Water buffalo have returned to Thorley Wash Nature Reserve for a second year. The herd will be helping to enhance its flora and fauna by grazing and wallowing. The wash is a fen habitat, a real rarity in Hertfordshire and increasingly uncommon across the UK, where 99% has already disappeared. As they clear vegetation, the seven buffalo, native to the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia and China, create habitats for insects, amphibians and birds. The welfare of the five youngsters and two adults is monitored daily by a team of Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust volunteers led by Robert Philli…