Cape Buffalo

Summary
Fortunately buffalo are present in most major quality parks and reserves so opportunities to see them are usually a part of an itinerary without much special planning.

Video of a large Cape Buffalo at Katavi National Park
I took this video during my May 2009 Tanzania Safari

Best Places
While buffalo may be found in most areas there are still places that stand out for offering a unique high quality opportunity. For sheer numbers Katavi National Park in Tanzania has numerous herds topping 1,000 individuals with some reported to be the largest in all of Africa numbering 3,000. We also recommend Duba Plains in Botswana as virtually the entire experience focuses on lion-buffalo interaction. At Duba the lions tend to hunt buffalo during daylight hours and thus the focus on game drives is to find the buffalo herd (can number around 1,000 individuals) and wait with them for the lions to show or find the lions who often lead to the buffalo. This gives the rare opportunity for lengthy viewing of buffalo as well as the exciting interaction between an aggressive prey species and the apex predator.

Other Areas of Note
Major national parks are good as the buffalo are usually very habituated and allow close up viewing. Ngorongoro Crater, Kruger, Masai Mara, and Kafue are just a few of the very good areas to observe buffalo.