White Buffalo

American Buffalos are dark brown in color, but sometimes a white Buffalo is born. Buffalos with a rare coat color were considered to be sacred animals in several religions of the Native Americans. Even today, they have a spiritual importance for some people.

There are several conditions when a white Buffalo is born. A white Buffalo may be an albino with total lack of pigmentation. Such animals lack melanin and have red eyes, ears, a red nose, and totally white skin. Albinos often have hearing and vision problems, weak immune system, and other hereditary defects linked with the gene responsible for lack of pigmentation. Albinistic animals have a shorter life span.

If a white Buffalo has blue eyes, it may be leucistic, which means lacking all skin pigmentation, not just melanin. Leucism affects only the skin and coat and is not normally linked with serious health defects. Some Buffalos are born white, but change their color to brown when they mature.

A white Buffalo can also be a crossbred of a Buffalo and domestic cattle. Such crosses called beefalo or cattalo inherit their white coloration from the cattle. Beefalos and cattalos appeared in an attempt to create a breed of cattle with the best characteristics of both animals. A beefalo is a cross between a Buffalo bull and a domestic cow. A cattalo is born from a cross of a domestic bull and a wild cow. Beefalos actually look like domestic cattle, but cattalos have a bison appearance. It’s very difficult to maintain a herd of wild Buffalo cows, that’s why such hybrids are rare. Accidental crosses of Buffalos with cattle appeared in the middle of the 18th century. In the mid-1800s, people started to produce bison hybrids on purpose. Their meat is lower in fats and cholesterol compared to cattle meat.

Buffalos with rare coat coloration have always been an attraction for trophy hunters. Many white Buffalos were killed in the 19th century for their pelts. Nowadays, white Buffalos are kept as a tourist attraction in ranches, wildlife parks, and reserves. In the wildlife, a white Buffalo will quickly become a prey for the predators, as it’s easy to see in the grass and easy to distinguish in the herd.