In the first days of the year, we followed a friend who is passionate about wildlife photography to Phuoc Binh National Park (NP) in Bac Ai district, Ninh Thuan province, to learn about the special hybrid gaur herd. Phuoc Binh NP is famous for its rich tropical and subtropical ecosystem, bordering Lam Vien plateau and Bidoup - Nui Ba NP ( Lam Dong ).
Provincial Road 656 leads to Phuoc Binh, a lush green road, and the Song Cai irrigation reservoir is full of water. This road has been upgraded and expanded, creating favorable conditions for people and tourists to visit Phuoc Binh National Park.
Phuoc Binh National Park is caring for and developing a herd of hybrid gaurs, a rare thing in national parks across the country. Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Center for Biodiversity, recounted the story of a male gaur that left the herd to live on the edge of Phuoc Binh forest, next to Bac Ray village, to "date" with a domestic cow, giving birth to F1 hybrid gaur offspring 15 years ago.
From 2009 to 2015, a wild bull that had separated from its herd frequently appeared "pairing" with the local herd of cows. This wild bull was 1.7m tall, more than 2m long, weighed about 1 ton, and had given birth to about 20 crossbred calves.
By 2015, the male gaur had died of old age. Its specimen is on display at the Center for EnvironmentalEducation and Forest Environmental Services. Currently, Phuoc Binh National Park is raising and conserving 11 hybrid gaur individuals, including 9 F1 hybrid gaurs, 1 F2 hybrid gaur and 1 F3 hybrid gaur.
The hybrid gaur herd is raised in a semi-natural environment of more than 5 hectares at Phuoc Binh Experimental Garden. Taking care of the hybrid gaur herd is not easy, requiring an understanding of their characteristics. The F1 hybrid gaurs still have clear wild characteristics, they can gore any other gaur or stranger that comes near.
At the end of 2024, the Department of Science and Technology of Ninh Thuan province coordinated with Phuoc Binh National Park to organize a scientific workshop to assess the development potential of the hybrid gaur herd and propose management, care and development plans in the coming time.
Phuoc Binh National Park Management Board said that in 2012, the unit bought 10 hybrid gaurs to raise for research and to protect valuable gene sources.
The results of the examination showed that all hybrid gaurs have a chromosome pair of 2n=58, different from domestic cattle and wild gaurs. This opens up the opportunity to crossbreed with other cattle breeds to create F2 and F3 generations.
According to the leaders of Phuoc Binh National Park, through camera traps in the forest sub-areas, the unit recorded traces of gaurs in two monitoring routes, Gia Nhong and Da Den, with an estimated number of individuals from 13 to 17 individuals. In addition, the research team also discovered footprints, excrement and other activities of the species such as resting places and scratches on trees of gaur herds.
The locations where wild gaur herds were recorded through direct and indirect observation were mostly coniferous forest habitats on slopes and grasslands interspersed with evergreen forests. This may indicate that these are the preferred habitats for gaur activities in Phuoc Binh National Park.
Dantri.com.vn
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