page_title: Water buffalo
section_title: In Europe and the Mediterranean
hierarchical_section_title: Water buffalo / Distribution of populations / In Europe and the Mediterranean
caption_attribution_description: English: Cuciulata village, Romania
context_page_description: The water buffalo or domestic water buffalo is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, South America and some African countries. The wild water buffalo native to South and Southeast Asia is considered a different species, but most likely represents the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo.
  Two extant types of water buffalo are recognized, based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and further west to the Balkans, Egypt, and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The origins of the water buffalo types are debated, although results of a phylogenetic study indicate that the swamp-type may have originated in China and was domesticated about 4,000 years ago, while the river-type may have originated in India and was domesticated about 5,000 years ago. After the domestication of the water buffalo in Southeast Asia, the swamp buffalo dispersed up to the Yangtze River valley between 3,000 and 7,000 years ago.
context_section_description: Water buffaloes were probably introduced to Europe from India or other eastern sources. In Italy, the Longobard King Agilulf is said to have received water buffaloes in about the year 600. These were probably a present from the Khan of the Avars, a Turkic nomadic tribe that dwelt near the Danube River at the time. Sir H. Johnston knew of a herd of water buffaloes presented by a King of Naples to the Bey of Tunis in the mid-19th century that had resumed the feral state in northern Tunis.
  European water buffaloes are all of the river-type and considered to be of the same breed named the Mediterranean buffalo. In Italy, the Mediterranean type was particularly selected and is called the Mediterranea Italiana buffalo to distinguish it from other European breeds, which differ genetically. Mediterranean buffalo are also kept in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia, with a few hundred in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Hungary. Little exchange of breeding water buffaloes has occurred among countries, so each population has its own phenotypic features and performances. In Bulgaria, they were crossbred with the Indian Murrah breed, and in Romania, some were crossbred with Bulgarian Murrah. As of 2016, there were 13,000 buffaloes in Romania, down from 289,000 in 1989.
  Populations in Turkey are of the Anatolian buffalo breed.
caption: Buffaloes in Brașov County, Romania
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