Comportamiento reproductivo en la cabra criolla manejada a campo abierto en diferentes pisos altitudinales del trópico seco del sur del Ecuador

The seasonal dry forest ecosystem occupies a third of the surface of the province of Loja in southern Ecuador, it’s an environment with irregular topography and high slope, with little rain and pastures, being the creole goats that is extensively managed, the animals that adaptated to these conditions. The objective of this work was study the reproductive activity of the goat along of year on the different altitudinal levels of this ecosystem. For this, data were collected from 300 adult goats chosen at random from 30 pens (10 goats/pen), grouped into 10 pens and 100 animals in each of the 3 altitudinal levels considered: First level (0 to 400 m.a.s.l), Second level (400 to 800 m.a.s.l) and Third level (800 a 1200 m.a.s.l). The results showed that age at which reproduction began was 8.5±2.2 months, births occurred more frequently during the months of December to March, the prolificity is of 1.5, the weaning is 90.4% at the 4 months age; the breeding period is from July to September,  occurring with a frequency less to 10% in the other months of year. In conclusion there is a high degree of relationship between the reproductive behaviour and the temperature-humidity index of the place, so the reproductive seasonality of this goat is directly influenced by environmental condition and food availability, since, in the months of greatest humidity and temperature, births occur and in the driest months the greatest reproductive activity occurs.