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Thunder and dust
A herd of Cape (or African) buffalo, 500 or even 1,000 strong, is a sight and a sensation to behold. The collective sound of contact bellows, trampling feet, crunching and munching of grass and the chip-buzz of the ever-present oxpeckers, is comparable to none. It is simply the wonderful sensory experience of one of Africa’s formidable “Big Five” moving en masse. Clouds of dust accompany the herds as they rush across a dry landscape towards a favoured waterhole in winter; and wisps of black wings accompany the herds as they move like a dark wave across a green pasture. These fighter-pilot like birds are fork-tailed drongos benefiting from insects disturbed by the grazing animals’ feet. Sometimes a false alarm is given by the birds to speed the buffalos’ pace.
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