Another frequent source of disturbance in dry forests of Central
Brazil is cattle grazing inside the forest fragments (Vieira 2002).
Past research suggests that large herbivores may have a strong effect
on natural regeneration of forest vegetation (Relva & Veblen 1998).
Nevertheless, cattle have a patchy pattern of grazing and prefer
shaded areas in these forests, where the less-dense shrub strata do
not restrict movement and the canopy provides some shade during
the dry season (Vieira 2002, Krzic et al. 2003). Therefore their impact
on regeneration may be higher in sites with high canopy cover,
although in temperate forests of Argentina cattle had higher browsing
intensities in canopy gaps, where sapling density was higher
than in understory (Relva & Veblen 1998).