African Buffalo inhabit a wide range of habitats, including semi-arid bushland, Acacia woodland, miombo Brachystegia woodland, montane grasslands and forest (to elevations well over 4,000 m asl), coastal savannas, and moist lowland rainforests. They are absent only from deserts and sub-deserts, such as the Namib/Kalahari, the arid Horn of Africa and the Saharan/Sahelian transition zone (Prins and Sinclair 2013, Cornélis et al. 2014).

The African Buffalo once occurred across most of sub-Saharan Africa. There is no palaeontological evidence of the presence of the species in North Africa or in the Nile Valley north of Khartoum (Prins and Sinclair 2013). In North Africa, aurochs Bos primigenius, the progenitor of domestic cattle, occupied a similar niche and perhaps prevented the buffalo’s spread to the north (Cornélis et al. 2014). Rainfall is a limiting factor and African Buffalo generally occupy areas with annual rainfall above 250 mm and where herbaceous forage is available (Cornélis et al. 2014).

African Buffalo populations have undergone a severe reduction in size and geographical distribution since the 19th century, as a result of anthropogenic impacts (land conversion, poaching, disease outbreaks) and climatic events such as droughts (Cornélis et al. 2014). Around 70% of savanna buffalo populations are confined to a patchwork of protected areas and surrounding hunting zones (East 1999). During the 20th century, the distribution has been actively reduced in several countries by culling and veterinary fences, in efforts to limit the transmission of pathogens, such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and trypanosomiasis, to cattle (Taylor and Martin 1987).

Forest Buffalo (S. c. nanus)
This subspecies has a disjunct distribution: one area in the rainforest belt of West Africa and another in Lower Guinea Forest and Congo Basin (Cornélis et al. 2014). Both areas of distribution are mainly located in areas with an annual rainfall >1,500 mm, in transition zones between dense tropical forests and savanna ecosystems (East 1999). In West Africa, forest buffalo are distributed from Guinea-Bissau to south-west Ghana. In Central Africa, they occur in southern Nigeria, southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, south and south-west Central African Republic, western Uganda, western Rwanda and possibly north-west Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon. About 75% of the population lives in and around protected areas in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo. In both areas of distribution, numbers have declined substantially due to poaching and deforestation (East 1999), but their status is generally poorly known (Cornélis et al. 2014). They became extinct on Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea) sometime between 1860 and 1910 (Butynski et al. 1997).

West African Savanna Buffalo (S. c. brachyceros)
This subspecies still occurs locally in the Sahelo-Sudanian zone, occupying savannas and gallery forests, from south-eastern Senegal, northern Ivory Coast, southern Burkina Faso, northern Ghana and Benin, extreme south of Niger, Nigeria (very locally), northern Cameroon and a small area of the Central African Republic (East 1999).

Central African Savanna Buffalo (S. c. aequinoctialis)
This subspecies still occurs locally in the Sahelo-Sudanian zone of Central Africa: south-east Chad, northern Central African Republic (East of the Chari River), northern Democratic Republic of Congo, south-east Sudan and western Ethiopia (East 1999). It is now extinct in Eritrea.

Cape Buffalo (S. c. caffer)
Cape Buffalo occurs in south-western Ethiopia (particularly Omo N.P.), southern Somalia and northern Kenya southwards to South Africa. It is patchily distributed throughout East Africa, southwards to Zambia, Malawi, some parts of Mozambique (small populations south of the Zambezi river with most in the north of the country), Niassa Reserve and Cabo Delgado areas (Skinner and Chimimba 2005); north-eastern Namibia (mainly eastern and western Caprivi and an introduced population in the Waterberg Plateau Park, central Namibia), Botswana (north of 20°S, Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe N.P.), and Zimbabwe (Hwange N.P., Matabeleland, Zambezi Valley, and Gonarezhou National Park; Skinner and Chimimba 2005). Small populations of Cape Buffalo still survive in some areas of south-east Angola (Cornélis et al. 2014). In South Africa, Cape buffalo have been reintroduced to some areas from which they were formerly extirpated. They are currently widely distributed in Kruger N.P. and smaller populations persist in KwaZuluNatal and in many private reserves; the current population in Swaziland is a reintroduction (Cornélis et al. 2014).

About 70-75% of buffalo populations occur in and around protected areas (East 1999), and the future status of this species is closely linked to effective protected areas and well-managed hunting zones.

In 2012 there were 166 Cape Buffalo and 135 forest buffalo in captivity (Cornélis et al. 2014). In addition, large numbers of Cape Buffalo (ca 26,000) are maintained on game farms in South Africa (Cornélis et al. 2014).