Water-buffalos in Nea Apollonia, Koronia Lake, Greece

As you can see, the "vouvalos" of the Entertaining Tale of Quadrupeds is quite different* from the North American buffalo. The buffalos shown are among the allegedly last 50 or so remaining in Greece, and their milk contributes to the fame of the Hatzis pastry shop in Thessaloniki (established in 1908).

*"The water buffalo of Southern Italy -- to which lovers of Italian cuisine owe true Mozzarella cheese -- has, for instance, been attributed to Byzantium's presence there."

[From Michael McCormick's "The Imperial Edge: Italo-Byzantine Identity, Movement, and Integration, AD 650-950" (p. 24), Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire (edited by Helene Ahrweiler and Angeliki Laiou), Dumbarton Oaks, 1998, pp. 17-52.]