Rates of Herbage Ingestion and Turnover of Water and Sodium in Feral Swamp Buffalo, Bubalus Bubalis, in Relation to Primary Production in a Cyperaceous Swamp in Monsoonal Northern Australia

Abstract

During a monsoonal dry season, a free-living population of swamp buffalo inhabiting an ephemeral cyperaceous swamp on the floodplain of the South Alligator River had high rates of water turnover. The daily rate of consumption of Eleocharis sphacelata was c. 5.79 kg DM/animal or 49.2 plus or minus 2.77 g/l total body water-0.82. Annual herbage production in the 13.1 ha swamp was estimated at 80.43 t. Buffalo using the swamp varied from 42 in the mid-wet season and 20 in the late-wet season to c. 200 in the dry season. Herbaceous vegetation was grazed out by the end of the arid phase of the monsoonal cycle. The dependence of buffalo on water which confines them during the arid season and results in intense grazing and changes in floristic composition is discussed.