Morphological characteristics of Simeulu buffalo in Simeulue District of Aceh Province, Indonesia

The purpose of this study was to identify the morphological characteristics of Simeulue buffalo in Simeulue district of Aceh Province, Indonesia, the reason is because the lack of morphological data of simeulue buffalo. This research used survey method in ten villages within Simeulue district, namely: Ujung Salang, Along, Panten Lawe, Mutiara, Padang Unoi, Karya Bakti, Tamon Jaya, Meunafa, Jaya Baru and Tameng. The material consisted of fifty Simeulue buffaloes aged 3-7 years (25 male and 25 female). Determination of buffalo samples is done by simple random sampling method. The collected data was analyzed using a frequency table, averaged, and standard deviations. The parameters observed were: (a) chest circumference; (b) shoulder heigth; (c) body length; (d) chest width; and (e) hip height. The results showed that the mean of chest circumference for female and male Simeulue buffalo was 173.08 ± 8.99 and 165.68 ± 0.14, shoulder heigth was 122.33 ± 0.33 and 118 ± 1.44, body length was 125.54 ± 0.96 and 120 ± 1.16, chest width was 37.32 ± 4.09 and 34.28 ± 2.34, hip height was 118.05 ± 1.40 and 114.32 ± 1.07, respectively. It can be conclude that the average body measurements of the Simeulue buffalo are classified as medium size both male and female. The body sizes of the male Simeulue buffalo are larger than those of the female Simeulue buffalo. The average body size of Simeulue buffalo is not much different from the body size of several types of buffalo outside Simeulue Island.