The African buffalo’s large, fused forehead horn shield is called a boss.
In adult African buffaloes, especially bulls, the bases of the horns broaden across the forehead and join into a hard, heavily reinforced structure. This boss helps protect the skull during clashes between males. Bulls may push, twist, and drive their horns against one another when competing for status or access to females.
The best-known African buffalo is the Cape buffalo, a subspecies of African buffalo found across eastern and southern Africa. Females and younger animals also have horns, but their bosses are generally less developed than those of mature bulls. A boss is not a separate horn or an extra body part; it is the thickened central area formed where the horn bases meet.
African buffaloes are bovids, like cattle and antelope. Their horns grow from permanent bony cores and are not shed annually, unlike antlers in deer.