Short answers, pulled from the story.
The African buffalo has an unpredictable temperament that is believed to be a key reason it has never been domesticated and has no domesticated descendants. Unlike the wild yak and wild water buffalo, which were tamed by humans and became ancestors of domestic breeds, the African buffalo resisted domestication entirely.
The boss is a continuous bone shield formed by the fused bases of the horns on adult male African buffaloes in the southern and eastern populations. The horns diverge downward from the boss and then curve upward and outward. The boss does not fully harden until the animal reaches 8 to 9 years of age.
Cape buffalo bulls can weigh between 425 and 870 kilograms, with shoulder heights ranging from 1.0 to 1.7 meters. The African forest buffalo is considerably smaller, weighing 250 to 450 kilograms, roughly half the size of the Cape buffalo.
Dagga boys are old male African buffaloes, typically 12 years or older, that have ceased to rejoin the main herd because they can no longer compete with younger, more aggressive bulls. The name means "mud covered." They are widely considered the most dangerous to humans.
The rinderpest epidemic of the 1890s, combined with pleuro-pneumonia, caused mortalities as high as 95 percent among both livestock and wild ungulates across Africa. It was the most severe population collapse in the species' recorded history.
The IUCN estimates the total African buffalo population at 400,000 individuals, with a decreasing trend, and classifies the species as Near Threatened. A census of the three savanna-type subspecies combined puts their count at approximately 513,000 individuals.