No bull: Cosi’s close call with raging buffalo caught on camera

Andrew “Cosi” Costello loves an outback adventure. Which is lucky, because his latest project is “no bull”.

Andrew “Cosi” Costello is mustering the troops to run the biggest “recycling project of an animal species” on the planet.

No bull – literally.

The media personality and philanthropist and a crew have been capturing buffalo in Australia’s Top End using what he has described as a “giant skill tester”.

But he is only after young female buffaloes.

Cost is expanding his Cows for Cambodia charity – which gives income-generating cows to farming families living with poverty – to include buffalo.

He came up with the idea after he noticed buffalo, were not only prized, but thrived in Cambodia, where they happily feed on rice straw.

“We don’t want the big buffalo bulls,” Cosi told The Advertiser, adding: “Big grumpy males are no good to us.”

Andrew “Cosi” Costello and crew caught a feral bull, but his charity needs young female buffalo. Picture: Supplied

Some of the buffalo caught on Cosi’s adventure. Picture: Supplied

Buffalos for Cambodia required 200kg young females “who will become future breeders”, he said.

Unlike bulls, they “tame down very fast” and were “life-changing” for Cambodian farming families, he said.

“When we give one to a family, it has a baby every year which the family sells for between $800 USD ($1200 AUD) and $1500 USD ($2260 AUD) for meat or breeding,” Cosi said.

“Owning a female buffalo doubles the average family income.”

The 100 young females needed to kick off the project will be sourced from the Northern Territory, where wild buffalo, which were introduced to Australia in 1825, are feral in numbers estimated to be close to 190,000.

Causing environmental damage, they decimate wetlands and vegetation, including the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

While the buffalo are exported to Indonesia, Cosi said they were also “shot and left for dead for dingoes or feral pigs to eat”.

“Or they end up as dog meat or meat for crocodile farms,” he said.

“It is a waste of an animal’s life and protein source when the world is hungry.

Cosi reckons he is setting a world record when it comes to recycling an animal species. Picture: Supplied

Cosi said he believed he was creating the largest ever “recycling project of an animal species”.

“I can’t find anything like it, it’s pretty special,” he said, adding: “A mate of mine, who is a cattle farmer working on the project with me, said ‘all those years ago buffalo were brought over from South East Asia … we’re just bringing them home’, and it is where they are really wanted and needed versus damaging the environment.”

Cosi and his teenage daughter Matilda recently spent eight days – during her school holidays – with the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association catching buffalo, which he said was “like being in the Wild West”.

“They go out with helicopters to flush out the buffalo and then drive up to them in a bull-catcher, which is like a LandCruiser that has been cut in half and has a bionic arm to capture them – it’s like a giant game of skill tester,” Cosi said, referring to claw machines which require expert hand to eye co-ordination to snag a soft toy.

Cosi and crew catching feral buffalo for his charity. Picture: Supplied

Cosi in the bull-catcher with a mate. Picture: Supplied

Describing the adventure as like something out of “Mad Max”, Cosi had a close encounter with a buffalo bull, which charged at him while he was filming a piece to camera for a planned TV series.

Cosi and the crew caught bulls, but also 60 of the 100 young females he plans to send to Cambodia.

While the paperwork is still being processed by the Cambodian Government, Cosi hopes the project will be up and running by the end of this year or the start of 2024.

When it is, the 100 buffalo will be rehomed at Cows for Cambodia’s facility north of Siem Reap before they are given to families.

Recognising that the live export of animals is an issue of concern for many, Cosi said the buffalo will be looked after on their journey by sea to Vietnam and then road to Cambodia.

“It takes a high level of care for them to reproduce – there will be stacks of room (for them on the boat),” he said. “These girls have won the jackpot – for the rest of their lives they are treated like rock stars.”