The aurochs is very much extinct, except when it isn’t.
aurochs, (Bos primigenius), also spelled auroch, extinct wild ox of Europe, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), from which cattle are probably descended.
And when it roamed Europe, the aurochs was a very big cow, according to Atlas Obscura.
Standing six feet tall and weighing more than 3,000 pounds, with horns more than 4.5 feet from tip to tip, these mighty herbivores were once a sight to behold. Paleolithic people painted them on the walls of caves around the region. The Celts associated them with Cernunnos, a god of the underworld. The ancient Romans pitted their finest gladiators against them.
The aurochs was even larger in terms of importance, and is considered to be “Europe’s defining animal.”
The aurochs is the ancestor of all cattle and thereby the most important animal in the history of mankind. The keystone species for many European ecosystems was hunted to its extinction in 1627. However, its DNA is still alive and distributed among a number of the ancient original cattle breeds. “The Tauros Programme” aims to bring back the aurochs as a functional wild animal, by back-breeding the closest relatives of the original aurochs.
The Tauros Programme’s rationale falls under the heading of “selective science.”
The aim of the Tauros Programme is to create a modern-day equivalent of a long-dead animal. The principal technique is “back-breeding”: by combining cattle breeds with desired characteristics, a bovine can be created with physical attributes, behaviour and genetics that closely match those of Europe’s original wild auroch.
I find it fascinating, and perhaps you will too. However, there are skeptics, and their concerns are well-founded. Why bring back the aurochs, only to repeat its extinction a second time for the sake of human entertainment? Lee Hall makes a valid point at CounterPunch.
If only we could stop purpose-breeding and keeping animals, and leave evolution to its own devices, true re-wilding might begin. A complex web of interconnected life might resume its inimitable dynamic. But with our cattle-using mindset firmly in place, what’s to stop hunter-tourists from stalking the “rewilded” oxen, or culinary adventurers from seeking tastes of wine-braised aurochs’ tails?
Today’s cover photo credit goes to Euro Wildlife.
