Why it represents the country
Vietnam has no law that names a national animal, but the water buffalo, called con trâu in Vietnamese, is the animal most closely linked to everyday Vietnamese life. Rice has been at the heart of farming in Vietnam for thousands of years, and buffalo pulled the plows, carried the harvest and hauled heavy loads. An old proverb says that the buffalo is the foundation of a family's livelihood, because a farm could hardly work without one.
The buffalo also has a place in the calendar. In the Vietnamese zodiac the buffalo is the second sign, after the rat, in the place the Chinese zodiac gives to the ox. Festivals across the country honor it. In Ha Nam province, a ceremony early in the lunar new year recreates an ancient king plowing the first field of the year with a buffalo, and in Do Son, near Hai Phong, a famous buffalo-fighting festival is held on the ninth day of the eighth lunar month.
When Vietnam hosted the Southeast Asian Games in 2003, the official mascot was a golden water buffalo. It was chosen to stand for qualities Vietnamese people have long admired in the animal: hard work, gentleness, loyalty and good harvests.
About the animal
The water buffalo is a large, heavy member of the cattle family with gray to black skin, thin hair and big curved horns. There are two main types. River buffalo, common in South Asia, are kept mostly for milk. Swamp buffalo, the type found across Southeast Asia, are stockier, with a short face and horns that spread outward in a wide semicircle, and have traditionally been used for work in the fields.
Adult water buffalo typically weigh 300 to 550 kilograms and stand about 1.2 to 1.3 meters at the shoulder, though some grow much heavier. They are strong, calm and steady animals, well suited to pulling a plow through the deep, wet mud of a flooded rice paddy.
Water buffalo do not cope well with heat. To stay cool they spend hours lying in rivers, ponds or mud wallows, and swamp buffalo even dig their own mud holes with their horns. A coat of drying mud also helps protect their skin from the sun and from biting insects.
Swamp buffalo were domesticated in mainland Southeast Asia, probably somewhere between 3,000 and 7,000 years ago. A cow carries her calf for about ten months and usually has a single calf. Buffalo are long-lived for farm animals, and many stay productive into their 30s.
Conservation
Domestic water buffalo are not assessed on the IUCN Red List because they are farm animals. Vietnam still keeps a large buffalo herd, but the number of working buffalo has fallen as tractors and other machines take over the plowing, and raising buffalo for meat has become more important.
Their wild relative tells a very different story. The wild water buffalo is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with fewer than 4,000 adults thought to remain, most of them in India and smaller groups in Nepal and a few other countries. Wild buffalo once roamed Vietnam too, but they have disappeared from the wild there, as well as from Bangladesh and Laos.
The main threats to wild buffalo are the loss of wetland and grassland habitat, hunting, and breeding with domestic buffalo, which blurs the wild gene pool. Protecting the last wild herds also protects the natural heritage behind the hard-working animals that still share Vietnam's fields.
Fun facts
- In the Vietnamese zodiac, the year that the Chinese zodiac gives to the ox belongs to the water buffalo.
- The mascot of the 2003 Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam was a golden water buffalo.
- Swamp buffalo can dig their own mud wallows using their horns.
Other national symbols of Vietnam
- National flower
Lotus Nelumbo nucifera National symbol
The lotus led Vietnam's 2011 national-flower poll by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, but has not been formally recognized.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national animal of Vietnam?
The national animal of Vietnam is the water buffalo (a widely recognized national symbol, not set by law). It is a large, heavy member of the cattle family with gray to black skin, thin hair and big curved horns, and for thousands of years it has plowed Vietnam's rice fields.
Which country has the water buffalo as its national animal?
The water buffalo is the national animal of Vietnam.
Why is the water buffalo the national animal of Vietnam?
Vietnam has no law naming a national animal, but the water buffalo, called con trâu in Vietnamese, is the animal most closely linked to everyday life, because for thousands of years it pulled the plows, carried the harvest and hauled heavy loads in a country built on rice farming. It is also the second sign of the Vietnamese zodiac, it is honored in festivals across the country, and a golden water buffalo was the mascot when Vietnam hosted the 2003 Southeast Asian Games.
Where does the water buffalo live?
Rice paddies, river plains and hill farms, never far from water or mud.
Sources
- Vietnam News Agency (Vietnam Pictorial). Water buffalo in Vietnamese culture.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. Water buffalo.
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Bubalus arnee (assessment 2019).
- Tuổi Trẻ — Nên chọn hoa sen hay bông lúa là quốc hoa? (2024).
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
