Association between wildlife and bovine dual purpose cattle in a silvopastured system, Pinto, Magdalena, Colombia

Objective. To evaluate the association between wild fauna biodiversity and dual purpose cattle in a silvopastured system, municipality of Pinto, Magdalena, Colombia. Animals were maintained in two different yards: yard 1) presented Botriochloa pertusa (colosoana) pastures as herbaceous dominant plus Crescentia cujete (Bignoniaceae) as source of additional food, yard 2) presented Botriochloa pertusa (colosoana) pastures as herbaceous dominant plus scarce and disperse trees. Materials and methods. A total of 15 cows (? zebu, brown ? and costeño con cuernos ?) were located in a 10 ha, yard. The separation between the yards areas was 500m. The fauna was monitoring, in 10 fixed different places, with wide view, during 20 continuous days. Cows were weighted the first day and the last day of the experiment, with the purpose of determining possible weight differences among them. Results. The biological diversity of yard 1 (plantation of C. cujete), was different in number of individuals and number of species from yard 2 (scarce and disperses trees). However the corporal weight of the cows was not different between both yards. Conclusions. This study demostrated the possibility to promote this kind of model for the refuge and conservation of a diversity of local fauna. without substantially altering the environment.