Agriculture and Farming Atlas

How The World Is Fed
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Livestock

Carabao

Buffalo and Yak

Carabaos are a genetically distinct population of swamp-type water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis kerabau, native to the Philippines and later introduced to Borneo, Sulawesi and Guam; genetic studies trace their ancestry to the swamp buffalo of Taiwan, descended from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze Delta. Males stand 127 to 137 centimeters and weigh 420 to 500 kilograms, females stand 124 to 129 centimeters and weigh 400 to 425 kilograms, and the animal has light to slate grey coloring with backward-curving sickle-shaped horns, with about 3 percent of the population showing albino traits. Carabaos serve chiefly as draught animals for paddy rice cultivation and also provide milk, meat known as carabeef, and hides for leather, and were historically used to pull sleds and carts. Though widely regarded as the Philippine national animal, that status has never been formally, legally established. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

In the Other Atlases
Sources
Carabao (Wikipedia)
lead section, paragraph 2
Quote, lead section, paragraph 2
Carabaos are the traditional draft animals in the Philippines for paddy field rice cultivation and are commonly raised by smallholder farmers.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.