Wetlands (swamps, salt marshes) in the coastal lake area of Palic Nature Park, and the Special Nature Reserve Ludas Lake, provide enough food for herds of water buffalo and Hungarian grey cattle during the growing season.
Ludas Lake is a natural habitat of Hungarian grey cattle, the origin of which there are several theories. One theory says that the first animals came to the Carpathian Basin with the Cumanian people. The other theory says that the Hungarians brought them when they returned from their conquests to the west. However, according to the third theory, they come from the extinct cattle species “aurochs” (Bos primigenius) domesticated by the natives. The authenticity of these theories has not been proven.
It belongs to one of the original Hungarian breeds and is mostly kept as a tourist attraction in national parks. Today, herds also serve as gene banks for breeding, especially since they are extremely resistant to many diseases that affect high-milk and high-meat cattle types today.
Hungarian grey cattle are very suitable for the maintenance of protected grasslands and the revitalization of wetlands and salt marshland habitats – active nature protection, because it is not overly demanding and is happy to feed on young reeds. It prefers mesophilic grasslands, wet meadows and floodplains, where extensive grazing creates a mosaic of grassland in a short period, which is the basis for the development of biodiversity and the emergence of a large number of protected species of plants and animals, mostly birds.
However, due to the lack of natural food in the winter period, they need supplementation, which the manager, PE Palic-Ludas, provides with dry biomass, i.e. baled alfalfa and meadow hay. Mowing Palic and Ludas lakes` coastal areas obtains the biomass, thus establishing and maintaining grassland habitats and green areas.
This means that the grass is cut in this specific area in the summer, and they feed the animals with the same food in the winter, closing the circle that way – cattle get the same quality of nutrition without introducing plants from other areas. One of the goals of the Ecolacus project is the biodiversity of this specific area, its conservation and sustainability, and feeding animals in the winter is just one of the illustrations that show how this is achieved.
