Herds of over a thousand buffalos made a six-hour trek to the river during a scorching heatwave that saw temperatures reach a record height of 46 degrees Celsius.

This video, filmed on September 19, shows the spectacular migration that took place at Kruger National Park in South Africa.

With other sources of water depleted, the buffalos began their move from about 30 kilometres away towards the river and could be detected some distance off by the presence of advancing dust clouds. The entire migration took six hours, at the end of which the buffalos were seen gulping down water so desperately they showed no concern when a crocodile floated right up.

On 18 and 19 September 2018 the north eastern part of South Africa including the whole Kruger National Park went through one of the worst heatwaves ever recorded in the area. During the two days temperatures reached record heights of 46 degrees Celsius. This extreme heat has fanned bush fires, forced local schools to close and put extreme pressure on wildlife. Migratory animals like buffalo took an enormous amount of strain. Because of the vast quantity of coarse material eaten, buffalo depend on regular access to drinking water. It’s the peak of the dry season and all grazing fields as far as 40 kilometres away from the nearest water have been depleted. The video shows a large herd of migratory buffalo arriving at a river. These buffalo were seen early that morning on safari some 30 kilometres away moving resolutely in the direction of the river. This was one of the biggest herds of buffalo we’ve ever seen. This herd was estimated at over a thousand animals. These massive herds of buffalo can be detected some distance off by the presence of an advancing cloud of dust. It took another six hours in extreme heat for the herd to reach the river. We were there ready and waiting. The video shows the approach of this large herd down to the river and it turned out to be a noisy, dusty and spectacular affair. The video shows at the end how tired and thirsty the buffalo were that they didn’t even show any fear for the resident hippos or concern when a crocodile came floating right up to them. It was fascinating to watch how the forces of nature drove animals into unusual behaviour