SHOPPERS and tourists were treated to a rare spectacle on Saturday, when wildlife from Salisbury Plain visited the heart of the city.

Stoke Amethyst, a pedigree longhorn cow, and her calf, Stoke Diamond, enchanted young and old who stopped to gaze at the pair in their straw-filled pen in Salisbury's Guildhall Square.

The cattle were there as part of the Salisbury Plain Life Project's public conservation day, which comprised a series of displays and activities in the Guildhall.

In front of the building was the RSPB's Larry the Lapwing, a model of the once-common Wiltshire farmland bird.

The aim of the day was to tell people all about the EU-funded project, which focuses on wildlife and conservation.

The project's partners are English Nature, Defence Estates, the Army Training Estate, RSPB, Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Project manager Stephen Davis said that people were not able to appreciate what a remarkable place Salisbury Plain was for wildlife, as it was generally inaccessible due to its use as a military training area.

"But as a restricted area, it has survived the impacts of modern agricultural practices and consequently retains wonderful displays of wildflowers, has internationally important populations of birds, like skylark and the rare stone-curlew, along with some of our most beautiful butterflies," he said.

The longhorn cattle were from the 680-acre Parsonage Down national nature reserve, west of Shrewton.

Farm manager Roger Morris, who is showing Stoke Amethyst at the New Forest Show today, said the longhorn herd was the oldest breeding herd in the country.

Paul Toynton and Dominic Ash, members of Defence Estates' environmental support team at Westdown Camp, Tilshead, said: "We are increasing grazing of land that has not been grazed for years.

"Up to now, we have had lots of fenced blocks, so the animals did not get in the way of army training.

"Now the project has made money available to re-introduce a herdsman - we started eight weeks ago.

"The man goes out with 120 cows with calves, and walks them across the plain and back to pens for the night.

"It's quite exciting and looks amazing."

Mr Ash said the right structure of grassland enabled the Marsh Fritillary (butterfly) to thrive.

"The impact area of the plain is burned off periodically and this creates ideal conditions," he said. "We now have the biggest colony in Great Britain."