RESEARCH WORK

Behavior of grazing buffaloes in wetlands of Ciego de Ávila, Cuba

A. Caraballoso¹, Ángela Borroto y R. Pérez

¹Centro de Investigaciones en Bioalimentos, Carretera a Patria km 1 ½. Morón, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. E-mail: abdiel@ciba.fica.inf.cu

ABSTRACT

With the objective of characterizing the behavior of grazing buffaloes in a Ciego de Ávila wetland, this study was conducted in areas of the Livestock Production Enterprise of the Bolivia municipality, in the Northern Wetland of the Ciego de Ávila province. Clinically healthy river, swamp and crossbred Buffalypso buffaloes were used. In order to determine the floristic composition different transepts were made through the intercept line procedure. The behavior of the grazing buffaloes was evaluated for 10 consecutive days and in both seasons, through the visual method adapted for this species. A total of 165 plant species corresponding to 20 families were identified in the grazing area of the buffaloes. The animals dedicated most of their time to grazing in both periods (58,5 and 64,3% for periods I and II, respectively), followed by rumination (13,2 and 15,1%, respectively). The behavior study is concluded to be an important tool in buffalo exploitation and management; the buffaloes were observed to dedicate the highest time percentage to the grazing activity, with a trend to its increase in the first three hours of day. Intensifying the sowing of plant cover is recommended to prevent its deterioration, as well as the migration of the animals to other ecosystems.

Key words: Grazing, water buffalo.

INTRODUCTION

In 1989 the buffalo development program started in the Ciego de Ávila province with the entrance of a small herd to the «Ruta Invasora» Livestock Production Enterprise, located in the center/south of the province; afterwards, 300 animals were introduced in the former «1ero de Enero» Livestock Production Enterprise in the Bolivia municipality located in the center/northern zone, and in the 90's their introduction began in areas of the Venezuela municipality, which is in the southern region of the province. Then, the rearing of this species was extensively developed in the north and south coastal areas of the province, which caused affectations in the plant cover of the wetland due to the activity and behavior habits of the species, as well as deficiencies in management.

The exploitation systems which main protagonists are animals and plants, have wide diversity of species that live together in the grazing units and areas, where the efficient use of resources, and the correct application of management policies favor the stability and harmony among these factors and the environment, which has an important place in the growth, development and functioning of the system (Batista et al., 1981). Under these criteria, programs and new projects are undertaken that enhance the species development and guarantee productions that satisfy the world population (Carrero, 2000).

Among the species under study for the application of new production systems in livestock production are buffaloes. According to Alarcón and Mitat (1992) and Capdevila et al. (2002), it is a precocious, rustic species, great feed converter (especially low quality pastures), which allows them to compete with cattle; in addition, it shows high fertility and produces a much healthier meat for humans than cattle meat.

The objective of the work was to characterize the behavior of grazing buffaloes in the northern wetland of Ciego de Ávila.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted in areas of the Livestock Production Enterprise of the Bolivia municipality, inserted in the northern wetland of the Ciego de Ávila province, designated as an internationally important wetland.

The evaluations were made in zones in which, at the beginning, the species was introduced with productive purposes for their development under an extensive rearing system throughout the northern coast of the province; under these conditions the system was evaluated for two periods: September, 2003-September, 2004 (I), and October, 2004-October, 2005 (II).

The foreseen territory for buffalo development in the province comprises an area of 45 000 ha, between the Morón and Bolivia municipalities, main zone where the highest percentage of animals is located; while in the south of the province an area is destined for this purpose of 24 600 ha, from which 32,5% of wetland belonging to the Venezuela and Baraguá municipalities, mainly, where it is also common to observe the large areas sometimes limited by electric fences, but there are zones where the coast is the main limit, which makes it difficult to manage and control the stock.

Soils. The version of genetic classification of Cuban soils (Hernández et al., 1999) was taken into consideration. Most of the areas dedicated to animal exploitation show characteristics of the savannas, which can be serpentine, sandy, sandy-clayey and gravel (Machuca et al., 1998). The savanna soil type occupies clayey plains with more than 60% clay and predominance of montmorillonite; it is very plastic and sticky when humid, excessively hard and compact when it is extraordinarily dry and cracked. In the rainy season it is flooded, has low density and high porosity, but poor aeration.

The soils varied from little differentiated alluvial and differentiated alluvial, to calcimorphic humic soil, although plastic dark vertisols, slightly compacted and with sufficient drainage prevailed.

Animals. Clinically healthy river, swam and crossbred Buffalypso buffaloes were evaluated, with an age between 26 and 30 months, an average weight of 520 kg and a body condition between 4,0 and 4,5, respectively.

Measurements

Floristic composition of the pastureland. Different transepts were made in line, using the intercept line method proposed by Mateucci and Colma (1982), 25 m long and passing through the grazing areas (paddocks) from side to side in transversal sense, and the data of the species, cover, height, life form and phenological status were recorded.

Behavior of grazing buffalo. A variant of the visual method used by Senra (1989) and adapted for this species was used, registering every 10 minutes (from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) during 10 consecutive days and in both seasons, and the free access of the animals to water and mineral supplement was considered; it was not possible to conduct this study for 24 hours, because at night they were confined due to safety reasons in a pen where they were supplied water, salts and a minimum of forage (king grass). The main activities made by the animals in the pastureland were: grazing, standing rumination, lying rumination, standing rest, lying rest, browsing, eventual movement, directed movement, physiological and social events.

Mathematical processing. The collected information, about buffalo ethology in those herds, was processed by means of the statistical pack SPSS 10.0.5 (1999) and simple classification ANOVA was used; while the difference between means was evaluated through Tukey's test for P<0,05.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the floristic composition of the grazing area of buffaloes a total of 165 plant species were identified corresponding to 20 families. The best represented ones were: Mimosaceae (8), Poaceae (10), Verbenaceae (3), Fabaceae (4), Asteraceae (2), Euphorbiaceae (5), Malvaceae (13), Acanthaceae (2), Amaranthaceae (7), Combretaceae (2), Lamiaceae (1), Juncaceae (2), Poaceae (3), Tifaceae (2), Avicenniaceae (1), Annonaceae (1), Combritaceae (1), Bignoniaceae (1), Arecaceae (1) and Cyperaceae (2). The identified species with higher appearance frequency are shown in table 1.

Table 2 shows that the animals dedicated most of the time to grazing in both periods (58,5 and 64,3%, respectively), followed by rumination (13,2 and 15,1%); while the rest of the time they were moving from one place to the other and in social and physiological events. Similar performance was found by Fundora et al. (2003) when evaluating the behavior of river buffaloes, which dedicated the highest percentage of time to grazing, mainly in the daylight hours.

On the other hand, there was an increase in the grazing activity when comparing a period with the other. In addition, the physiological and social events were perceived to decrease. Hence the behavior evaluation is a tool to readjust buffalo management under grazing conditions. These results coincide with the ones described for grazing buffaloes by Fundora et al. (2001), who stated the importance of ethology for the species management and the exploitation of the ecosystems in each territory.

The highest rumination values were shown between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., coinciding with the midday hours in which solar radiation is more intense; on the other hand, the animals made moved more, towards other areas, between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., which also coincided with the hottest hours of day and the descriptions made by Planas and García (2002).

It should be emphasized that such movements were made, most of the times, from the pasturelands towards the mud-holes and generally in areas under shade. However, the presence or absence of mud-holes depends on the conditions of the zone and the system used (Planas, 1997).

The highest activity of the animals was observed in the formation of mixed mangrove with predominance of Conocarpus erectus; the buffaloes dedicated most of their time to graze the vegetation in the paddocks, which coincides with the report made by Carrero (2000) and Pagés (2003), and differed significantly (P<0,05) from the rest.

The behavior study is concluded to be an important tool in buffalo exploitation and management. The buffaloes dedicated the highest time percentage to the grazing activity, with a trend to increase it in the first three hours of the day. The intensification of plant cover sowing is recommended to prevent its deterioration, as well as the migration of the animals to other ecosystems.