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The water buffalo has conserved the semi-wild type of behaviour that is its nature. The feeding behaviour of the water buffalo is similar to that of cattle raised in similar conditions, but these two species are differentiated by the wallowing behaviour that characterises the former. Both water buffaloes and cattle spend 99% of their waking hours ingesting food, ruminating, resting and drinking water; the remaining 1% is devoted to locomotion and other activities.
During the day, these animals generally pass the time by consuming pasture and ruminating, but they probably also graze at night reported that food ingestion increases as daylight hours advance, although these observations run counter to the findings reported in Thomas et al., who observed that water buffaloes spend significantly more time eating during the day compared to the night. On this point, Odyuo et al. (1995) affirm that eating, idling and walking were more frequent during daylight hours, while ruminating and sleeping were the predominant activities performed at night.
Studies that evaluated 16-month-old water buffaloes of the Bufalipso breed that were allowed access to feed (Panicum máximum) and water ad libitum showed that, compared to bovine cattle, those animals devoted more time to rumination (53.7 vs. 37.9%), less time to ingesting forage (22.4 vs. 32.9%), and more time at rest (31.3 vs. 27%) have also reported that these beasts spend most of their time grazing (58.6%), followed by ruminating (28.2%), lying down (26.5%), wallowing (12.9%), and standing (1.4%).
They found that when these animals had access to a pond or ditch, the proportion of wallowing was two times greater than when they had access to a stream (P < 0.05). Napolitano et al., meanwhile, reported that during summer and autumn the animals displayed higher levels of inactivity, as shown by increased lying down and ruminating behaviours.
Other studies have found that activities like locomotion and exploration (P = 0.01), social interaction (sniffing, nuzzling), and allogrooming (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively) all increase when the water buffalo has access to a concrete pool. In this regard, expression of Orexin A and its receptor OX (1) has been found in the brains of water buffaloes.
This protein modulates feeding behaviour, the sleep-wake cycle, and energy homeostasis, as well as associated drinking behaviours.