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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Sept 11, 2021 7:47:18 GMT -5
The bison has the much thicker neck and heavier built. Not surprising if it is harder to kill the former by the looks of it. The plains bison and the African buffalo, would either be a formidable antagonist for any brown bear or big cat ( IMO ). I agree with you but the bison looks bulkier judging from the visual comparison. Your feedback?
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Post by brobear on Sept 11, 2021 7:58:26 GMT -5
Bison ( American buffalo ) compared with a real buffalo. OldGreen Grolar says: "the bison looks bulkier judging from the visual comparison." True. The bison is probably a bit stronger. The buffalo is probably a bit more aggressive.
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Post by OldGreenGrolar on Sept 11, 2021 8:08:42 GMT -5
The bison has smaller horns and might be less aggressive but its thicker neck, bulkier built, and heavier weight makes up for that.
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Post by brobear on Apr 9, 2022 10:36:39 GMT -5
Wild bison, taking over Europe and North America, will once again roam England news.mongabay.com/2022/03/wild-bison-taking-over-europe-and-north-america-will-once-again-roam-england/ Each morning as the sun rises into the sky, ranger Donovan Wright stands on the outskirts of Blean Woods in the United Kingdom. The ancient woodland in southern England covers 509 hectares (1,257 acres) and is filled with broadleaf oak trees, birch and hazel. The former South African safari ranger of 20 years is welcomed by the chirping of native birds in the treetops. He might spy an inquisitive fox or rabbit darting through the undergrowth, or find badger tracks dotted along the leaf-strewn pathways. Yet, as he walks deeper into the ancient woods, the atmosphere changes. “It is surprisingly quiet,” Wright told Mongabay. “If you look at an aerial view, you will go, ‘Wow, it’s so green and full of life.’ But that richness and biodiversity is not there.” But soon a new animal, the biggest land mammal in Europe, will change everything. In May 2022, Wright and fellow ranger Tom Gibbs will be introducing a herd of European bison (Bison bonasus) into the primeval woods in a $1.4 million project run by the Kent Wildlife Trust. The last kind of bison that walked on this land was the ancient steppe bison (Bison priscus) some 12,000 years ago. The steppe bison’s closest living relative will now be transported from Poland, Germany and Ireland, and left to roam free among the glades. It is hoped these eco-engineers will use their sheer size and grazing habits to revitalize this ancient woodland. “We have a serious problem with biodiversity at the moment,” Wright said, citing the latest “State of Nature” report, published annually by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), one of the U.K.’s biggest wildlife conservation NGOs. The report, Wright said, showed that “the lack of woodland management is the biggest reason for the lack of biodiversity in the U.K.” From tip to tail, bison are expected to change the look of the woodland. Their massive size helps them punch through the undergrowth and let sunlight enter the forest floor. By eating bark and rubbing against trees, they create deadwood in the forest, a vital habitat for fungi and insects. And bison’s love of dust bathing creates natural glades that will become habitats for sand lizards and pioneer plants. Bison are also walking seed banks, as plant seeds get trapped in their fur and distributed when they fall out. Even their dung is also a food source for insects. Yet as valuable as they are to forests, European bison nearly went extinct after World War I. In 1924, only 54 remained in zoos. “It’s an amazing opportunity not only to restore the woods, but to help save the species and help create a genetic pool,” Wright said. The idea is that the Blean Woods bison release can become a blueprint for other bison projects in the U.K. Just a 10-minute drive from the city of Canterbury, the ancient woodland was once a former tree plantation and still contains pockets of pine trees. Researchers are interested in how the bison will affect the areas of monoculture. The Wilder Blean team also plans to introduce feral moorland Exmoor ponies and Iron Age pigs (a wild boar and domestic pig hybrid) into the woods. Each will have its part to play, but it’s believed that the bison, at around 840 kilograms (1,850 pounds), will have the biggest impact. While the pigs will root in the soil and encourage the growth of wildflowers, the ponies will keep grasses in check. But the bison will create new environments for other creatures to survive and thrive. “Through creating microhabitats in the area, it will attract different species and create a healthier ecosystem,” Wright said. To judge the effectiveness of this eco-experiment, the Wilder Blean project will create three zones in the woods and manage them in different ways. The first zone will be managed by free-roaming wild bison; the second will feature English longhorn cattle; and the third will be managed in a more traditional manner by chainsaws. The animals will be tracked with the help of satellite collars so the rangers can see where they spend most of their time and how they affect the landscape. The data should help improve scientists’ understanding of how to keep the ancient woodland healthy and biodiverse, given its role as a massive carbon sink. The rangers are now busy preparing for the bison’s arrival. They’re installing fences, digging watering holes, and building bison tunnels that provide viewing platforms while stopping the massive animals from coming into conflict with the public. In the future, they intend to offer safari walks, but not until the bison have settled into their new environment.
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Post by brobear on Apr 9, 2022 10:37:27 GMT -5
Europe’s new eco-warriors Wright and Gibbs recently visited the Kraansvlak bison project in the Netherlands. Even after 15 years, the Dutch team is still discovering how these animals impact the ecosystem. Only recently, the rangers found that birds were using bison fur to line their nests, increasing the survival rate of the chicks.
Wilder Blean and Kraansvlak are just a couple examples from numerous rewilding projects in Europe using these nomadic grazers to help restore ecosystems. Conservationists have recently reintroduced bison into Denmark’s largest nature area, filled with raised bogs, primeval forests, grasslands, heaths and meadows. The first 10 animals arrived at the Lille Vildmose nature reserve in April 2021 from three different projects in the Netherlands, and by the middle of the year had welcomed their first calf.
“The bison will eat the grasses that the red deer don’t eat and they will also debark the trees and roam more,” said Jacob Palsgaard Anderson, forester and Lille Vildmose’s vice CEO. “They will keep the landscape open, make the nature area more diverse and able to hold more species. Without them it will just become a dense forest.” Romania also recently released 100 bison into its mountainous Southern Carpathian region. Team leader and biologist Marina Drugă of WWF Romania said the decision to transfer this number of free-roaming bison into the area was based on scientific reasons.
“We view this as a founder population, which has the potential to grow and form a viable population with enough genetic variety,” Drugă said. The IUCN, the global conservation authority, has marked an improvement in the species’ conservation status from vulnerable to near threatened because of efforts such as these. Through natural breeding, this program aims to have 300 wild bison by 2024.
However, bison rewilding projects have not been without controversy. Bison are known to sometimes carry brucellosis, a bacterial disease that induces abortions in bison, cattle and elk. The animals, which can roam up to 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) a year, have also come into conflict with landowners who don’t appreciate the giant eco-engineers removing bark from the trees on their land.
Still, the story of the European bison across the continent is a rare one of near extinction followed, after nearly a century of work, to rising abundance.
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Post by brobear on Apr 9, 2022 10:38:40 GMT -5
Strides to save a species in the United States Europe is not the only continent to embrace bison rewilding projects to help revitalize ecosystems. In North America, Yellowstone National Park has joined with the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana and the InterTribal Buffalo Council to reintroduce American bison (Bison bison), which are slightly shorter and stockier than the European bison, to tribal lands.
The relocation of the Yellowstone bison, or buffalo, is a conservation solution that is expected to aid the animal’s long-term survival and, like in Europe, transform ecosystems. Each year, Yellowstone officials capture hundreds of bison and send them to slaughter as there are limits on how many bison the park can hold, especially with pressure from nearby cattle ranches.
The Bison Conservation Transfer Program is currently diverting disease-free bison from Yellowstone to Fort Peck. The first transfer of bison was completed in 2019, but the bison remained in quarantine for a year on Fort Peck’s pastures before they were transferred to other tribal lands around the United States.
“We have sent the buffalo as far away as Alaska. We’ve probably sent buffalo to 19 different tribes already,” said Robert Magnan, director of the Fort Peck Tribes’ Fish and Game Department. In December 2021, Fort Peck transferred 56 bison, after quarantine, to the Yakama Nation in Washington state and the Modoc Nation in Oklahoma.
Magnan, who was born on the reservation, has already seen the impact that bison can make. Fort Peck was without buffalo for 137 years.
“We ran a study with the University of Michigan and found the way that the buffalo graze makes the grasses healthier, and they even brought back bird species that were missing,” he said. While European bison feed on leaves and bark, American buffalo feed on grass. Unlike cattle, they don’t stay in one area and eat, however; they browse, moving and eating throughout the day.
“They create different heights of grasses in pastures, which makes it healthier, and they also graze the tops of the grasses, which gives it a chance to regrow faster,” Magnan said.
Thirty million bison once roamed across North America, from Canada to Texas. By 1884, only 325 wild buffalo were left, some of which were in Yellowstone. While there are now 400,000 bison in North America today, most are domesticated and have been interbred with cattle at some point. The bison sent to Fort Peck from Yellowstone are the direct descendants of the bison that managed to survive the slaughter of the 19th century.
To the people of Fort Peck and the Yakama and Modoc nations, the return of the buffalo is more far-reaching than ecological health. Not only are the animals revitalizing the land, but the people themselves. Magnan said that Native American communities are rediscovering ceremonies that died out with the loss of the bison, they’re renewing their ability to farm bison, and they’re also boosting their health. With the incidence of diabetes high in these areas, lean bison meat provides a healthier alternative to processed foods.
“Buffalo has been connected to Native Americans since the beginning of time,” Magnan said. “They are even in our creation stories. They have a belief that the creator put the buffalo there for us because humans weren’t smart enough to live like the wildlife.”
The Fort Peck community has dubbed its new $4 million wellness center the Thundering Buffalo Wellness Center, and the community college basketball team is now called the Buffalo Chasers. Magnan helped bring the first truck carrying buffalo into Fort Peck.
“It was a very religious moment. I felt good that we were reconnecting to them again,” he said. “Every day I am learning more and more.”
Not only have the buffalo helped revive the landscape, but their arrival has also helped bring Native American families together as they relearn the rituals and their roles.
“It is a family affair,” Magnan said. “The family accompany the herd and when the hunter takes the animal’s life they will go and help them cut up the meat.”
Magnan said they haven’t set a limit on the buffalo they currently transfer onto tribal lands. As long as Yellowstone is happy to continue the program, they will keep relocating these wild animals to other tribal areas.
“There is a competition in Indian country now who is getting the biggest herd. We used to have a competition on who has the largest group of buffalo, now we’ve outpaced that,” Magnan said with a laugh.
While the rewilding programs on either side of the Atlantic differ, they both understand that the best wildlife manager is nature itself. It doesn’t need human interference.
“If you just give nature the time and space to heal, it will,” said Wilder Blean’s Donovan Wright. “By replacing vital keystone species, such as bison, back into the system, they can kick-start these changes and help us restore these habitats.”
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Post by brobear on May 11, 2022 11:11:21 GMT -5
I have read a fair number of books on the historic grizzly. Some pioneers and Indians supported the brown bear while it seems an equal number supported the bison. Therefore, I would assume that in this *Battle of the Titans, the results could go either way. 50/50.
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Post by theundertaker45 on May 11, 2022 11:15:45 GMT -5
The American bison is just the perfect balance of all living bovids in my opinion; it has a fair amount of aggression, a large head and neck, lethal horns and displays tremendous feats of agility/speed. The cape buffalo/European bison/gaur/wild yak (in my opinion) lack at least one of the following attributes, therfore the American bison (especially the Plains subspecies) is the "ultimate bull" for me.
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horribilis
Parictis
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Post by horribilis on May 12, 2022 7:46:29 GMT -5
I have read a fair number of books on the historic grizzly. Some pioneers and Indians supported the brown bear while it seems an equal number supported the bison. Therefore, I would assume that in this *Battle of the Titans, the results could go either way. 50/50. At average and max dimensions , I'm backing the bovine but at parity , I'd say the ursid takes the cake.
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Post by brobear on May 12, 2022 8:52:07 GMT -5
In historical N. America, when the grizzlies of the Great Plains often followed bison herds, according to pioneers, fights were witnessed. Of course, those tales told cannot be authenticized as fact, but I feel certain that such fights did happen on occasion. Those grizzlies were larger than the Rocky Mountain grizzlies of Wyoming and Montana, but smaller than the coastal giants. If there was any truth to their tales, one of these great beasts was victorious as often as the other. Also, we have recent news of European brown bears killing full-grown bison. But, I can easily see your point. A bull bison is really big and really powerful. It's hard to imagine even a big boar Kodiak bear besting him.
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horribilis
Parictis
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Post by horribilis on May 12, 2022 13:46:16 GMT -5
In historical N. America, when the grizzlies of the Great Plains often followed bison herds, according to pioneers, fights were witnessed. Of course, those tales told cannot be authenticized as fact, but I feel certain that such fights did happen on occasion. Those grizzlies were larger than the Rocky Mountain grizzlies of Wyoming and Montana, but smaller than the coastal giants. If there was any truth to their tales, one of these great beasts was victorious as often as the other. Also, we have recent news of European brown bears killing full-grown bison. But, I can easily see your point. A bull bison is really big and really powerful. It's hard to imagine even a big boar Kodiak bear besting him. That's exactly my point. I just feel like the bovine would take the dub in a hypothetical fight to death scenario where both the opponents are equally motivated to kill each other. Besides , I'm not a huge fan of these historical battles and eyewitnesses since there are too many variables which have to be considered as you've mentioned and I quite take them with a grain of salt.
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Post by brobear on May 26, 2022 0:54:03 GMT -5
In historical N. America, when the grizzlies of the Great Plains often followed bison herds, according to pioneers, fights were witnessed. Of course, those tales told cannot be authenticized as fact, but I feel certain that such fights did happen on occasion. Those grizzlies were larger than the Rocky Mountain grizzlies of Wyoming and Montana, but smaller than the coastal giants. If there was any truth to their tales, one of these great beasts was victorious as often as the other. Also, we have recent news of European brown bears killing full-grown bison. But, I can easily see your point. A bull bison is really big and really powerful. It's hard to imagine even a big boar Kodiak bear besting him. That's exactly my point. I just feel like the bovine would take the dub in a hypothetical fight to death scenario where both the opponents are equally motivated to kill each other. Besides , I'm not a huge fan of these historical battles and eyewitnesses since there are too many variables which have to be considered as you've mentioned and I quite take them with a grain of salt. In the book "California Grizzly", the authors ( Tracy I. Storer, Lloyd P. Tevis ) describe the historic bear and bull fights. Often, in such a fight, the bear would grab the bull by his mouth or even by his tongue, and in this manner could control the big bovine. In a similar manner, the barren ground grizzly is known to overpower and kill the much larger musk ox.
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horribilis
Parictis
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Post by horribilis on Jun 1, 2022 10:29:55 GMT -5
Firstly , welcome back brobear Secondly,I've managed to go through the source you've mentioned.I will agree , it's a great read and some of the accounts are quite believable.But some of them seem far stretched in my eyes.Especially the account of a bear killing 3 bulls one after another and also another account in which a bear managed to bury a bull alive. Let me know what you think of these accounts btw.
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Post by brobear on Jun 1, 2022 12:56:02 GMT -5
Firstly , welcome back brobear Secondly,I've managed to go through the source you've mentioned.I will agree , it's a great read and some of the accounts are quite believable.But some of them seem far stretched in my eyes.Especially the account of a bear killing 3 bulls one after another and also another account in which a bear managed to bury a bull alive. Let me know what you think of these accounts btw. As for the grizzly killing three bulls before being killed by the forth... *I nether believe nor disbelieve. While there were no bison in California, there were feral range cattle which had been living wild there for many decades. After domestication, these range cattle became known as the "Texas Longhorn." The big California grizzlies used to hunt them. Therefore, a full-grown male grizzly was already accustomed to killing both wild ( feral ), and domestic cattle. So, while it sounds far-fetched, I also think it theoretically possible. Also, as for the grizzly who reportedly buried the bull... *I neither believe nor disbelieve. In the wilderness, a grizzly will bury a carcass until he is ready to feed upon it. This is instinctive; so as to add some protection from scavengers. So, it is possible that this bear attempted to bury the bull. We must keep in mind though, that those old newspapers from the 19th century relied heavily upon sensationalism to sell their papers. Therefore, many of their tales were either exaggerated or fabricated. *I will also edit and add: Just because a bull is big and has a frame packed with a massive poundage of muscles, this does not mean that he knows how to fight. In these games were Spanish fighting bulls, feral range cattle, and barnyard bulls bought from farms.
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Post by brobear on Jun 2, 2022 1:47:48 GMT -5
About those outlaw grizzlies, the cattle and sheep killers of the American West. Notorious Grizzly Bears by W.P. Hubbard - 1960 - Pelage and Character - Weight. A safe estimate of the average weight of adult grizzlies in our western states would be about eight hundred and fifty pounds. This conclusion results from a careful check on grizzlies killed and weighed by numerous hunters, trappers, and old-time bear men. Nevertheless, there are exceptions. Several outlaw grizzlies investigated were known to have weighed over one thousand pounds. ( These outlaw grizzlies were hunted and killed before the Boone and Crockett Club established the idea of preserving bear skulls ). *When I had first read this several years ago, I considered this to be an exaggeration. But, that was then. W.P. Hubbard was the leading expert on bears at that time. Consider that, after the mega-beast extinction at the end of the Pleistocene, the grizzlies of the N. American Great Plains became foragers and bison hunters. Then, during the 1600s, 1700s, and early 1800s, the grizzly was also hunting range cattle ( the ancestors of the Texas Longhorn ), mustang horses, and wild burros. These grizzlies were feeding like royalty on lots of red meat. Beginning in the mid-1800s, the bison and feral cattle started disappearing, and were replaced by domesticated livestock. This is when the grizzly, following his nature, became, in the eyes of mankind, an outlaw. We all know the "rest of the story." W.P. Hubbard was probably 'right-on-the-money' when he stated that the grizzly of the prairie averaged roughly 850 pounds. In every book I have read concerning the historic grizzly ( those that touched on the subject ) stated that the grizzlies of the open prairie were bigger that those of the Rocky Mountains and rivaled only by those of the West Coast. It stands to reason, that a population of grizzlies with a very high percentage of red meat consumption would be very large bears.IMO, those big 800+ pound grizzlies fed heavily upon bison flesh considering that before the massive "European-American" migration west, there was an estimated 50-to-100 million bison on the Great Plains. Those big grizzlies probably fed mostly on found carcasses, usurping wolf kills, and preying upon bison calves and cows. But, regardless of whether or not there is any truth in the old tales from the frontiersmen of the time, I have no doubts that there was an occasional confrontation between a big bull bison and a big boar grizzly. Such battles were probably rare, as they would have been instigated by the bovine. IMO, such a fight could go either way. I do not consider this a one-sided fight.
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Post by brobear on Jun 21, 2022 5:18:38 GMT -5
Weights of gaur (Bos gaurus ) and banteng (Bos javanicus ) killed by tigers in Thailand onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6268 Abstract The primary prey of tigers across much of South-East Asia has been depleted, reducing the ability of already limited habitat to support tigers. To better understand the extent to which two of the largest prey species, gaur (Bos gaurus) and banteng (Bos javanicus), contribute to the tiger's diet, we estimated the average size of these species killed by tigers. This information is needed to more accurately calculate biomass of these species in the tiger's diet and to devise strategies to increase tiger carrying capacity where habitat is fragmented and limited in west-central Thailand. We used temporally clumped locations of 24 satellite radio-collared tigers to identify their kill sites and obtained mandibles from 82 gaur and 79 banteng. Kills were aged by teeth eruption sequence, sectioning the M1 molar and counting cementum annuli. Of all gaur killed, 45.2% were adults; of all banteng killed, 55.7% were adults. The average weight of banteng killed was 423.9 kg, which was similar to the 397.9 kg average weight for gaur. The mean weight of both prey species is 3.5–4.5 times greater than the predicted 1:1 preferred prey to predator ratio. In the absence of medium-sized prey, killing these larger animals may be especially critical for female tigers provisioning nearly independent young when male offspring are already larger than the mother. This is the first study to present data on the average weights of gaur and banteng killed in South-East Asia, and these results suggest that these are key prey species to target in tiger prey recovery efforts. ___________________________________________________________ 3 RESULTS From June 2005 to May 2017, we visited kill sites of 24 radio—collared tigers (9 males and 15 females) and recorded a total of 82 gaur and 79 banteng kills based on carcass or skeletal remains. Of all gaur killed, 15.9% were adult males and 29.3% were adult females; adult male banteng comprised 29.1% of kills and 26.6% of kills were adult females. (Table 1). In contrast, calves composed 39% of gaur kills versus 26.6% of banteng kills. As a consequence, despite the fact gaur males were approximately 1.3 times heavier than male banteng, and gaur females were 1.1 times the weight of female banteng, the average weights of both gaur killed (397.9 kg) was less than the average weight of banteng killed (423.9 kg) (Table 1). TABLE 1. Mean weights of gaur (Bos gaurus) and banteng (B. javanicus) killed by tigers based on number of kills in different sex and age classes and published weights of those classes from Ahrestani (2018) and Hoogerwerf (1970) ( See Site for Chart )
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Post by brobear on Jun 21, 2022 5:20:40 GMT -5
Continued... Based on the average sex and age class weights, and the number of kills in each class, the average weight of adult gaur kills was 737.8 kg and they composed 83.7% of the biomass of gaur killed by tigers. Similarly, the mean adult banteng killed weighted 652.2 kg and adults composed 85.6% of biomass of this species killed by tigers. Adults composed 48.8% of gaur and 79.4% of banteng killed by male tigers; whereas, adult gaur and banteng composed 41.1% and 37.8% of female kills, respectively (Table 2).
TABLE 2. Percentage and numbers of sexes and age classes of gaur (B. gaurus and B. Javanicus) killed by male and female tigers ( See Site for Chart )
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Post by brobear on Jun 21, 2022 5:21:25 GMT -5
Continued... None of the prediction that we suggested would be support for the hypothesis that gaur and banteng are approaching the size limit of tiger prey were significant. Prediction 1: Male tigers killed fewer adult gaur (n = 21) compared with adult banteng (n = 27), but the difference was not significant (χ2 = 0.75 (1), p = .386). Prediction 2: Females also killed fewer adult male bovids (n = 11) than adult female bovids (n = 21), but the difference was not significant (χ2 = 2.133 (1), p = .063). Prediction 3: Females did not kill significantly fewer adult gaur and banteng (n = 33) than male tigers did (n = 48) (χ2 = 3.13 (1), p < .090). Given that our three predictions were not supported by significant results, our hypothesis that gaur and banteng are near the upper size limit of tiger prey is not confirmed.
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Post by brobear on Jun 24, 2022 2:29:08 GMT -5
Credits to: Apollo, a big cat enthusiast and a great poster that I have been familiar with for many years. *Note: Apollo adds: 100 Cape Buffaloes collected from Crocodile Ridge, Kruger National Park. Average around 620 Kg (35 Males)
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Post by brobear on Jun 24, 2022 2:33:16 GMT -5
620 kg = 1367 pounds. 570.4 kg = 1,257.52 pounds. 831.2 kg = 1,832.48 pounds.
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