Can we talk about the scarcity of buffalos?

[Adarra]

As the title says: Can we talk about the insane scarcity of buffalos? It's difficult enough to try and start a decent herd with only a few female buffalos with awful stats that come from Frontier itself, but it's barely doable to set up a breeding program when the (female) buffalos I get from the trade center are already 8 years or older (and become infertile at 15???) and produce offspring that has awful stats as well (which makes in-breeding practically impossible). I don't know what causes this buffalo scarcity, but I can guess. I think it has to do with the relatively short life span of buffalos combined with the fact they only birth one child at a time per individual, which in turn leads to people having a hard time breeding a decent-sized group with enough offspring to keep the numbers stable AND be able to trade the 'unwanted' animals, which in turn leads to barely any animals being put up for trade, which leads to either hoarding or people not bothering with breeding buffalos, and thus the cycle continues.

I was lucky enough to get a good-sized herd going in my second franchise zoo, but in my first I'm constantly struggling with finding enough females and having enough offspring to have a stable herd. Either the lifespan of buffalos has to increase (I don't know how old they get in real life), the amount of offspring has to increase, the frequency of getting offspring has to increase or the buffalos that Frontier puts on the trade center have to be younger to at least give us the chance to hopefully breed more offspring.

I don't know why but I really love the buffalos and I want to have a beautiful herd, but right now it's barely impossible to achieve.

 

[turkeyfox]

I think it has to do with the relatively short life span of buffalos combined with the fact they only birth one child at a time per individual, which in turn leads to people having a hard time breeding a decent-sized group with enough offspring to keep the numbers stable AND be able to trade the 'unwanted' animals, which in turn leads to barely any animals being put up for trade, which leads to either hoarding or people not bothering with breeding buffalos, and thus the cycle continues.

You're definitely right. But the cash animals offered from frontier are almost always female so it's not hard to keep a population, it's only hard to sustain a population without buying more cash animals.

 

[Adarra]

You're definitely right. But the cash animals offered from frontier are almost always female so it's not hard to keep a population, it's only hard to sustain a population without buying more cash animals.

Which is the whole problem. I don't want to have to resort to buying females all the time to keep a herd.

 

[rdsidwe]

I've noticed this with African Buffalos also. A combination of limited years of breeding time, long gestation and interbirth period and limited number of babies at one time. It is interesting how animals you would expect to breed similarly African Buffalos/American Bison and Jaguars/Cheetahs can be so vastly different in game. Jaguars are another slow breeder, Bison and Cheetahs are faster breeders comparatively.

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

Buffalo's are one of the main victims of the bug, that female animals cant have a new baby before their current baby is born.

According to the zoopdia, buffalos have a gestation period of 11 months and a interbirth period of 24 months. A female buffalo should have a baby every three years. She could have 3 babies in her 10 fertile years.

But because of the already mentioned bug, a female buffalo will have her second baby only after her first one matured. That means she will have a baby every 6 years and can have only 2 babies in her lifetime. Assuming that only 50 % of the babies are female, a female buffalo will have on average only one daughter. Nobody can sell female buffalos because it is statistically impossible to increase their number right now on the long run (assuming a 50 % possibility of a female calf.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Buffalo's are one of the main victims of the bug, that female animals cant have a new baby before their current baby is born.

According to the zoopdia, buffalos have a gestation period of 11 months and a interbirth period of 24 months. A female buffalo should have a baby every three years. She could have 3 babies in her 10 fertile years.

But because of the already mentioned bug, a female buffalo will have her second baby only after her first one matured. That means she will have a baby every 6 years and can have only 2 babies in her lifetime. Assuming that only 50 % of the babies are female, a female buffalo will have on average only one daughter. Nobody can sell female buffalos because it is statistically impossible to increase their number right now on the long run (assuming a 50 % possibility of a female calf.

What if you take the baby animal and put it in the trade center -- can the mom have another baby? Could we work around this by putting away the babies as they're born, then bringing them all into the exhibit to age up together?

Or alternatively -- what if the moment the baby is born we put the adults into the trade center where they will not age, until their young mature?

 

[NZFanatic]

Jaguars are another slow breeder

Are they? My jaguars seem to breed constantly.

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

Another player wrote, that if you remove the offspring from the mother and put them in another habitat or zoo, the interbirth period gets triggerd again and the female can get pregnant again, even though her other offspring is not adult yet. I have not tested it yet, though

 

[Nekno]

Another player wrote, that if you remove the offspring from the mother and put them in another habitat or zoo, the interbirth period gets triggerd again and the female can get pregnant again, even though her other offspring is not adult yet. I have not tested it yet, though

I've had some experience with this. It's not quite that the interbirth period is triggered, it's that they will have another baby as soon as the interbirth period has passed, vs as soon as the current baby has matured. What I do is I put the parents in the trade center as soon as the babies are born, and let the young grow up on their own while putting a pause on the aging of the adults.

 

[NL_Mutso]

According to the zoopdia, buffalos have a gestation period of 11 months and a interbirth period of 24 months. A female buffalo should have a baby every three years. She could have 3 babies in her 10 fertile years.

I think the zoopedia present info when everything is perfect with a very high animal welfare. (so should = could/capable of)

Yeah, I noticed some breeding problems with the buffalos as well. Just assumed they were poorly breeders in zoos. Didn't test anything concerning the interbirth period.
How is the actual behavior of these animals in captivity? How many offspring do they produce on average in RL?
(maybe female buffalos have more headaches than most animals )

 

[Firestar97]

I was lucky enough to get a good-sized herd going in my second franchise zoo, but in my first I'm constantly struggling with finding enough females and having enough offspring to have a stable herd.

You can transport them to your other Zoo if you put them into the Trade Center and open it in the other Zoo. I hope this solves your Problem

 

[DrBurrito]

I would like to link this here, since these two threads are related and people might want to contribute:

Interbirth period bugged for animals with a high age of maturity

There are animals like the Reindeer, Dall Sheep and some monkeys which reach maturity late, but have a relatively short interbirth period. That means a mother could get a second born before the first born reaches maturity. But that doesn't work. In my experience, a mother can only become...

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