African buffalo are keystone grazers whose large herd structure provides social welfare benefits while also creating disease transmission challenges. Understanding their social ecology informs conservation management.
African buffalo welfare is inseparable from their herd social structure. These highly social animals have measurable welfare benefits from group living — reduced predation stress, shared vigilance, and social bonds. However, high-density herds in enclosed reserves facilitate bovine TB transmission, causing chronic respiratory disease, immune suppression, and weight loss in affected individuals. TB culling programs remove diseased individuals but disrupt herd social structure and cause additional suffering. Oral vaccination programs are being developed as a more welfare-friendly alternative to culling. Trophy hunting of old bulls raises welfare questions about whether removal of experience and genetic material from herds serves conservation or welfare goals.