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Carabao Facts & Worksheets

Known as the Pinoy farmer’s best buddy in the rice field, a carabao, or kalabaw in Tagalog, is a domestic swamp-type water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) endemic to the Philippines.

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Known as the Pinoy farmer’s best buddy in the rice field, a carabao, or kalabaw in Tagalog, is a domestic swamp-type water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) endemic to the Philippines. Considered the national animal of the Philippines, the carabao represents the Filipinos’ hard work and perseverance.

See the fact file below for more information on the carabao or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Carabao worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

ETYMOLOGY

  • The Spanish term carabao originated from Visayan karabàw. Other words that have a common etymological origin include Cebuano kábaw, Javanese kebo, Malay kerbau, and Indonesian Dutch karbouw.
  • A caraballa is the term given to a female carabao.
  • In Tagalog, it translates to kalabaw, which is derived from Spanish.
  • Before the Spanish colonization, carabaos were generally identified as nowang among the Ilocanos of Northern Luzon, anowang and damulag among the ethnic communities of southern and central Luzon.

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Having the low, broad, and heavy build of draught species, carabaos range in different hues from light grey to slate grey.
  • The carabao’s horns are sickle-shaped or arch backwards and extend towards the neck.
  • While chevrons are generally known, three percent of the albinoids also make up the total buffalo population.
  • Males are relatively heavier than females, weighing between 420 and 500 kg. Caraballas, on the other hand, reach 400 to 425 kg.
  • Carabaos brought to the Philippines from Cambodia in the early 1900s are known as “Cambodian carabaos.” These species possess a white or yellowish hair on a pinkish skin; however, the eyes, hooves, and mouth are dark, and the skin may be covered with a large number of spots.
  • Cambodian carabaos are also slightly heavier and have larger horns, with males weighing an average of 673 kg and measuring 141 cm at the withers.

HUSBANDRY

  • Carabaos can adjust to hot and humid climates. Water availability is also considered in hot climates because these beasts need wallows, rivers, or splashing water to lessen the heat load and thermal stress.
  • Swamp buffaloes choose to roll in mud holes, which they create with the use of their horns, to keep themselves cool and acquire a thick coating of mud.
  • They also settle on several aquatic plants; during floods, they will graze submerged, lifting their heads above the surface of the water carrying amounts of edible plants.
  • Carabaos feed on reeds, the giant reed, bulrush, sedges, the common water hyacinth, and rushes.
  • Green fodders are commonly used for all-out milk production and fattening. Different fodder crops are conserved as hay, chaffed, or pulped.
  • Studies and research in the Philippines showed that the carabao, on a poor-quality fiber and low-fat diet, had a better feed conversion rate compared to cattle.
  • Carabaos keep themselves cool in a waterhole or mud during the heat of the day. Mud, scattered on to its body, also serves as a protective coating to ward off annoying insects.
  • Carabaos usually eat in the cool of the mornings and evenings.
  • They live an average lifespan of 18 to 20 years.
  • Females give birth to one calf annually.

IN THE PHILIPPINES

  • The oldest evidence of carabao found in the Philippines is a number of fragmentary skeletal bones dug from the upper layers of the Neolithic Nagsabaran site, area of the Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens of northern Luzon. The majority of the artifacts had skull fragments, almost all of which showed cut marks implying they were butchered. These bones are correlated with red slipped pottery, spindle whorls, stone adzes, and jade bracelets; which are believed to show deep connections to some artifacts from Neolithic Austronesian archeological sites in Taiwan. According to the radiocarbon date of the layer in which these bones were discovered, carabaos were initially imported to the Philippines by at least 500 BCE.
  • In the early 1900s, other variants of carabaos were brought from China, known as the ‘Shanghai buffalo,’ and Cambodia for work in sugarcane fields. These breeds were relatively larger and heavier and have bigger horns.
  • Murrah buffaloes, a breed of carabao kept for milk production, were first introduced from India in 1917.
  • Other members of the Nili-Ravi breed have also been imported.
  • They are widely scattered in the larger islands of the Philippines. Their skin, called hide, was once used to make a number of products, even the armor of pre colonial Philippine warriors.
  • In the late 1980s, Kardong Kalabaw, a famous carabao puppet character, became an emblem of the Filipinos’ hard work and sense of industry.
  • In 1993, the Philippine Carabao Center was formed to conserve, cultivate, and build up the carabao’s image as a source of draught animal power, meat, milk, and hide to help rural farmers through carabao genetic improvement, technology development and dissemination, and construction of carabao-based enterprises, thus guaranteeing higher profits and better nutrition. The National Water Buffalo Gene Pool in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, is a laboratory for regular selection, testing, and propagation of superior variants of dairy carabao.
  • The old payatak technique of farming is still used by the farmers in Northern Samar. The soil of the rice paddy is initially softened using rainwater or diverted watershed, then carabaos trample the planting area until it is damp and soaked enough to be planted with rice seedlings.
  • Carabao racing is a famous sport among farmers and carabao fanatics in the Philippines, such as in central, southern Luzon, and South Cotabato, where some fiestas feature carabaos racing up towards the finish line.
  • Carabaos, equipped with their carts on their back, sprint together with their farmers to win prizes.

Carabao Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the carabao across 20 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Carabao worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Pinoy farmer’s best buddy in the rice field, a carabao, or kalabaw in Tagalog, which is a domestic swamp-type water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) endemic to the Philippines. Considered the national animal of the Philippines, the carabao represents the Filipinos’ hard work and perseverance.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Carabao Facts
  • Beast of Burden
  • How Now Carabao
  • Cara-what?
  • Why Carabao’s Milk?
  • Carabao’s Life
  • Other Farm Animals
  • The Country’s Animal
  • Pulilan Carabao Festival
  • What’s on the Menu?
  • Economic Importance

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Link will appear as Carabao Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, January 28, 2021

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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