There is little information about the bovine behavior and welfare during transportation and vaquejada race competitions. To test the hypothesis that the transport and racing of bovines produce chronic stress during these events, a study was performed to evaluate the behavior of bovines used for vaquejada races. Evaluations of cattle (n = 80) occurred on transportation (before, immediately, and 8 hours after transportation), and three days at Vaquejada Park (1 hour before, immediately, and 1 hour after the vaquejada race). Evaluators used a behavioral repertoire based on an ethogram for bovines and were previously trained. They used an observational and noninvasive method for one hour and applied a visual scanning method at transportation and for three days at the races. The results for pre-transport had greater idleness (102.9%), head/tail movements (57.4%), and agitation (49.8%). After transport, idleness (69.7%) was reduced, and agitation (79.5%) increased. Eight hours after this, sodomy/mounting/dominance (118.1%) was higher, followed by head/tail movements (92.8%), lying down (63.3%), and fatigue (53.3%). The results of vaquejada races revealed high feeding rates before and after races on the three evaluation days (53.6% - 30.0%), followed by rumination (72.0% - 44.5%). On all the evaluation days at the races, agitation was higher immediately after the races (87.9% - 66.1%). In conclusion, it was observed that the animals increased the frequency of behaviors indicative of acute stress immediately after transport and races but were able to recover the characteristic behavior a few hours after acute stress when transport and races followed the current official rules for both. Maintaining management standards for transport and vaquejada races, currently adopted, can reduce the impact on welfare and can be improved with regular scientific evaluations of the cattle involved to improve welfare through good practices.
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