The Campuzano cattle in Colombia’s Guajira desert. A forgotten treasure

01/03/2024

The local cattle population, known as Campuzano, lives in the desert regions of the Guajira peninsula (Colombian Caribbean region); Its ability to thrive in desert conditions is, along with the local populations of goats and hair sheep, of great importance, due to its provision of protein sustenance (meat - milk) to the Wayuu indigenous people native to this region.

La Guajira is a department of Colombia on the Caribbean Sea, bordering Venezuela and occupying most of the Guajira peninsula. The department has a variety of terrestrial ecosystems, such as: the desert, the dry jungle and the humid mountain area. It is characterised by its desert landscapes, the giant sand dunes, and the haciendas and remote fishing villages of the Wayuu indigenous people. Livestock raising, more than a production system, is considered part of the identity of the Wayuu communities, since these animals have become a symbolic element that is part of the social capital of this indigenous population.

The first mention of this cattle population with great phenotypic diversity, but very close to the phenotypes of the eight Colombian creole breeds that inhabit the different ecosystem regions of the Colombian geography, was made by Dr. Emigdio Pinzón Martínez in his book “History of Colombian cattle farming” (1981). He stated then: “The Campuzano cattle are a group of bovines that live in the Guajira peninsula, an arid region with scarce vegetation. They surely owe their name to the fact of being descendant of the herds of the Campuzano ladies, who owned more than 16,000 heads in the region of Mompox (southern part of the old province of Santa Marta). They are quite primitive cattle, very walker and accustomed to browsing the arboreal vegetation of the arid lands (sweet acacia, Duranta mutisii and cacti). They constitute a fairly heterogeneous nucleus, not very large, since goats and sheep from Tierra Caliente very easily replace cattle in that environment with such a dearth of water”.

The second mention was made on the occasion of the census of creole cattle carried out in 1999. It was then revealed that a single creole population –mixed breed– existed in Guajira and that these animals were raised for dual purpose –meat and milk–, with a cattle stock of 184 animals (0.37 % of all creole animals registered). It was noted that animals were slaughtered, on average, at the age of 39 months, with an average weight of 280 kg. Milk production was not reported. A high incidence of flies and ticks was pointed out. Their population was not reported in DAD-IS. Under the title “In Guajira, they are in the footsteps of the Campuzano creole”, Marino Valderrama Rodas highlights the favourable adaptive traits of this population and its role in solving the serious concerns of food security, specially as regards children within the Wayuu indigenous communities of Guajira, who keep on having major mortality problems due to the worrying rates of malnutrition that overwhelm them. The origin of Campuzano cattle is the same as all creole animals that have inhabited the Caribbean region: they were introduced for the first time in July 1525 by the Spanish conquistador and founder of Santa Marta, don Rodrigo de Bastidas.

The Wayuu indigenous communities are the protectors and preservers of these cattle, whose population is estimated at 200 heads. Their phenotypic characteristics such as the shape of the horns, their short hair or their facial wrinkles indicate similarity to other Colombian creole bovines, specially the horned Costeño. Some animals reveal external characteristics of other more recently introduced dairy breeds such as the Brown Swiss.

They feed on cacti, lichens, they browse Prosopis juliflora and divi-divi fruits, and they must travel long distances when searching water. In the vicinity of the Serranía de Macuira, there are indigenous people who have decided to herd and supplement them in order to obtain a few litres of milk to make cheese and thereby meet the primary nutritional needs of children, principally the protein requirements.

Given their unique adaptive features to an ecosystem with such difficult environmental conditions, resulting from high temperatures, lack of water, aridity of soils and, consequently, lack of forage resources to meet their maintenance and production needs and to ensure acceptable animal productive performance, it is of utmost importance that regional and national authorities initiate activities to foster the rescue, conservation, use and development of such an important local genetic resource, in order to promote sustainable development and to ensure food security of Wayuu people of the Guajira peninsula.

The Campuzano cattle, a forgotten treasure, must be preserved respecting their current state of isolation and, since they constitute a population seriously threatened of extinction, their management must be the responsibility of experts in the field of conservation genetics, who must endeavour to ensure their survival and development, and the maintenance of their genetic pool.

Author Germán Martínez Correal, MV., MSc., PhD.

Photographs by Luz Ángela Álvarez Franco, Zoot, MSc, PhD

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