|Auburn University Digital Library| |The Water Buffalo: New
Prospects For An Underutilized Animal (1984)| source ref:
b21wae.htm While the buffalo is remarkably versatile, it has
less physiological adaptation to extremes of heat and cold than
the various breeds of cattle. Body temperatures of buffaloes are
actually lower than those of cattle, but buffalo skin is usually
black and heat absorbent and only sparsely protected by hair.
Also, buffalo skin has one-sixth the density of sweat glands
that cattle skin has, so buffaloes dissipate heat poorly by
sweating. If worked or driven excessively in the hot sun, a
buffalo's body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and
general discomfort increase more quickly than those of
cattle(Failure to appreciate this has caused many buffalo deaths
in northern Australia when the animals were herded long
distances through the heat of the day as if they were cattle)..
This is particularly true of young calves and pregnant females.
During one trial in Egypt 2 hours' exposur