VietNamNet Bridge – A beefy gaur, which might lose its way or be defeated in the battle for the “leader” position, has moved to live in the Phuoc Binh National Park buffer zone, where it has produced tens of F1 cross bred bulls – the precious things for scientists to research for cattle gene development.

Would gaurs to have the same fate as rhinos?

“In late 2010, when hearing that a gaur attacked the herd of cows gazing grass at the foot of the mountain, I rushed to the site,” Nguyen Van Chuan, a local resident, recalled the day when he met the gaur.

Chuan then saw with his eye his cow dying because of the attack of the gaur. The cow, worth tens of millions of dong, was then slaughtered for meat.

“The gaurs always tend to get aggressive after they separate from the herds,” Nguyen Thanh Tich, a local resident said.

He went on to say that the male gaur would attack any other cow in order to obtain the right to chase female cows. Tich lost three male bull cows because of the same reason.

“Seven strong bulls have slumped down when they were attacked by the gaur,” he said. Therefore, local residents would have to bring their cows to other localities when hearing about the appearance of the gaur.

The gaur was not welcomed there, because it was not only the threat to male bulls, but to females as well. It always takes females a couple of weeks to recover after every cross. In some cases, the bulls were slaughtered because they could not recover.

However, though threatening the lives of local people and bred cows, the gaur has brought “invaluable” gifts – tens of the cross bred bulls, strong and big.

Chuan’s female cow was the first one that had crossed with the gaur. It took three months of active care for the cow to recover. Therefore, Chuan asked the local authorities to restrain the gaur.

At that time, he could not imagine that he would get big benefits from the lovebird-gaur. His cows have given birth to strange calves. He now owns nine bulls are suspected as cross bred.

Meanwhile, Chammale Hoa and the other two in the hamlets have four similar bulls.

The information about the appearance of the strange cross bred bulls has attracted the special attention from scientists.  

Ninh Thuan and Lam Dong provincial authorities have allocated VND2 billion to the local science departments--which have joined forces with the Phuoc Binh National Park to carry out the research on the development possibility of the cross bred bulls.

Scientists say they feel happy about the initial achievements of the research work. However, they complained that farmers required overly high prices for the cross bred bulls.

“Chuan alone has made a fat profit of hundreds of millions of dong from the deals,” said an official from the Lam Dong provincial science department.

Lam Dong, Ninh Thuan and Khanh Hoa provincial authorities have requested the Ministry of Science and Technology to allocate the budget of VND13 billion to continue the research work on the cross bred bull development.

Tien Phong