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Biology 103
2005 Final Paper
On Serendip
M. Michalak
Bio 103—Prof. Grobstein
Web
Paper #3
Our discussion of genetics got me
thinking about the processes of breeding back animals to produce something
similar to animals that have since gone extinct. These experiments have been done with the aurochs, the quagga,
and the tarpan. I remember learning
about these projects as a child and never hearing them brought up in a biology
class, so I decided to take this opportunity explore. I decided to focus on the aurochs since it seemed to be the only
one of those three animals which caused a controversy in terms of being
reintroduced to the wild. I wanted to
learn how close the back breeding had gotten to recreating the aurochs, what
the motivation had been for the back breeding, and what the controversy was in
the first place.
The aurochs (Bos primigenius)
was the predecessor of modern cattle that first appeared on earth around two
million years ago in the area that is now India, spreading afterwards to
Europe. It is most commonly known
through the many Paleolithic cave paintings(1) that exist of it. These are what give modern scholars a fairly
decent idea of what the aurochs might have looked like, and compared with
skeletons and remains frozen in permafrost, create a fairly accurate depiction
of what the aurochs' size, shape, and colour would have been. Basically, it was a big cow—nearly 2m
at the shoulder, and built vaguely like the love-child of the Spanish fighting
bull, the gaur (Brahman cow), with a dash of Highland cow thrown in just to
make it hardier. It adapted to the
Middle East, to continental Europe, and even to the cold British climate. The abundant verdant vegetation in these
northern lands was great for the aurochs, but unfortunately also great for
humans who hunted them for food and sport.
Despite the early demise of its
contemporaries (such as the mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger, for example),
the aurochs managed to survive for an impressively long time. The last aurochs(2) was thought to have died
in Poland in 1627(3), long after it had died out everywhere else. Poland's extensive old-growth forests
provided a safe haven, and the country's very early forestry initiatives
(started as early as the 11th or 12th century) attempted
to protect the dwindling population.
Nevertheless, the aurochs finally died out, most likely from a
combination of factors including over-hunting, decreased grazing land thanks to
domesticated cattle, and a lack of genetic diversity leading to weakened stock.
In 1920, the Heck brothers, Heinz
and Lutz, embarked on an attempt to back-breed the aurochs from cattle with
aurochs-like qualities. The brothers
worked separately, one in Berlin and one in Munich, though only the Munich
program survived World War II. The
animals this back-breeding produced, known as Heck cattle(4), look similar(5)
to the aurochs of Paleolithic times and are often seen in zoos nowadays. They're generally smaller, though work is
still being done to increase their size and weight since aurochs were thought
to be around 1,000kg (half the size of a rhinoceros). There have been successful programs to release Heck cattle back
into the wild, most notably in the Netherlands where there is absolutely no
human interference. Programs still
monitored by people exist in parts of Germany and France.
The breeding programs were supported
by the Nazi Party during the time of World War II as part of the Nazi
propaganda to create an "Aryan" historical mythology. This answers my question as to why there were attempts to breed
them back; apparently only a glorious wild cow such as the aurochs was good
enough for the supposed Aryan race.
After WWII, the emphasis shifted away from propaganda and to wildland
management. Current programs are geared
towards introducing Heck cattle back into the wild to refill the ecological
niche that the aurochs would have occupied.
This is where the previously-mentioned controversy develops: nobody
really knows what niche the aurochs filled.
Some people claim that the aurochs, like the endangered European Bison,
roamed the plains and grasslands.
Others claim that the aurochs inhabited the forests and marshes. Delving into this, I found out that in order
for grasslands to be maintained, they need to be "mowed" and resown by grazers
which don't just feed on grasses (the way domesticated cattle do) because this
helps to keep the population of shrubs and trees down and actually creates
plains. Domestic cattle aren't hardy
enough to survive the harsh elements on their own, and European Bison are
endangered and can't handle all the central European grasslands on their
own. Critics of the Heck cattle program
state that emphasis should be placed on conserving the European Bison instead
of attempting to introduce a new species into the mix.
From what I was able to find, I
think that the theory of the aurochs inhabiting the forests and marshlands is
more likely than that of them inhabiting the grasslands, at least in
Europe. Their coloring wouldn't help
them blend in on the open plain; their relatively short fur would have needed
the extra insulation that low, densely-grown forests would have provided in the
winter. Looking at pictures of Heck
cattle, I don't really see much similarity; everything from the horn shape to
the coat to the size is off, as well as the build in general. Heck cattle just look like a combination of
Angus and Highland cattle. While I
think that breeding back is an interesting exercise in some cases, I can see
the release of Heck cattle into the wild causing more harm than good, specifically
by encroaching on bison territory and taking over the bison's grazing
lands. Still, breeding back a breed
that's hardy and introducing it into places that no longer have a large, native
grazer could be very beneficial for that type of place. I think we need to understand a lot more
about the aurochs, though, before we can even attempt to recreate them in any
convincing fashion—and then, we'd have to ask ourselves what the motivations
are.
[1] http://users.aristotle.net/~swarmack/hodgraph/aurochs2.GIF
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jaktorow_pomnik_tura.jpg
3 http://users.aristotle.net/~swarmack/aurochs.html
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heck_Cattle
5 http://extinctanimals.petermaas.nl/