page_title: Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia
section_title: Bubalus bubalis (water buffalo)
hierarchical_section_title: Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia / Animals / Bubalus bubalis (water buffalo)
caption_attribution_description: English: A carabao in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines
context_page_description: One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacific by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 5,500 to 4,000 BP. These migrations were accompanied by a set of domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants and animals transported via outrigger ships and catamarans that enabled early Austronesians to thrive in the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, Near Oceania, and Remote Oceania, Madagascar, and the Comoros Islands.
  They include crops and animals believed to have originated from the Hemudu and Majiabang cultures in the hypothetical pre-Austronesian homelands in mainland China, as well as other plants and animals believed to have been first domesticated from within Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, and New Guinea. Some of these plants are sometimes also known as "canoe plants", especially in the context of the Polynesian migrations. Domesticated animals and plants introduced during historic times are not included.
context_section_description: Water buffaloes are essential work animals in Austronesian paddy field agriculture and were carried along with rice to Island Southeast Asia from mainland Asia. Early introductions were specifically of the swamp-type water buffaloes (like the carabao), although they are increasingly being replaced by river-type water buffaloes imported from South Asia in recent times.
  The earliest remains of water buffaloes in Island Southeast Asia with signs of domestication comes from  multiple fragmentary skeletal remains recovered from the upper layers of the Neolithic Nagsabaran site, part of the Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens (~2200 BCE to 400 CE) of northern Luzon. Most of the remains consisted of skull fragments, almost all of which have cut marks indicating they were butchered. The remains are associated with red slipped pottery, spindle whorls, stone adzes, and jade bracelets; which have strong affinities to similar artifacts from Neolithic Austronesian archeological sites in Taiwan. Based on the radiocarbon date of the layer in which the oldest fragments were found, water buffaloes were first introduced to the Philippines by at least 500 BCE.
caption: The carabao, a swamp-type water buffalo from the Philippines
exif: {}