African forest buffalo | |
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At the San Diego Zoo | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Bovidae |
Subfamily: | Bovinae |
Genus: | Syncerus |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | S. c. nanus
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Trinomial name | |
Syncerus caffer nanus (Boddaert, 1785)
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The range in dark green | |
Synonyms | |
Syncerus nanus |
The African forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus), also known as the dwarf buffalo or the Congo buffalo, is the smallest subspecies of the African buffalo.[1] It is related to the Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer), the Sudan buffalo (Syncerus caffer brachyceros), and the Nile buffalo (Syncerus caffer aequinoctialis). However, it is the only subspecies that occurs mainly in the rainforests of Central Africa and Western Africa, with an annual rainfall around 1,500 mm (59 in).[2] It has been proposed to represent a distinct species, Syncerus nanus.[3]