Kalabaw

**Highest Placing Member**: Bianca (Runner-Up/24)

Kalabaw was a tribe from Survivor: Philippines.

Dominated by a band of women originally, they soon imploded when the men were able to manipulate them. Previous tensions on Matsing then plagued the switched tribe, which led to a strong of losses. Their tribe colour was red.

## Tribe History

The red Kalabaw tribe was formed on Day 1 of *Survivor: Philippines*. The women initially formed an alliance, and decided to bring in Daniel as the strongest male in order to have the numbers. At their first loss, the five voted out William, and the boys voted for Catherine due to her perceived weakness in challenges. Through their immunity challenge win, Kalabaw began to mingle and smaller alliances formed. One within the majority included Bianca, Catherine and Sarah, where their power only increased when Bianca found the tribes Hidden Immunity Idol. Meanwhile, Daniel bonded with the alpha males of his tribe, and they attempted to sway him on their side. To earn favour, he agreed. Daniel felt he needed to keep at least one other guy around on Kalabaw so he wasn't the biggest target on the tribe. He and Liam were developing a friendship extremely quickly, and Daniel threw the idea that Bianca was going after Liam. When Kalabaw lost immunity, the majority alliance agreed to vote for Joel. However, Daniel told the girls that Laura was coming after them whilst the boys wanted to vote for Bianca. Bianca then played her idol because she was feeling sketched out, and Laura was eliminated.

    Despite his connection to the boys, Joel knew he was the third person in the trio and told the girls that Daniel made up the plan to turn Bianca and Laura against each other. At tribal, Joel flipped to avoid a tie and Daniel was eliminated. With the tribe dwindling, Sarah had a meltdown and isolated herself from the tribe because she was angry with the lack of personal connection she was establishing with the group. The castaways found her behaviour strange, but also funny. On Day 13, a Tribe Dissolve occurred where Bianca, Joel and Liam remained on Kalabaw. They were joined by Domenic and Jasmine from Matsing, as well as Elyse, Mitchell, Montana and Tison from Tandang. Domenic reunited with Liam once again due to their history. The alliance of Mitchell, Montana and Tison from the original Tandang tribe decided to keep tight, but were convinced by Domenic it was in their best interest for the groups to work together. Meanwhile, Jasmine formed an alliance against Domenic because of their divide when on the original Matsing tribe. She began working with Bianca and Joel from the original Kalabaw, later including fellow newbie Elyse when it was realised she had no allies. Bianca felt she was in a strong position, which was only strengthened when she found the rehidden idol for the tribe. At their first loss, Domenic and Jasmine pitted their alliances against each other. Though Jasmine's alliance united against Domenic, he had the numbers and Jasmine was voted out.

When Kalabaw lost immunity on Day 22, the tribe was shocked to find that they would be attending a Double Tribal Council. At the first vote, Domenic's alliance of Matsing veterans eliminated Joel. The tribe was then forced to decide who their second target was at tribal council. Domenic and Liam remembered that Bianca was dangerous when she played in Panama, and they told their alliance she was their target. However, Montana and Tison were becoming their own alliance with a Final Two deal. They preferred to get rid of Domenic in order to prove they were strategists. Mitchell felt he wasn't apart of either duo within the majority, and flipped to Bianca and Elyse from the minority. They wanted to keep Domenic around because he was a huge target, but the trio eliminated Liam in order to weaken him. With the numbers dwindling and the merge fast approaching, Elyse flipped to the majority and threw Bianca under the bus. At tribal, Bianca played her idol and she voted out Elyse with Mitchell as revenge. On Day 25, the remaining eleven castaways from Kalabaw and Tandang merged.

## Trivia

* Kalabaw is the first red tribe where an idol was successfully played.
* Kalabaw is the first tribe in *Survivor* where a second Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at camp after the original was already used.