Water buf­fa­lo have been kept in the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park for sev­er­al years as agri­cul­tur­al live­stock. Even before the Ice Age, wild water buf­fa­lo lived in the low­er Oder Val­ley, as fos­sil finds show. In the nation­al park, water buf­fa­lo are not released into the wild or kept as a sub­sti­tute for the wild form that has long been extinct.

Water buf­fa­lo are fru­gal ani­mals. They can use feed of low­er qual­i­ty than the usu­al domes­tic cat­tle. Above all, how­ev­er, they can devel­op habi­tats that domes­tic cat­tle would avoid: wet­lands, swampy ter­rain and bog sites. Wher­ev­er they graze they replace domes­tic cat­tle. The water buf­fa­lo are farm ani­mals that keep the mead­ows free and short for us so that the mead­ow breed­ers, for whom the nation­al park was essen­tial­ly cre­at­ed, can also find suit­able breed­ing grounds in the spring. They also serve to pro­tect nature.

You will find the water buf­fa­lo pas­ture in the Friedrich­sthaler Pold­er (5/6), east of the fed­er­al high­way 2, between Friedrich­sthal and Gartz (Oder) (see map). The impos­ing water buf­fa­lo are man­aged by the board of direc­tors of the Low­er Oder Val­ley Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion, Dr. Ans­gar Vöss­ing, pre­sent­ed sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly and yet in a way that is easy to under­stand. Weath­er­proof cloth­ing and stur­dy shoes are advantageous.

The excur­sion takes place in the great out­doors, all dis­tances can be main­tained and all cur­rent­ly valid state reg­u­la­tions are observed.

The excur­sion is free, but dona­tions are welcome.

We kind­ly ask you to reg­is­ter in advance at the e‑mail address: , tele­phone +49 (0)3332–219822 or via the book­ing func­tion at the bot­tom of this page.

The board