Tamaraw

Differentiated from the larger and more docile Asian Water Buffalo, the Tamaraw is the world's most endangered buffalo species.

It bears distinctive V-shaped horns, a shorter tail and a shaggy coat of chocolate to ebony fur. Adults stand four feet tall and average 300 kilograms – about half as much as a typical Water Buffalo.

Except for calving cows, adult Tamaraw are mostly solitary. Cornered or threatened, they can be aggressive, chasing their foes for up to a kilometer.

During the Pleistocene Epoch some 12,000 years back, Tamaraw herds ranged across much of mainland Luzon. Sadly, this last population has taken severe blows – ranging from a crippling outbreak of cattle-killing Rinderpest in the 1930s to incessant land clearing and poaching.

Today, only about 350 survive - holding out atop the grassy slopes and forest patches of Mts. Iglit, Baco, Aruyan, Bongabong, Calavite and Halcon in Mindoro.