu group'.
Smithers (1983) notes the controversy surrounding the possibility
of subspecies within the taxon and recognises
- the main race of Savanna buffalo S.c. caffer and
- the Forest buffalo S.c. nanus which occurs along the
west coast of Africa from Cameroun to the Ivory Coast.
The IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group (ASG 1998a, p106)
divides the Savanna buffalo into three subspecies:
- S.c. brachyceros - the West African savanna buffalo;
- S.c. aequinoctialis - the Central African savanna buffalo
and
- S.c. caffer - the Southern savanna buffalo.
This
terminology is used here for consistency with the Antelope
Specialist Group. ASG (ibid) state that ". . . there is
no doubt about the validity of these four subspecies. The
three forms of savanna buffalo are at least as distinct
from one another as from S.c. nanus".
Other subspecies
The southern savanna buffalo subspecies is the most numerous
and widely distributed across the continent. The ASG notes
that other subspecies (e.g. the "mountain buffalo" S.c.
mathews of eastern Africa) may be valid but notes that intergrades
occur amongst the recognised subspecies.
Georgiadis et al (1990) examined DNA samples taken from
buffalo over a wide range of African countries and concluded
that, whilst there were considerable differences in genetic
composition between the extremes of the range, there were
no obvious disjunctions in the genetic samples which might
form the basis for assigning subspecies status to buffalo
from any particular locality. This has implications for
the present herd of buffalo in the Waterberg
National Park in Namibia which was introduced from Addo
National Park in South Africa: it is unlikely to contain
significant or marked genetic variation from the remainder
of the subspecies S.c. caffer.
