Cape Buffalo Dagha Bulls - Zambezi Floodplain - Zimbabwe (15"x 8")

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Thank you for the interesting information on Dagha bulls Kevin. Do admire your work as it is so full of enthusiasm. Those bulls look rather scary I must say.

Love the narrative you have added along with your painting Kevin, very interesting to read about their life. They do look as though they have seen a bit of life.

This was my first completed acrylic which I painted a few months ago. I was trying to depict the reed beds on the Zambezi Valley floodplain east (downstream) of Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park. Old buffalo bulls favour this habitat and tend to depart the breeding herds when they reach the age of about 8 years old. They then lead solitary lives or form bachelor groupings of up to 8 bulls. Periodically, and if still breeding mature, they'll rejoin the herd. The word 'dagha' (pronounced dugga) is the colloquial word used in Southern Africa to describe these old bulls. It derives from the African tribal word, dagha for mud. The bulls like to wallow in mud-baths where they get covered in a thick coat of mud and when it dries it affords them protection from biting flies. ticks and other annoying insects. In Zambia these old dagha bulls are referred to as kakuli bulls, which means the same as dagha bull. Invariably worm ridden and arthritic, they are normally of bad di