Rarest wild buffalo

The world's rarest species of wild buffalo is the tamaraw Bubalis mindorensis, which is confined entirely to the Philippine island of Mindoro. Once existing throughout this island, its numbers have been decimated by habitat destruction owing to logging and human habitation, and also by hunting. Nowadays, it is solely restricted to a few grassy plains in Mindoro's mountainous interior, and is believed to number around 430 individuals, most of which are mature adults spread among three separate subpopulations. As a result, it is officially categorized as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

At one time, the tamaraw was mistakenly assumed to be nothing more than a subspecies of the common domestic water buffalo B. bubalis, specifically of the small swamp-dwelling version native to the Philippines and known as the carabao. Morphological studies, however, have identified several significant differentiating characteristics, warranting its status as a separate valid species in its own right. It is therefore the largest terrestrial mammal species native to the Philippines, thus making its status as a critically endangered animal all the more disturbing.