bovine in tropical Asia. Bubalus bubalis was
domesticated as a draft animal in
Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE, then taken to
the Indus civilizations of present-day
Pakistan, and eventually through India and
China. This tropical animal is sensitive to heat
(it wallows in water to cool down), so it
proved adaptable to milder climates. The
Arabs brought buffalo to the Middle East
around 700 CE, and in the Middle Ages they
were introduced throughout Europe. The most
notable vestige of that introduction is a
population approaching 100,000 in the
Campagna region south of Rome, which
supplies the milk for true mozzarella cheese,
mozzarella di bufala. Buffalo milk is much
richer than cow’s milk, so mozzarella and
Indian milk dishes are very different when the
traditional buffalo milk is replaced with cow’s
milk.
The Yak The third important dairy bovine is