Two types of Cape Buffalo?

[Dusty Miller]

I was looking at Bob Kern's advertisement in the February issue of Sporting Classics magazine and noticed there appear to be two types of Cape Buff. The first type appears to have an absolutely MASSIVE amount of horn material on top of the head and the outer part of the horn droops down at about 30 degrees before the upsweep.  The second type appears to have a SPLIT right down the middle of the horns on top of the head with the outer horn drooping down at about 45 degrees before turning up and coming back to center much more than in the first type.  Also, the tips of the horns in the first type seem to turn back a bit whilst the tips on the second type seem to point straight into the top of the head.  Do I have an over active imagination or am I seeiing something that is real?

[GEMSBUCK]

Dusty there are a couple of different sub species of the cape buffalo, i.e. Mountain. But if I read your post correctly the difference in your examples is age an  personal traits...much the same as a set of 6x6 elk antlers may look entirely different so can the boss of  bulls from the same sub species of cape buffalo.

[Dusty Miller]

Well, if I ever get to shoot one (fat chance!) I'll take the one with split in the middle, they look a bit more classy to me (can a Cape Buff have class?)!

[rex6666]

i don't know any cape buffalo personaly but i bet they are like people.
All people have class some just less than others.
to my way of think most all animals have more class than people.

[Grumulkin]

I'll take the one with split in the middle, they look a bit more classy to me (can a Cape Buff have class?)!

The ones with the split in the middle are the younger ones.

[WL44]

I'll take the one with split in the middle, they look a bit more classy to me (can a Cape Buff have class?)!

The ones with the split in the middle are the younger ones.

+1. The hair in the middle disappears and the boss develops with age. Cows also don't feature the boss the same.

That said there are some pics I've seen of massive mature bulls with more length and less of a boss and a bit of a split (genes I suppose).

There are also a few different "looks"  (I think it's just the gene pools and that the subspecies are Cape and Forest Buff but some others are recognised by some), but the depth of sweep and length and boss differs soemwhat between east African (eg Tanzania) and lowveld buff (like in SA, Zim, Zambia).

Not an expert, posting something on this below.

[WL44]

The taxonomic record (above) is taken from Wilson and Reeder (1993).  The African buffalo is the only extant member of the genus Syncerus.  There are two extreme forms (savannah and forest types), which are commonly split into two or three subspecies: the large black savannah or Cape buffalo, Syncerus caffer caffer, the small reddish forest buffalo, S. c. nanus, and an intermediate form from West Africa, the Sudan buffalo S. c. brachyceros (Buchholtz, 1990; Kingdon, 1997).  A fourth subspecies, S. c. mathewsi, the relict "mountain buffalo", is recognized by some authorities (see Kingdon, 1997),

while East (1999) splits the savannah buffalo into three subspecies, the west African S. c. brachyceros, the central African S. c. aequinoctialis, and the southern S. c. caffer, in addition to recognizing S. c. nanus as a separate group.

 The long list of synonyms for Syncerus caffer includes adamauae, adametzi, adolfifriederici, aequinoctialis, athiensis, azrakensis, beddingtoni, bornouensis, brachyceros, bubuensis, centralis, corniculatus, cottoni, cubangensis, cunenensis, diehli, gariepensis, gazae, geoffroyi, houyi, hunti, hylaeus, limpopoensis, lomamiensis, massaicus, matthewsi, mayi, nanus, neumanni, niediecki, and nuni (Wilson and Reeder, 1993).

[WL44]

http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Syncerus_caffer.html

[Dusty Miller]

Thank you Wl44, that's interesting info.